The Digital Presence Programme (DPP) was an ambitious programme of change to improve the University’s websites and digital content and the experience of those who use them. Its scope grew substantially and became too unwieldy to deliver within the existing framework.
Following an external review and discussions with the Programme’s leadership, we are transitioning DPP into separate deliverable projects and services that are easier to manage, govern, fund and measure.
We have 2 projects funded and underway currently, both informed by the work undertaken by DPP:
1. Content rationalisation (September 2023 – July 2025)
Why do we need to rationalise content?
The University has around 3,200 domains and over 2 million web pages. Many sites contain large quantities of duplicated, outdated, non-compliant and unvisited content, which hampers their effectiveness and impedes user journeys.
With your help, we’re looking to reduce the number of pages by approximately 50% while preserving and enhancing high-value content to make it simple for everyone to find what they’re looking for.
You can find further details about the project and follow our progress on the content rationalisation project page.
What can you do now?
You can continue to improve your content in situ for your users now. It does make a difference – our recent work on the Cambridge Bursary Scheme page delivered a 73% increase in active users. We’ll share how via the Content Community.
-
Audit your content and decide what to keep, delete, move, rewrite or replace
-
Improve your content with the help of our web content creation resources.
You’ll find lots more guidance on the Content Community SharePoint site, where you can also sign up to attend the regular events run by the Content team.
What next?
We're working towards being able to offer more bespoke support in the future and are looking at ways to request this. We'll keep you updated once we have the right team in place.
2. Web stabilisation (June 2023 – March 2025)
Why do we need to stabilise our websites?
Many of our sites are built on Drupal 7, which is outdated and approaching end of life (EOL). Despite the recent extension of the EOL and support period from Drupal, which now runs until January 2025, we need to ensure long-term sustainability and stability until the newer Drupal 10 platform is in place.
The existing service will be migrated to the cloud with the support of third-party expertise for a smooth transition to Drupal 10.
You can find further details and follow the project progress on the web stabilisation project page.
How does this affect your site?
If your Drupal 7 site is managed by UIS, you don’t need to do anything yet. We’ll be sharing more details about Drupal 10 with site owners in 2024.
What next?
We recommend that you sign up to join the Content Community training events. This will help you to improve your content ahead of Drupal 10.
Web and intranet site requests
We know that you may need assistance building or updating web and intranet sites and are exploring how we might support you in this area. We can't offer full support for new digital projects at the moment, but we can provide advice.
Hearing about your challenges and ambitions will help us shape a better central support function in future. Please note, website requests are reviewed every two weeks.
Request help with a new or existing website