Exeter’s website given top marks by students

The sites were assessed on their accessibility, the ease of making contact, use of online peer review, evidence of their unique role and character, and the amount of useful insight into life on campus.

The criteria by which the sites were judged was drawn up with the assistance of James Allan, digital strategist at Mission Media and former student president of the University of the Arts London. The survey aimed to find the best examples of engagement with site visitors and the most effective use of emerging technologies.

The three schools taking part in the project - Didcot Sixth Form, Gillingham School and Chigwell School - are representative of the traffic that a UK university would expect to see from young applicants. Didcot and Gillingham are mixed state comprehensives. Chigwell School, meanwhile, is a mixed independent school.

Rob Mitchell, the University’s web editor commented ‘This is great feedback for us. We recently undertook a significant redesign of the site to try and engage and excite the public who visit it. We tried to put the users of our website first and carefully considered who would be using its various areas. We also worked hard to simplify the structure of the site and the language used. Hopefully, all of that came across to the judging panel.’

The University of Exeter shared joint tenth place in the survey with the University of Cambridge. The full article can be read online.