Gold.ac.uk named UK's best university website - and alumni project scoops top award

Goldsmiths has the best university website in Britain after winning the accolade at the prestigious Heist Awards.

The site won Gold in the Best Website category at the annual showcase of excellence in higher education marketing and communications.

And the night was a double celebration for the university – with the Development and Alumni team claiming silver in the Best Alumni, Development or Fundraising Initiative category.

Their project Goldsmiths Reunite: Around the World in 7 Days, saw a series of volunteer-led events in 13 cities around the world which brought together some 400 Goldsmiths alumni.

Warden Patrick Loughrey said: "This recognition pays testament to the hard work of our Communications and Alumni and Development teams.

"When we decided to relaunch the website we wanted to create an online space which gave Goldsmiths a channel from which we can broadcast to the world. It does just that - we now have a platform which shows off the best of this university in the best possible way.

"I also know personally how successful our Around the World initiative is. I was lucky enough to attend four of these events this year where I met so many brilliant people from the Goldsmiths community.

"These people are our advocates across the globe - and their support is more important now than ever before.

"Goldsmiths may start in New Cross but thanks to these award-winning initiatives our voice is heard around the world."

The Gold award recognised Goldsmiths’ website following its relaunch last autumn.

The  judges said: "Goldsmiths are very clear about their brand identity and how the website should deliver this, along with an ambitious aim to attract the brightest thinkers from a global audience and make the best University website in the world! Overall, the website design is attractive, enticing, clean yet characterful."

The website was designed in partnership with digital company Numiko to reflect our "challenging, creative, visionary and empowering" values. 

The brief was to "rethink our online presence to attract the brightest thinkers from a global audience to study, teach, partner and invest".

One of their key aims was to expose prospective students to areas of academic study they may not have considered or discovered themselves, by highlighting commonalities between subjects and thematically grouping courses.

Since the re-launch, mobile traffic has doubled, viewing time increased by 10%, and bounce rates on course pages are significantly lower. The increase in content, and improved design and accessibility of the website's news pages has led to a 300% increase in page views for that section over one year.

The dynamic 'hero' image on the homepage has led to increased awareness of Goldsmiths initiatives and events such as Graduation, and to present a bold voice on big issues, such as the refugee crisis.

The Goldsmiths website was up against sites from Havering College, University of Gloucestershire, University of Bournemouth, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and Lucy Cavendish College (Cambridge).

The Development and Alumni office's series of events - 'Goldsmiths Reunite: Around the World in 7 Days' – was shortlisted for the Best Alumni, Development or Fundraising Initiative prize, running against a graduation day photo project from Loughborough and Sheffield's The Big Walk.

The judges said of the initiative: "Goldsmiths Should be congratulated for taking an existing concept and making a success of it!"

Goldsmiths Reunite was a series of volunteer-led events in 13 cities around the world which brought together some 400 Goldsmiths alumni. The May 2015 events led to huge increases in email engagement with the Alumni team from former students around the globe.

Organised by Goldsmiths Alumni Ambassadors, events include exhibitions and talks showcasing the scale and dynamism of the Goldsmiths global community and providing a collective experience for alumni across the globe – a first in the University's history. Events took place in Athens, Berlin, Chicago, Cologne, Denver, Dublin, Frankfurt, New York, Oslo, Rome, Sao Paulo, Singapore and Zurich.

Check out the Storify and a blog about the events here.

Goldsmiths Reunite: Around the World in 7 Days 2016 was also a huge success – with more than 500 alumni involved.