University Of Glamorgan Leads Online
By admin
Issued on behalf of Precedent Communications
The University of Glamorgan’s attempts to market itself online have won approval from one of Britain’s top digital communication agencies.
A report by Precedent Communications on the websites of 57 of the UK’s modern universities assessed them on everything from the accessibility of their sites to their use of popular social networking websites such as My Space and Facebook.
The results were grouped into four categories – Getting the basics right, Communicating propositions, Meeting objectives and Use of technology – with marks awarded in each. Glamorgan’s website www.glam.ac.uk scored above average in each category and scored the highest marks in the “Use of technology” category.
The authors of the report say Glamorgan’s website is one of the best of the modern universities’ and it has made good progress in reaching out to its target audiences and differentiating itself through the internet. But the report, they say, should be used by all the establishments reviewed to assess their current activity and learn from what their peers are doing.
Adrian Porter, managing editor of the report and a Precedent consultant, said: “The internet plays a vital role in the strategies of modern universities so it is absolutely crucial for them to get their online activity right if they are to fulfill their business objectives.
“Increasingly all universities need to differentiate themselves online so what may be a good approach for one is not necessarily good for another. Glamorgan has a well thought out approach to the internet, especially in its use of technology, and other modern universities can undoubtedly learn from it. But there is also scope for Glamorgan to learn from the other universities in this report too.”
The research was carried out by a team of five consultants at Precedent, which opened an office in Cardiff Bay in 2007. The agency, which was voted No 2 in the UK in by readers of Revolution magazine in 2006, has carried out other similar reports in the past including benchmarking the corporate websites of the FTSE100 companies and key government sites. It also has unrivalled experience within the education sector.
The first category, “Getting the basics right”, dealt with having functional, usable and accessible websites. The sites assessed needed to utilise best practice and demonstrate an appreciation of current standards. Glamorgan’s mark of 87% was well above the average of 67%.
Among the findings in the “Meeting objectives” category, the report revealed that many universities’ sites lacked user-friendly web addresses (URLs) which could make them more difficult to find. It also noted that most of the websites didn’t offer journalists the opportunity to contact media-friendly experts among their staff.
Glamorgan scored 75% in this category compared with the average for the universities of 68%.
In ”Communicating the propositions”, the report warned that a third of universities were not providing clear and consistent copy throughout their websites, which risked damaging users’ perceptions of the university.
It also revealed that less than a third of them presented a potentially valuable positioning statement on their homepage. And while most of the websites reviewed offered a professional brand experience, very few provided anything truly dynamic. Those that did frequently used multimedia to bring the site to life.
Glamorgan succeeded in avoiding most of the pitfalls in this category and scored a mark of 70%, again above average.
The fourth category assessed was “Use of technology” and here Glamorgan led the way, its 70% score being nearly three times the average in a category in which modern universities could only manage 25% in overall.
Among their findings, Precedent reported that:
- Only 23% of the sites reviewed used RSS feeds – a simple way of keeping users up to date without them having to visit the website.
- Just 2% used blogs to inform audiences of new developments, even though blogs are widely used by students and staff alike.
- And most surprisingly of all, none of the websites reviewed showed any evidence of using SMS to remind potential students of, or invite them to, open days and interviews even though text messaging is clearly widely used by students.
More encouragingly, however;
- 47% of the websites had a profile on a popular social networking site, such as My Space or Facebook.
- 98% had an entry on Wikipedia.
- 46% had used multimedia, such as video or podcasts, to enhance their sites.
- And a creditable 23% of universities allowed students to pay tuition fees online.
“Modern universities face huge challenges in a crowded marketplace but it is unrealistic to expect them to score 100% in each category, especially as their objectives become more focused on their core strengths,” said Adrian Porter.
“Communication, however, is one area they can become more efficient in as they target specific audiences and focus their offerings to them
“Perhaps one thing that all of the modern universities will have to come to terms with in future is technology. While they may adopt new technologies and multimedia in their marketing, they must realise that it is increasingly likely that many of these platforms will be outside of their direct control, just as Facebook, Wikipedia and You Tube are today.
“This will mean their website will have a diminishing part to play in their overall web presence, which will increasingly be managed by people who are not necessarily interested in the corporate line.”
Precedent’s full report, Modern universities’ websites – trends, observations and best practice, will be published on their website www.precedent.co.uk this month. Precedent will also be publishing reports on the websites of traditional universities and of HE establishments later in 2008.
