Academic Applications

Back when the web was new, colleges and universities were among the most enthusiastic early adopters. Faculty, staff, and students launched their own web sites to support research projects and educational activities using the innovative development tools of the day. A few even invented new technologies in their labs and dorm rooms. For example, Dries Buytaert, co-founder and CTO of Acquia, started the Drupal project in 2001 while a student at the University of Ghent.

But today, many colleges and universities are struggling to stay abreast of fast-changing web technologies. Many lack a contemporary IT infrastructure to manage content, and are unable to satisfy rising expectations from faculty, staff, and students. Without a modern environment, it is difficult to support web, mobile, and social channels, as well as build communities around areas of common interests. All too frequently, campus-wide IT organizations operate outdated server environments and cannot easily deliver innovative digital experiences.

Needed is a flexible, scalable, and affordable platform for powering educational solutions across a campus web environment. This platform is Drupal.

With Drupal, campus IT organizations can migrate aging web sites and outdated development tools to a popular, fast-growing, open source platform. As a result, colleges and universities can modernize their underlying web infrastructure, rapidly support the varied activities of different departments, and readily deploy innovative experiences. Moreover, these institutions can build awareness about their educational activities and rely on the web to manage experiences with off-campus supporters who help sponsor research, cultural, social, and athletic programs.

Why should colleges and universities modernize their web infrastructure by adopting Drupal? How can campus IT organizations transition from legacy servers, decentralized hosting, and obsolete development tools to a contemporary, enterprise-class platform for managing educational applications? How does Drupal impact higher education?

Here is a solution guide for how colleges and universities can better support their faculty, research staff, students, administrators, and off-campus supporters, enhance their core educational activities, and launch innovative solutions using Drupal.

When Higher Education Goes Digital - Solution Brief Download