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Future student online experiences

Future student online experiences

Sharing the work of the Prospective Student Web Team

DrupalCamp Scotland, Scotland’s annual conference about all things Drupal, is happening on Friday 7 November here at the University, and this year I’ll be presetning about our project to rebuild the degree finder.

The Postgraduate Entry 2026 website that launched on 7 October introduced new approaches to how we present degree programmes. Contributions from colleagues in schools, colleges and support units have been critical to our transformation of online provision.

Back in the summer, I surveyed the student recruitment and marketing community about the website and digital service improvements that would have greatest value for their work. The results of this survey have helped our steering group set priorities for the coming year.

In 2021 I created a diagram of the people, processes and systems surrounding the Degree Finders to help inform our technical planning and communication to stakeholders. I’ve just updated the diagram for 2025 to reflect our new service. Comparing old with new really highlights how much our technology landscape has evolved and simplified.

Our work this year to deliver a new website for prospective students has reduced the number of pages we publish by over 50%. This is better for the student experience, better for the environment and better for our content management overhead.

We took advantage of new students arriving for the start of term to explore how they plan for visiting somewhere they’d never been before and understand how we can better meet their needs. Join us on Monday 20 October for an online event where we will share what we learned and how Google Maps can […]

In the lead-up to opening applications for 2025 entry to undergraduate programmes through UCAS clearing, we collaborated with colleagues in Student Recruitment and Admissions (Admissions Operations) to make improvements to the web content and forms that applicants use to apply for clearing places via our website. Initial insights during the clearing period suggest that our […]

We have a fixed-term opportunity to join our team and develop your skills in content design. This position would suit someone with a couple of years’ relevant experience. Applications deadline: 6 October 2025.

In June 2018, the University of Edinburgh ran a top tasks survey to identify what information prospective students are prioritising when thinking about applying to university. In this post, I’ll talk about the method, why we ran the original survey, the insight we gained from it, and why it’s time to do it again.

As I mark nearly one year with the Prospective Student Web team, I’m excited to reflect on my experience as a Web Content Support Assistant, imparting some of my highlights and key learnings from the last 10 months.

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