Why is Drupal the CMS of choice for higher education websites?

Not all CMS systems are created equally. Different strokes work for different folks. Various sectors have varying needs and expectations from their online web estate and the education sector- especially higher education – has been a prominent adopter of web technology. When it comes to University websites, you will notice that it’s a web estate unlike any other.

Higher education institutions that focus on good UX can leverage their digital web estate to achieve their overarching goals and find clear benefits including a higher ROI. Considering that university websites are content-rich and heavy on information, they need to follow the principles of information architecture and website governance. SEO, user experience, page load speeds, search-ability, responsiveness are just a few of the criteria that are now critical to the success of a university website. And so is selecting the right CMS.

Drupal is by far the most popular choice for higher education websites. In fact, about 28% of all .edu websites are powered by Drupal, nearly double the number of its closest competitor – WordPress. Take a look at some of the prestigious higher education institutions that use Drupal:

• Oxford University

• Harvard University

• MIT

• Stanford University

• Duke University

• Karlstad University

• UCLA

• University of Arizona

• Pennsylvania State University

• University of British Columbia

• University of Toronto

Why is Drupal often the unanimous choice for higher learning websites? Let’s look at some of the reasons:

1. Workflow and access

The admin, website governance, and management of web estate for a college is a daunting task and very often a shared responsibility among the employees. When a website is operated by several people, it is important to define the workflow and access with appropriate permissions. Drupal’s new workflow management system offers various modules for managing access and collaborating on content easily across various sites and portals.

2. Security and privacy

Cybersecurity and privacy are top concerns and especially protecting students’ and faculty’s personal information, academic records, and other data are vital concerns. Drupal is considered to be one of the safest CMSes and tough to hack into. Not surprisingly, many premier universities and governmental organizations rely on Drupal to provide a secure platform. 

3. User-friendly CMS

Drupal’s CMS has an incredibly friendly UI that allows even the most novice users to design pages, manage and edit content with great ease. It offers a wide range of themes – both free and paid-for, that are attractive, responsive, and easily customizable. 

4. Mobility 

Everyone from students, teachers, faculties and admin staff is now increasingly ‘mobile’ and needs access on the go. Drupal 8 especially has a mobile-first design and enables developers to build a responsive and mobile-friendly solution. 

5. Multi-site functionality

Universities and colleges often have a sprawling digital estate and don’t rely on single-purpose websites. There are many websites, schools, colleges, intranets, collaboration portals, social channels, and many other avenues online. Drupal has the capability to handle these numerous sites and their related portfolio under one umbrella or even separately – authorizing each department with full control. This is quite cost-effective for IT.

6. Free and open-source

Apart from being very powerful and scalable, Drupal is open-source and free. That is anyone can download it, use it and customize it for development. It is available under the GNU General Public License. What’s more, Drupal is highly flexible and extensible, supported by a large community of developers. An experienced Drupal development agency can build a tailor-made, cost-effective, college or university website, as per your specifications. 

Universities and colleges don’t have single-purpose websites. They have many sites, departments, schools, colleges, intranets, communications systems, and much more. Drupal can handle multiple sites and their tasks while letting individual departments have full control. That can add up to big savings in the IT department.

To Conclude

Owing to Drupal’s modularity and ready-to-use configurations, higher educational institutions can develop their websites very quickly, keeping pace with the digital evolution and also gaining considerable advantages in terms of cost and SEO.