Your website is often the first experience a prospective student has with your institution. If it is disorganised, confusing, overloaded with content or unclear about your value proposition, what does that say about the study experience you are offering?
If I am considering study at your university or polytechnic, here is the journey I actually want to take when I land on your website:
1. Find my area of interest quickly.
I want to see disciplines, programmes, and pathways clearly organised around outcomes and futures I can imagine — not buried under institutional structures.
2. See outcomes and transitions.
Short alumni stories and videos that demonstrate how study translated into work — not just content about how great the study experience was.
3. See industry endorsements.
I want to see credible validation that your programmes deliver real-world outcomes — but more than that, I want to understand how these industry connections are integrated into the learning experience.
4. See your people.
I want to see the mentors who will support my study and work journey. What do they make? Where do they work? What projects are they involved in? Research is useful, but applied, industry-relevant practice should lead.
5. Access to professional, high-quality content.
Most students today are used to learning from popular, expertly produced online content. I want to see the professional creators you partner with — examples of the content I can engage with as part of my study. This shows me that you offer a learning experience that matches or exceeds what I can access elsewhere.
6. Understand support services.
Show me the wellbeing, learning, and career development services available, and make it clear how I access them.
7. Connect with a real person.
I want the opportunity to have a conversation with someone in the discipline I am considering to help me understand if the programme meets my goals and needs.
8. Process alongside motivation.
Once motivation is established, I want to apply at any stage of this experience.
Many websites start with compliance and administration, creating friction before motivation has even formed. They try to speak to everyone at once — students, partners, stakeholders, government, industry — diluting the content that drives enrolment.
Websites are not neutral containers of information. They are an experience. And the experience your website delivers signals the experience your institution offers.
If you work in education, ask yourself:
When was the last time you navigated your own website as a prospective student?
