Online prospectuses

Aim

Alongside the University home page the online prospectuses are the most visited sections of the university website, viewable as two websites:

The quality, level and presentation of the information in the online and printed prospectus is the major factor in students choosing Heriot-Watt over other institutions.

The web team is working with Information Technology (IT) department and an external development company to develop modern online prospectuses that meet the needs of the new Heriot-Watt University web site. The main objectives are to:

  • develop the online prospectuses as  flexible marketing tools
  • align the online prospectuses with emerging market trends and students’ requirements
  • develop an efficient process for publishing the online prospectus
  • minimise the duplication of effort and provide a simple system for staff to use
  • replace the unsupported legacy system currently in use for undergraduate programme information  

Scope

Migration of the existing online prospectuses to the What can I study? section of the Heriot-Watt University website.

Progress

Undergraduate prospectus

The project started in February 2011 and focused on the creation of a new online web prospectus, migration of undergraduate programme data to a new database aligned to Banner system, providing a editing environment and delivery mechanism.

The enhanced undergraduate study website went live on 5 September 2011. Further refinements of the editing environment and database are ongoing with completion of this phase scheduled for February 2012.

Postgraduate prospectus

Work on this phase begins in late January or early February 2012. The work will focus on extending the existing database and frontend templates to accommodate additional marketing information and update the editing environment. The completion of this phase is scheduled for end February 2012.

Project end date March 2012