3 Reasons Why Your University’s Website Is Hurting Your Reputation

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Hint: A fantastic website means you are already behind!

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I vividly recall the day I first went onto the Amazon site using my dial-up connection.  I was so excited….for a moment. Until I realized that it took me 3 attempts to connect and then the images and everything loaded so slowly I could go get a coffee and come back to see what I had clicked on.

Sounds old, right?  Well, this is the “state-of-the-art” when it comes to some of the best and most expensive websites major universities are presenting as their “face” and as their “brand”.

In reality, Universities employ various strategies to enhance their reputation, brand, and rankings. While each university's approach may differ based on its unique strengths, goals, and challenges, common strategies include:

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• Academic Excellence
• Research and Innovation
• Strategic Partnerships
• Student Success and Alumni Engagement
• Strong Financial Health
• Modern Infrastructure and Facilities
• Globalization and Diversity
• Strategic Marketing and Communication
• Community Engagement
• Rankings and Accreditation
• Adaptive Leadership
• Social Responsibility and Sustainability

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Here I focus on the “Modern Infrastructure and Facilities” component. This normally means investing in state-of-the-art facilities, modern technology, and campus infrastructure. Which is intended to create an attractive and conducive environment for learning and research. The challenge we face is that the definition of what is considered “modern”, “infrastructure” and “conducive” have shifted right under the feet of universities that have not been able to keep pace.

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"The challenge we face is that the definition of what is considered “modern”, “infrastructure” and “conducive” have shifted and universities have not kept pace.”

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#1. Your biggest assets are not on your website:

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Meaning that your website is the problem/barrier, not the solution. True in 1995 when I first went onto Amazon websites were the thing. Every company and institution was scrambling to get a site built. Those days are long gone. If you don't have a website these days then you are not a “legit” company. However, the real innovative companies and institutions have moved on. They’ve realized that access to their products and services drives innovation and attracts students and commercial partners that all drive revenue and technology adoption. They realize that ACCESS is the major point of friction that is slowing down innovation.

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“...ACCESS is the major point of friction that is slowing down innovation”

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In the use case of scientific innovation scientists drive discoveries really in four fundamental ways;

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1. They obtain biological or inorganic samples.
2. They manipulate these materials.
3. They use instruments or software to analyze these materials.
4. They produce data or knowledge on the backend.

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That is science in its most basic form.

Universities need to reflect and ask themselves: How do scientists find and access these essential materials and tools they need?

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Hint: No, it’s not your website. No, it is not PubMed. No, it is not some national repository of scientific tools and services.

Over 50% of these services are at the very institutions where the science is performed. Yet, these very tools are represented by mere links to facilities. Like this…

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For digitally native scientists this is useless. They are used to searching for a product and service. They click. They pay and checkout and get access.  Yet the smartest minds in the world are forced to use emails, spreadsheets, and word of mouth to find the tools they need to find the next cure for cancer.

How can it be that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of scientific equipment and services are hidden behind the institutions' firewalls?  Hidden behind dead-end links that end in a first name, last name, and e-mail submission form?

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“...the smartest minds in the world are forced to use emails, spreadsheets, and word of mouth to find the tools they need to find the next cure for cancer. “

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#2. Your biggest assets are not indexed by search engines.

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Compounding the above firewall problem is the fact that search engines can not index what is not in the public domain. The average research institution has about 20 shared services labs performing different functions from genomics to microscopy to storage of cell lines. Each is very well represented on their institution's website. However, to a digitally native person, these are dead ends as one cannot transact in this environment. That is, one cannot click on a service, pay, checkout, and then send samples for analysis to this service lab.

To make cutting-edge research tools readily available to the world institutions need to reduce the burdens of accessing AND buying them. By creating liquidity between supply and demand universities can improve their reputation and attract more students while also driving more revenue. “Modern infrastructure” needs to be extended to mean how one interacts with the best scientific tools in the world.

When I search for “single-cell RNA sequencing S1” the result should be a button allowing me to buy that service at a specific time and price…not a link to email the facility!

We prefer that institutions get more projects, not emails!

“Modern infrastructure” needs to be extended to mean how one interacts with the best scientific tools in the world.

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#3. Most scientists are digitally native.

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But most administrators and leadership at these institutions are not. There is the friction and also the opportunity to innovate “modern infrastructure” that is “conducive” to the folks who use them the most.

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“Within ten years, digital natives are expected to account for over 58%, making us the dominant generation in the workplace.”

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This number sores to 90% on university campuses! Giving digitally native users outdated dead-end links that do not allow them to purchase slows innovation and likely adds additional costs to the operations of these schools.

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Last, we need to work towards modernizing the interface scientists use to drive innovation. We need to be better at creating demand-to-supply liquidity. After all who goes to the campus computer room anymore to write a paper? Yet, this is exactly what we expect the smartest scientists to do every single day. We need to create modern commerce access points for scientists rather than a mere list of things like the Yellow Pages.

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“We need to create modern commerce access points for scientists rather than a mere list of things like the Yellow Pages.”

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