Modern Campus Recognizes the Ten Best Higher Education Websites of 2023

Ten Colleges and Universities Recognized for Excellence in Website Design and Management

TORONTO — December 6, 2023 — Modern Campus, higher education’s learner-to-earner lifecycle platform leader, today recognized ten colleges and universities for excellence in website design and management.

These ten winners were chosen from around 4,500 higher education websites powered by Modern Campus CMS, the only content management system purpose-built for higher education. The winning websites were recognized for their effectiveness at providing students with informative content and engaging user experiences, driving conversions, maintaining interest and improving enrollments.

Factors leading to these institutions being recognized include engaging website design, easy navigation with clear calls to action (CTAs), mobile friendliness of the website, integrated catalogs with up-to-date career data, personalized experiences and brand consistency across subdomains.

In alphabetical order, the Modern Campus Top Ten Higher Education Websites of 2023 are:

Since the website is the front door to an institution, it plays a crucial role in driving student enrollment by attracting, engaging, and converting students. It is one of the first places that prospective students visit and serves as an important touchpoint in their enrollment decision.

Modern students expect higher ed websites to be optimized for their phones, easy to navigate and personalized to their needs. Websites that are difficult to navigate and lack personalized web content frustrate them, found a recent study of high school students conducted by Modern Campus and RNL.

“With decreasing enrollment rates mounting with increasing student expectations, it’s encouraging to see colleges and universities are becoming creative with their websites and digital properties,” said Kimberly Prieto, senior vice president for product at Modern Campus. “I’m thrilled that we can recognize these ten institutions who are delivering exceptional student experiences while supporting their brand with their websites. These websites demonstrate the institution’s unparalleled commitment to quality, creativity and student centricity.”

Managing higher education websites has always been challenging as they cater to a diverse audience—including current and prospective students, faculty, staff and alumni—all of whom have high expectations.

The Modern Campus CMS (formerly called Omni CMS) enables colleges and universities to design and build websites that deliver on the expectations of every visitor, ultimately helping to increase enrollments. And with the Modern Campus Design Studio, higher education institutions are empowered to take the design of their digital properties to the next level.

"Ferris State University emphasizes the extensive capabilities of Modern Campus’ Website Personalization tool, designed to meet the specific requirements of our students and other target demographics. By streamlining the usual complexity associated with higher education websites, we have successfully created a straightforward and robust online experience,” said Eric Hazen, Executive Director for Digital Experience and Marketing at Ferris State University. “The recognition as one of Modern Campus's Top Ten Higher Ed Websites in 2023 underscores our dedication to students and their needs, showcasing a user-friendly website that effectively highlights the opportunities offered by our university."

To find the full list of the Modern Campus Top Ten Higher Education Websites of 2023, with screenshots and insights into the factors that make them truly excellent, visit https://moderncampus.com/blog/best-higher-ed-websites-of-2023.html.

To register for a panel discussion featuring leaders from two of the winning institutions, the University of Montana and University of Wyoming, visit this link.

About Modern Campus

Modern Campus is obsessed with empowering its 2,000+ higher education customers to thrive when transformation is required to respond to lower student enrollments and revenue, rising costs, crushing student debt and administrative complexity.

The Modern Campus engagement platform powers solutions for non-traditional student management, web content management, catalog and curriculum management, student engagement and development, conversational text messaging, career pathways, and campus maps and virtual tours. The result: innovative institutions can create a learner-to-earner lifecycle that engages modern learners for life, while providing modern administrators with the tools needed to streamline workflows and drive high efficiency.

Learn how Modern Campus is leading the modern learner engagement movement at moderncampus.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

Last updated: December 6, 2023