University & College Website Development
Recruit, Inform, and Retain — Without Drupal
97% of prospective students check your website before they apply. We build university sites with program finders, faculty directories, and student portals on Next.js — so you're never stuck in another migration cycle.
University website development means designing and engineering large-scale higher education sites that actually work for everyone who uses them: prospective students, current students, faculty, and alumni. Modern university sites need program finders, faculty directories, department subsites, student portals, multi-language support, WCAG accessibility, and admissions funnels. And they need to be built on architecture that won't force you into a $150K rebuild every few years just to keep the lights on.
Your Current Site May Be a Liability
Common gaps we find in nearly every audit.
How We Build This Right
Every safeguard, built in from Day 1.
Program Finder Engine
Search 200+ programs by degree level, subject, campus, delivery mode, duration, tuition range, and career outcomes. Every program gets its own SEO page with curriculum details, faculty listings, tuition figures, and application links.
Faculty Directory with Schema.org
Searchable by department, research area, or name — and every faculty profile includes Person structured data for rich snippets. Five hundred faculty members means 500 indexable pages working for your search rankings around the clock.
WCAG 2.1 AA Accessibility
Semantic HTML, ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, screen reader optimization, color contrast ratios, skip links, and focus management. We target Lighthouse accessibility scores of 95+. Not plugin-dependent guesswork.
Multi-Language International Hub
Native i18n for Mandarin, Hindi, Korean, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and more. Each language version includes program info, visa guidance, scholarship finders, and tuition calculators in local currency.
Student Portal with SSO
An authenticated area that connects to your SIS via SAML, CAS, or Shibboleth. Course registration, grades, financial aid, announcements, and campus services — secured with Supabase Auth and row-level security.
Admissions Funnel & CRM
Inquiry capture flows into automated email sequences and application tracking. It integrates with Slate, Salesforce Education, or a custom Supabase CRM — turning site visitors into enrolled students.
What We Build
Purpose-built features for your industry.
Department & School Subsites
One Next.js app serving /schools/[slug] routes. Centralized brand, department-localized content, replacing 20+ Drupal multisites with a single codebase you can actually manage.
Virtual Campus Tour Integration
Matterport 3D walkthroughs, interactive campus maps, and drone footage embedded natively. 73% of prospects use virtual tours before they ever contact admissions.
Admissions Event Calendar
Filterable events by type, campus, and audience — with structured data for Google event rich results and automatic timezone conversion so international prospects aren't doing math in their heads.
Scholarship & Cost Calculator
Interactive tools that estimate tuition, housing, living expenses, and available scholarships, with local currency conversion built in for international recruitment.
News & Research Hub
A filterable newsroom with faculty research highlights, press releases, and student stories — each article linked back to relevant programs and faculty profiles for internal SEO lift.
Alumni Network Directory
Searchable alumni profiles by graduation year, program, industry, and location. Drives engagement and donations, and gives prospective students the career outcome proof they're looking for.
Built on a Modern, Secure Stack
Our Development Process
From discovery to launch. Quality at every step.
Content Architecture Audit
Weeks 1-2We map every program, faculty member, department, and content type across your existing CMS. We find the SEO gaps, accessibility failures, and information architecture problems. You get a migration blueprint with page counts and feature specs before we touch a line of code.
Program Finder & Directory Design
Weeks 3-5We design the program finder search experience, faculty directory structure, and department subsite templates. Wireframes and interactive prototypes get tested against real prospective student user flows. Your team reviews and approves everything first.
Next.js Build & Data Migration
Weeks 6-14We build the full site in Next.js with a Supabase backend, migrate content from Drupal, WordPress, Cascade, or OMNI, implement SSO integration, and configure the i18n engine. Schema.org markup goes on every program and faculty page.
Accessibility & Performance Testing
Weeks 15-17Full WCAG 2.1 AA audit with assistive technology testing. Lighthouse performance and accessibility scores pushed to 95+. Load testing for enrollment surge periods. CRM and SIS integrations verified end-to-end.
Launch & Training
Weeks 18-20Zero-downtime cutover with 301 redirects preserving every indexed URL. Content editor training for your marketing and department teams. Thirty days of post-launch support covering bug fixes, content questions, and analytics setup.
Frequently Asked Questions
Explore related industries
200+ employee company? Complex multi-tenant, auction, or multi-location requirement? We have a dedicated enterprise capability track.
Get Your University Website Assessment
Tell us about your institution. We'll deliver a detailed quote within 48 hours.
Let's build
something together.
Whether it's a migration, a new build, or an SEO challenge — the Social Animal team would love to hear from you.