Love Island and TikTok: Two Things You Didn't Realise Were Relevant to VUW

Words by Niamh Vaughan (she/her)

A scroll through your TikTok For You page will likely pull up the usual and expected videos: Family Guy clips, dancing children, fake anecdotes about celebrities, witch spells, or full episodes of the popular Australian kids show Bluey. 

But, most recently, a hot new bombshell has entered the villa. Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington has created a TikTok account under the handle @wellingtonuni. 

As of the end of February, the account has only four TikToks. The most popular is a video of Vice Chancellor Nic Smith walking through a pair of doors to a sound bite cut from reality TV series Love Island, announcing his entrance as a “hot new bombshell”. 

According to VUW’s Social Media Manager Lessi Riccio, we can expect to see an increase of TikToks like this. “We wouldn’t be doing our jobs properly if we didn’t give you more!” says Riccio.

According to Laura Sissons, Social Media Communications Adviser, “TikTok has been in the works for a long time, but we finally got it over the line when Lessi came on board.” 

VUW’s Social Media Team will also be joined by a group of student content creators, who will begin this month, to aid in creating content that students will want to engage with. “[They] will not only make awesome content for us, but also act as a sounding board for ideas we’re unsure about,” says Sissons. 

Student response to the new TikTok page has been mostly positive, with one user commenting, “I will apply for postgrad with you now because of this TikTok!” Another said, “whoever is currently doing VUW marketing needs a raise.” A response as to whether a pay rise for the Social Media Team has occurred is still pending.