Website design for schools, colleges and training providers

Two audiences, one site

Most education sites speak to two people at once. The student wants to know what they will learn and whether they will fit in. The parent, employer or funder wants to know about cost, safety, results and accreditation. If the page answers only one of them, the other leaves to ask a friend or a search engine.

We start by listing the questions each audience asks before applying, then give each question a visible home. A short fees summary sits on the program page instead of three clicks away. A safeguarding or student support page is linked from the footer and the admissions page, because parents look for it.

Colleges and training providers add a third group: corporate buyers who want to send a team on a course. They need a separate enquiry route with invoicing details, not the same form as a school leaver.

Pages an education site needs

The structure depends on the provider, but these pages carry most of the weight.

Systems the website has to work with

Education providers usually already run a learning platform and a student information system, for example Moodle, Canvas or Google Classroom for learning, and a records system for enrolments. We do not replace those. The public website links to them cleanly and, where the vendor offers a form or API, passes enquiries into the admissions pipeline.

For small providers, a simple form that emails admissions and writes a row to a spreadsheet or CRM is often enough. For larger ones we connect to the CRM so every enquiry carries its source page, which tells you which programs attract interest.

Timing matters. Application windows, September and January intakes, and the Australian start-of-year rush all create peaks. We schedule launches and content updates before those windows, and we keep an intake-date banner that staff can switch off themselves.

Student privacy and accessibility

Schools and colleges hold records about minors and about learners' results. In the US, FERPA governs education records at institutions that receive federal funding. In the UK and Ireland, UK GDPR or GDPR applies and the ICO has a code for services likely to be used by children. Australia applies the Privacy Act and state rules. Check with your own counsel or data protection officer on what applies to you.

For the website, that means collecting only what the enquiry form needs, no public student photos without consent, a clear privacy notice on every form, and analytics set up with consent where the law requires it.

Public bodies in several countries must meet accessibility standards, and private providers are sued over inaccessible sites too. We build to WCAG 2.2 AA as a baseline and test with a keyboard and a screen reader. Our accessibility checklist shows what we check.

How the project runs

1. Call and auditA short call about programs, intakes and current enquiry numbers, then a review of the old site and its search data.
2. Structure and wireframesPage list, program template and admissions path agreed before visual design.
3. Design and buildWordPress or Webflow, so staff can edit course pages without a developer. Weekly demo links.
4. Test and launchForms, redirects, accessibility and mobile checks, then a launch outside term-time peaks.
5. HandoverTraining for the staff who will update dates and fees, and a short guide for reference.

We work from Pune and book calls in your working hours, whether you are in Ohio, Manchester, Perth or Cork.

Price guidance

Projects start at $1,500, and our rate is $30 an hour. A tutoring center with six pages sits near the low end. A college with dozens of program pages, a prospectus download and a CRM connection takes longer, and the fixed quote reflects the page count, the number of integrations and how much content we need to write or reformat.

The biggest cost drivers are the number of programs, whether staff will upload content in bulk, and the application form. For a general view, see website cost. The wider website design service page explains how we work.