Transforming Oxford's Digital Communications Programme

Page last updated: 17 April 2026

This programme is creating new web and intranet platform solutions driven by user needs and capable of adapting and evolving with the University. The work involves delivering the initial foundations of these platforms, as well as supporting their ongoing growth and development over time.

Our new platforms prioritise security, scalability and accessibility, ensuring that they meet the full spectrum of our requirements. By adhering to core principles of simplicity and clarity, we’ll provide digital experiences that help our internal and external audiences feel more connected and informed, while safeguarding the University's global reputation.

The aim is to ultimately ensure all our audiences (including staff, students and external visitors) can find information, access online services, and keep up to date on what’s happening across the University, supporting our academic mission.

Latest News

• The main University website (www.ox.ac.uk) has launched in a redeveloped form, with new functionality and content showcasing Oxford to global audiences.  
• OxIntranet is continuing to grow as our first University-wide intranet, with the recent introduction of an experimental AI tool to help users find information more easily. 
• Content from a number of central services such as Childcare, Travel and the Communications Hub has gone live across these two platforms, with external content on Oxweb and internal content on OxIntranet. 
• Following a successful development period for Fresco, focussing on 'look and feel' improvements, a time-limited extension has been agreed for Drupal 7 (on which Mosaic is built), allowing the platform to remain operational until April 2027 (previously October 2026).
• Migration timelines are only affected for a select number of complex sites, and the majority of teams will proceed with migration according to planned schedules.
  • View the current standard migration journey (with estimated timeframes)
• New sites can be requested on University platforms, using the recently launched site request process
  • Watch our recent briefing recording (slides)

Why are we doing this? 

Effective and impactful communications with staff, students and the public are critical to digital transformation at Oxford. To achieve this, we need to transform our communications platforms and approach. 

Transforming our platforms and content will improve the quality and efficacy of our communications. It will also improve the experience for content creators, with easier to use tools and clearer processes. 

The platforms

To transform Oxford's digital communications, we're developing three platforms: Fresco and Oxweb for external content, and OxIntranet for internal content. To help understand where everything will sit in the new structure, access a visual representation of the programme.

OxIntranet:

OxIntranet is Oxford’s new University-wide intranet, which has just gone live with another group of UAS sites. The platform will grow over time, bringing together all the internal information staff and students need to work and study in one secure, SSO-protected platform. Everything is underpinned by up-to-date people data, so that news, resources and announcements can be targeted to the right audiences by department, college or division. In the future, we’ll also invest in email and other internal communication tools to further improve how information is shared across Oxford. Find out more: Intranet and internal communications project 

Fresco:

Oxford Fresco, our new web Content Management System (CMS) platform, will be a secure and versatile platform for the majority of public-facing content at the University. It aims to offer easy and secure publishing tools, replacing the existing platform, Mosaic, which goes out of support in April 2027. Oxford Fresco is developing iteratively, and while the core features are now in place, more functionality and design will be coming over time, in line with the project roadmap. Find out more: Oxford Fresco 

Oxweb:

Oxweb, the University's main website, has just gone live with its redeveloped site. It hosts central University content for external audiences, including information for prospective staff/students and the public. The redevelopment provides a more accessible and consistent user experience, giving content an updated look and feel.  

Departmental sites will be migrated to Fresco, and are working hard to ensure content and visual alignment with the main University site. Oxweb and Fresco sites are aligned using a common design library and aligned governance and content approaches to ensure a consistent and familiar feel across platforms.

Navigating between platforms:

Content for external audiences will continue to be published online, and we are working closely with our web teams to ensure it is easy to reach OxIntranet content from the University website. This will include staff and student gateways, directing staff and students to commonly used content on OxIntranet. 

Making the change

Migration

Moving our content to the new platforms will be a large undertaking, and the Migration Project is ensuring this critical activity receives the level of attention needed. Content currently hosted on Mosaic is being prioritised for migration, because these sites are built on technology that is going out of support.  

The Migration Project is working hand-in-hand with the Fresco, OxIntranet and Oxweb development teams to enable migration to take place in a smooth and timely way. 

A variety of support is available to help site owners through the process, including auto-migration of Mosaic content (for non-UAS sites), a migration toolkit, and hands-on assistance where resources allow. Site Owners will be responsible for reviewing their migrated content prior to go-live.  

More information about the Migration Project can be found on the Migration Project page. 

Content

Oxford's Digital Content Strategy outlines how we will publish, organise, manage and govern content - informing how we manage content across our platforms, both internally and externally. It is a live document, designed to support our needs around digital content. It will evolve as platforms and governance become more established, but the principles articulated will remain the same.  

This includes establishing principles for content, and ways of managing and refreshing it over time. It also outlines how we plan to publish content across web and internal platforms, to ensure relevant information is available to internal and external audiences. 

The strategy has been developed collaboratively with input from communications staff and other key stakeholders around the University, and the latest draft has received positive feedback. We would welcome any feedback you may have. 

Platform and content governance

Ongoing, joined-up oversight is in place to ensure the new platforms remain effective and well-supported. A governance framework is being developed in collaboration with colleagues across the University and will be rolled out alongside the new site request process soon. 

A Programme Board, with representation from all divisions, colleges, GLAM and UAS, is overseeing the programme to ensure it meets the needs of the whole University. The group, chaired by Social Sciences Divisional Registrar David White, reports to the Dissemination and Engagement Portfolio, chaired by GLAM Director Richard Ovenden. 

We’ve also launched the Content Network, a supportive community of those working on websites, intranets and digital content across the University. For more information on training and resources available, please see the Digital Content pages on the Communications Hub. 

More information 

We are committed to providing regular updates about the programme and these pages will be updated on a regular basis with the latest information. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Please see our regularly updated programme FAQS where we answer your questions about Transforming Digital Communications and the individual projects.

Contact 

If you are unable to find the information you want in our Frequently Asked Questions, please email us: transformingdigitalcommsprogramme@it.ox.ac.uk.