The theme of interesting stats continues today with an update on the success of the James Watt College website we launched nearly 3 years ago.
College Background
James Watt College is one of Scotland’s largest colleges with a student population of 22,000 across four campuses in North Ayrshire and Inverclyde.
The website provides information to a diverse audience of potential students, local businesses, potential employees and key influencers. Since the launch of the website in 2004 the web has played an increasingly significant role in student recruitment.
Our full-time student population is evenly split in age, with 51% aged 16-25, and 49% in the 26+ category, therefore our website must appeal to a diverse market of 16-60 year olds.
Online Applications
36% year on year growth in online applications witnessed in the past 12 months, over 50% of all full-time course applications are now received via the website.
48% of job applications for externally advertised vacancies are received online (Aug – Nov 2006).
Website Research Results (August 2006 – conducted internally)
% of survey respondents who:
· stated information on the website is “easy to find” – 91%
· rated the website as “good” or “very good” – 95%
· stated the website was “very important” in finding out about JWC – 51%
· stated information on the website is “easy to understand” – 96%
· stated the website was attractive to look at – 89%
· stated they had found the information they needed on the website – 94%
· had visited the website more than five times in the previous year – 58%
· found out about our website from a search engine – 30%
The power of the web!