The University of Western Australia (UWA) is recognised as a top 100 university (91st in 2017), with a vision of being a top 50 University by 2050.

Like any other global organisation, the University realises it needs to be highly competitive, and is committed to making its excellence better known around the world. To achieve this, UWA recently launched a program to transform its Student Experience, kicking off with the ‘Future Students’ project; with a goal of ensuring the University is able to attract and retain the best students from around the world.

“There’s just a world of information out there and it would be very hard for a 16 or 17-year-old to go through every single course that may be of interest,” says Aaron Collyer, Head of Digital and Creative Services at UWA.

To tackle this issue, the University met with a range of high school students in Year ten and eleven, and talked to their teachers and parents, regarding their specific needs. They then profiled it down into nine different personas for each of the different groups.

The University then partnered with Ignia to develop and implement Ignia’s Smart Campus solution.

“… we have been building a SiteCore platform sitting on Azure infrastructure. From a content point of view, we are presenting exactly what people are after, and also from a data analytics point of view, we can start to learn what people are looking for, and making better decisions moving forward based on that,” says Collyer.

Thanks to the new solution, capturing data from the first interaction a prospective student has with UWA’s digital channels, a platform is in place which can be easily extended and combined with AI and machine learning to predict trends around whether a student is on the path to success, or requires intervention, in those crucial first 5 weeks, where drop out rates are at their peak.

“With this information, the University can put support mechanisms in place to help ensure students don’t fall through those cracks,” says Professor Kent Anderson, the University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Community and Engagement.

“We are trying to move into an environment where our current students would be prompted if they haven’t finished an assignment and suggest that they might want to get on top of that,” adds Collyer.

“We wanted to create a Ignia’s Smart Campus to offer them a much easier experience. We’re wanting to go from prospective students all the way through to alumni. We’ve got the best and the brightest sitting here and they are going to help us with our rankings and giving us that recognition, not just within Australia but globally,” he adds.

“We’re giving back and we’re providing a wealth of education and civilisation for all the people of Western Australia,” adds Professor Anderson.

Why Ignia, an Insight company
Ignia, An Insight Company, is a national leader in providing a broad mix of technology advisory, design, and implementation services with capabilities spanning strategy, digital, cloud, mobility and analytics. With the proven experience in the education sector, Ignia will take the time to listen to your requirements, and provide a fully customised, robust solution to meet your specific needs.

For more information, visit Ignia's Smart Campus page.