The Open University is one of the biggest risers in the latest Sitemorse Universities Index – a key indicator of which UK University and college websites are the best in their field.

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A big fall in the OU score in our previous Index published in January led to comment from Times Higher Education, which in turn prompted the Milton Keynes-based university, world’s leading provider of online degrees and distance learning, with 240,000 students and more than 1100 staff, to issue a statement promising a planned new site would perform better.

“The new site will not only continue to be centred around the user experience, but also have greater focus on the sort of technical web standards monitored by Sitemorse, so we look forward to future survey results with great interest.” An OU spokesman was quoted on the Times Higher Education website in February.

Universities and HE colleges have always been keen to attract the best quality students, but with rising fees, there’s more competition than ever in the sector, and as many potential students use online resources as a key part of their decision making process, the importance of a strong, well-performing website cannot be overestimated.
The latest Universities Index, just published, shows the OU site has risen 220 places in the rankings with an overall score of nearly 4.5 out of a possible ten marks.

The strongest performers in the Uni/HE college sector this time are Warwickshire College, Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education, and Lincoln’s Bishop Grosseteste University College. Warwickshire, a clear point ahead of its nearest rival, has topped the Index for the fourth quarter in succession.