How University of East London Rebuilt in 18 Months

The University of East London had a website nobody was looking after. It sat on a proprietary, on-premise CMS, and the problems ran deep: back-end authoring was a major challenge, there was no personalization at all, and accessibility was a standing problem at an institution whose purpose is widening access. Then Vision 2028 and a digital first transformation program put every major enterprise system on the table.

In this video, Donald McLeod, Director of Change and Transformation at the University of East London, explains how it happened. A five-year project was never an option, so UEL ran an 18-month build on Acquia with partner Axelerant, whose breadth of knowledge Donald singles out. He describes pressing the button to turn the old site off as a relief, which is a more honest account of a launch than most.

The new site does what the old one could not. Journeys that used to be disjointed now flow, whether a visitor arrives through organic search or paid media. Google Analytics shows people spending more time on the site, clicking through, hitting the goals UEL set, and bouncing less. The site is stable, which Donald names as one of the primary improvements.

The bigger change is who the site speaks to. UEL's students came primarily from the London boroughs, and it wanted engagement wider in the UK, so a visitor now gets a different experience depending on where they arrive from: those boroughs, elsewhere in the UK, India, Nigeria, or the United States. Watch the full story to hear why values decided the platform choice.