Education & Universities
The Squiz open source CMS (formerly MySource Matrix) has a significant presence in the Australian, UK and New Zealand University and Education sectors. We have supplied fully supported web content management solutions (CMS) to;
- more than 50% of the Universities across Australia
- a dozen Universities in the UK including Oxford, Westminster and Edinburgh
- 5 out of 8 Universities in New Zealand.
Tertiary Education students, academic staff and marketing departments all want both more and less online: more of what "I" want and less of the other stuff. Squiz Solutions equip you with the web management tools to attract and inspire your students and staff online with a great web experience.
Connect the dots
Do more online by connecting up existing business systems. Build your student portal, connecting to student timetables, LMS, accommodation info, online apps etc., using Squiz Matrix’s powerful integration tools.
It’s all about me
Personalise the experience for logged-in users or display content based on a user’s referring Google search term.
Go mobile
Many of your users surf and access their stuff on the go. Tomorrow, there’ll be more. Serve them well with mobile web contexts.
Save trees
Save time, trees and printing costs. Print course information from the web.
Search and find
You’ve got great courses, and endless corporate content and documents for internal users. Now you can provide a great search experience for all your users, with Funnelback Enterprise Search.
Attract the overseas student
Give your comms people the best possible tools to create and manage targeted content for your overseas student markets, including multilingual versions.
Set your authors free
Set the workflow and web standards, then devolve content authoring. Share content through Squiz Matrix. Use Squiz CMS to quickly create tactical sites using a really simple edit interface.
Higher Education Course Finder Solutions
For most Universities and Higher Education Institutions, course finders are by far the most visited, and most important, sections of their websites. Potential students face a huge personal and financial commitment and require in-depth, accurate and relevant information on available courses, in order to make informed selections. Higher Education Institutions therefore need to maximise the usability and accuracy of their course information and ensure that relevant information is quick and easy to access for their website visitors and easy to maintain and update for their content editors. From our extensive experience within the Education Sector, we have created four flexible approaches to building and improving course finders and course search. These four approaches incorporate Squiz's full suite of complementary analysis and implementation services to ensure that the needs of our clients, and the requirements of their users, are met.
Client Course Finder Examples
The University of Westminster Course Finder implementation utilising Funnelback Enterprise Search.
The University of Brighton Faculty of Arts implementation which repurposes the course information stored as data assets in Squiz Matrix and utilises java script ontop to format the display.
Australian University Case Studies
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia (UWA) had been successfully running the Squiz developed MySource Classic (MySource version 2) for several years, but was now facing new organisational and technical web challenges including content sprawl, inconsistent governance, limited resources (website office staff) Highly devolved IT and a lack of web expertise. A comprehensive CMS review identified that Squiz Matrix could offer reduced capital expenditure; improved and enhanced user interface; the ability to perform well for sites of a large size/scale delivering hundreds of thousands of pages and millions of hits per day; and that Squiz could offer a fully supported solution. Because the majority of the implementation was undertaken by the University they additionally purchased specialist services from Squiz including assistance with the implementation, accredited training courses to bring staff up to speed, plus a Service Level Agreement for ongoing warranty and support. Download the Case Study PDF.
Griffith University
When Squiz became involved in the project there were several challenges facing the University. Griffith was very concerned that its major marketing tool - the website - was ineffective due to inconsistent use of the Griffith brand and poor navigation. Griffith was looking to create a much more user centered website. There was also a real need to remove the technical barriers to publishing so that the content was able to be maintained by the content experts and not by technical experts. Evaluation and research by University technical staff reinforced the potential of Squiz Matrix to not only meet the primary objectives but to also provide options for other content management issues within the University. The University was fortunate to have strong in-house PHP skills and this coupled with the knowledge that they could engage Squiz for commercial support using (among other avenues) Support Packs, reduced the risk in going with an open source product. The Matrix / Squiz solution delivered on the initial expectations. Squiz Matrix was well received by the web publishing community - especially by those with little or no knowledge of HTML and CSS. It has enabled the University to release a new style guide that is enforced by the Squiz Matrix design templates. This allowed the web publishers to concentrate on good quality content in a sustainable way. Download the Case Study PDF.
UK Universities
Some of our key clients in this sector are listed below along with links to their sites. If you require further information on any of these projects, please contact us.
University of Oxford
Squiz have a longstanding relationship with a number of colleges and departments of the University of Oxford. Oxford University Library Services is responsible for overseeing the development of all of the university's library web sites (representing a total network of over 40). It employs MySource Matrix to create a uniform web portal publishing 'factory' that ensures each site is consistent in terms of branding, interface and functionality. Read our Oxford University Library Services case study for more information.
Our other MySource Matrix clients within the University of Oxford include Magdalen College, Oxford Union, Oxford University Department of Archaeology, Oxford University Department of Statistics, Oxford University Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University Humanities Division, Oxford Finance, Oxford University School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies and Oxford University Social Sciences Division.
University of Westminster
The University of Westminster co-developed and implemented their new website with Squiz, on MySource Matrix. The project was completed, from commissioning to live, in just eight weeks, and gives the university the platform for exciting new opportunities and control of their future development costs. MySource Matrix was selected in a competitive evaluation and won because it provided the right mix of performance, scalability and system integration capabilities and a clean and easy front end for the University’s content editors - as well as a rigorous workflow engine.
Brunel University
The sleek new Brunel University website went live in October 2010 and was designed and implemented by Squiz. One key highlight of the site is the course finder - often the most important and most visited section of a University website. It is simple to use, so that prospective students can easily find the courses and information that they're looking for, and offers both a simple keyword search and an advanced search option. The results are displayed in an easy to digest grid, with tabbed sections to refine the search results by course level and study mode. View the designs in our portfolio.
University of Greenwich
The University of Greenwich is a major modern UK university. Its three campuses extend from Maritime Greenwich to Medway, serving South East London, Kent Thames-side and West Kent. Its MySource Matrix site is its main communications channel for students, prospective students, staff and alumni - providing key information on everything from courses, to events and accomodation...
The Institute for Learning
The Institute for Learning is the professional body for teachers, trainers, tutors, lecturers and assessors working in the further education and skills sector in England and in other adult learning settings including private and in-house training provision. Their website was designed and built by Squiz. View the designs in our portfolio.
London School of Economics and Political Science
The London School of Economics and Political Science is one of the foremost social science universities in the world. Founded in 1895, its research and teaching span the full breadth of the social sciences, from economics, politics and law to sociology, anthropology, accounting and finance. The School has an outstanding reputation for academic excellence and no less than 15 Nobel prize winners. The LSE selected Funnelback to power its Internet Search. Visit their site to see the contextual and faceted navigation in action.
London Metropolitan University
London Metropolitan University's new website search uses Funnelback to include an innovative course finder embedded at the top of the search results. Promoting courses is of key importance to universities, particularly with the growing competition for students, and highlighting relevant courses in the results is a great way to help prospective students find the right course information quickly and easily. View an example of Funnelback search results on the London Metropolitan University website.
University of Brighton Faculty of Arts
The Faculty of Arts at the University of Brighton selected Squiz as the ongoing web partner for the redevelopment of their web infrastructure. Squiz designed their new website which includes a highly usable course finder. View the designs in our portfolio.
University of Edinburgh
The School of Social and Political Sciences and The Business School at the University of Edinburgh each selected MySource Matrix for their web builds.
University College London
UCL selected MySource Matrix to develop the Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering site. UCL have also selected Funnelback to provide enterprise search across their website, intranet, shared drives, SharePoint and Documentum systems.
University of Salford
University of Salford selected Matrix as their preferred CMS for a number of their department websites, including their School of the Built Environment website.
Staffordshire University
Established in 1992, Staffordshire University has evolved into one of the country's most dynamic, progressive and forward-thinking learning institutions. They selected Funnelback to provide Internet Search on their website.
University of Malta
Situated at Tal-Qroqq, the University of Malta has over 10,000 students including over 750 foreign/exchange students from nearly 80 different countries. The University uses MySource Matrix to power its website.
University of Stirling
The University of Stirling is Scottish University of the Year for 2009/2010 (Sunday Times) and is consistently ranked best in the UK for 'a good place to be' (International Student Barometer, 2007 and 2008). The University selected MySource Matrix as the CMS for its website.
