Student Hub

Enhancing the student experience to help navigate Oxford’s IT systems and resources

As part of the University’s Digital Transformation programme, a project is currently underway to deliver a new portal for students to give them a single, consolidated point of entry to navigate their relevant University and college systems, services and view key information more effectively.

We are working closely with the Transforming Oxford's Digital Communications programme to ensure alignment between the Student Hub and the new Oxford-wide intranet and web platforms that are being developed.

What is the Student Hub?

The Student Hub is a cloud-based platform that aims to provide a greatly simplified way for students to access their systems and key information that they require to digitally navigate Oxford.

It is both a web-portal and a mobile app and displays tiles that integrate seamlessly through the student’s Single Sign-On (SSO) to key systems such as Student Self-Service (eVision), the Canvas VLE (Virtual Learning Environment), the library system (SOLO), reading lists (ORLO), email, maps of Oxford, the Careers Service, and newsfeeds from their colleges.

The student hub is being branded 'MyOxford' and is based on a well-established SaaS (Software as a Service) platform used by over 700 educational institutions that reaches more than 7 million students worldwide.

We are working closely with our partner, Ready Education, to help develop and configure the platform in readiness for a planned launch in Michaelmas Term 2024.

What is our approach?

Our objective is to deliver an initial, useful solution quickly in readiness for the start of the new academic year so that our students can use it and get early benefits. We will continue to develop the MyOxford hub iteratively and will be releasing enhanced functionality regularly once it has been rolled-out.

In preparation for a large-scale roll-out, we are running a limited number of pilots with colleges and departments in Trinity term 2024 so that we can configure it as a more clearly defined offering for release to the wider collegiate university in Michaelmas Term 2024.

The aim of the pilots is to provide a small amount of working functionality to students, enabling the project to gain feedback on design and layout. We will also be defining the support approach and understanding any technical challenges that arise.

Amongst our early pilots in Trinity term are Merton and Kellogg Colleges, Department of Politics and International Relations, Continuing Education (subset of students) and MSc in Digital Scholarship and Maths (PG programme). We will also be inviting feedback from students from across Oxford to contribute comments and feedback.

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The following project benefits are expected over the lifetime of the project and beyond:

  • The Student Hub aims to deliver a new portal for students to give them a single, consolidated point of entry to navigate their relevant University and college systems, services and view key information more effectively
  • The University of Oxford enjoys a reputation as a world leading institution and, as such, students should expect a high-quality digital experience to match the quality of other aspects of their life at Oxford. The reality is that the complexities of Oxford’s systems often detract from this. The implementation of a student hub helps reduce the risk of reputational impacts
  • By personalising and streamlining student communication, the Student Hub will act as an enabler, helping to reduce the administration overhead of sending and chasing emails
  • The provision of a central hub with easy to navigate tiles should benefit students with disabilities and specific needs, enabling them to participate more equally in teaching and learning

The project board membership reflects the range of interests and stakeholders responsible for supporting the change. Find out more about them below.

Project Joint Sponsors

  • Elaine Aitken, Head of Student Systems and Education Portfolio Lead
  • Fiona Whitehouse, Head of the Internship Office, Oxford University Careers Service

Project Board Members

  • Jo Begbie, Astrophoria Foundation Year Director
  • Andrew Bonnie
  • Roger Dalrymple
  • Kian Deeney
  • Lauren Gale, Senior Communications Manager - Students and Academic Administration Division
  • Erin Gordon, Head of Strategic Planning and Projects, Humanities Division
  • Jane Gover
  • Richard McDonald, Head of Technical Architecture and Projects, IT Services
  • Andy Menmuir, Senior Business Change Manager
  • Nick Perry, Education Portfolio Manager
  • Dan Selinger, Head of Communications and Engagement - Professional Services
  • Dave Smith, Enterprise IT Architect
  • Kat Southwell, Project Manager
  • Natasha Treuen
  • James Tibbert
  • Claudia Waldner

The project started in 2023 and is scheduled to run until 2024, with a release to the wider collegiate university planned in Michaelmas Term 2024/25.

Contact

For more information about the Student Hub project, please email us: myoxford@admin.ox.ac.uk