Digital governance brings clarity and cohesion to your university’s online presence. This week we share practical ways to fix content issues, break down silos, and improve accessibility so your teams can collaborate better and deliver exceptional digital experiences.
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Why digital governance matters—and how to get it right at your institution

Content strategy Governance Higher education challenges Tips & advice

These days, your college or university’s digital footprint is bigger than ever—websites, social channels, campaign microsites, learning platforms.

All of these touch prospective students, current learners, alumni, faculty, staff, and more.

But without a clear governance framework, that great breadth can become fragmented, confusing, or inefficient; it’s something we often see with higher education institutions.

This week, we’re proposing a way to establish effective digital governance for your college or university to streamline workflows, enhance your accessibility, and create a strong, unified experience across your digital ecosystem.

If you’re already exploring how your university can bring more coherence across channels, don’t miss our 10 higher ed marketing trends from the last decade you can still leverage today article, where governance emerges as a recurring theme in higher‑ed digital strategy.

What do we mean by digital governance?

Let’s start with the basics: to us, digital governance is more than a policy document sitting on the shelf.

It’s a structured framework of:

  • Rules and policies covering content creation, design standards, accessibility, privacy, and digital communications;
  • clearly defined processes for how content gets created, reviewed, published, and maintained;
  • The roles and responsibilities so that everyone (from departmental content editors to your central digital teams) knows who owns what;
  • Oversight and monitoring so the system evolves, stays compliant, and remains fit for purpose.

In short: done well, digital governance gives you consistency, clarity, and coherence across the full spectrum of your institution’s digital presence.

If you’re still exploring the basics of digital governance frameworks, check out our earlier post Digital Governance: getting everyone singing from the same hymn sheet, which dives into roles, responsibilities, and how to get started.

Why it’s especially important for higher education

We know that as a higher ed institution, you’re facing a unique set of challenges.

You need to speak to a broad and diverse audience: prospective students, current learners, parents, alumni, donors, researchers, faculty , and more,  and each group uses different channels and has different needs.

Without governance, what you’ll likely experience is:

  • content that becomes outdated, inconsistent, or even conflicting;
  • uneven accessibility practices and potential compliance risks;
  • lack of clarity about who’s responsible for what—leading to bottlenecks or duplication;
  • different departments working in silos, undermining your institutional brand;
  • adapting to new technology or shifting user expectations (and we know this is really important these days as the tech landscape changes month-on-month).

Research shows that digital governance (or the lack thereof) correlates with the maturity of a university or college’s digital transformation.

Higher ed institutions with stronger governance tend to handle shifts much better.

When you’re juggling content, channels and audiences, you might also find value in The rise of university brand managers: why higher ed is investing in new roles articles, which it explores how institutions are creating roles and structures to maintain brand consistency across decentralised teams.

Common governance challenges — and practical solutions

Here are some of the recurring issues we see in higher ed, and how you can address them.

1) Siloed teams and unclear responsibilities

At many institutions, departments manage their own websites or social media to support their unique goals and audiences.

That decentralized approach can work well—but without coordination, it often leads to inconsistent messaging, duplicated efforts, or confusion about who’s responsible for what.

Creating a clear governance structure, like a digital steering group with cross-departmental representation, helps connect the dots.

It fosters collaboration, reduces friction, and ensures everyone is working toward a shared digital vision.

2) Inconsistent content and branding

When there’s no shared set of content standards, it’s easy for things to drift.

Pages get duplicated or go out of date, different departments use slightly different tones, and the overall brand experience can feel disjointed, and users can be confused.

But with a solid content strategy, things start to click.

Defining editorial guidelines, setting up an editorial calendar, and assigning clear content ownership helps everyone stay aligned.

A CMS that supports structured workflows and templates makes it easier to keep things consistent—while still giving departments the flexibility they need.

3) Accessibility and compliance gaps

Accessibility is no longer optional; it’s a legal requirement.

Still, many teams struggle to keep up with WCAG standards or don’t feel confident in building accessible content.

That’s where governance comes in.

By integrating accessibility into everyday workflows and offering practical training for content creators, you can raise the bar across the board.

Regular audits and designating a team or champion to focus on accessibility helps keep it top of mind and ensures accountability at every level.

Accessibility isn’t just a checklist—it’s central to inclusivity and user experience.

Our A decade of inclusivity: our top 5 accessibility insights for higher education post showcases the long‑view of evolution in this space and offers practical takeaways.

4) Slow adaptation to change

In higher ed, change often happens carefully—which is a good thing when it’s strategic.

But when digital governance is too rigid or reactive, it can slow down progress and make it harder to adopt new tools or respond to user expectations.

The most effective governance models build in flexibility.

By setting up regular reviews, encouraging innovation within safe guardrails, and giving teams space to experiment, you can stay nimble while keeping their digital standards strong.

The idea is to balance control with innovation.

For a broader take on how higher‑ed institutions can stay agile during digital disruption, see our piece, The future of higher education marketing: Thriving in digital disruption.

A step‑by‑step playbook for implementing governance

So what’s the solution? 

Here’s a practical roadmap that you can adopt for your higher ed institution, whether you’re a small college or a multi-school university.

  1. Audit your current digital landscape
    Map websites, microsites, social channels, platforms, and stakeholders. Identify content redundancies, ownership gaps, compliance issues, and workflow bottlenecks.
  2. Define roles and responsibilities
    Create a governance structure: perhaps a Digital Steering Group, with sub‑committees for content, accessibility, and IT. Clearly assign who does content strategy, who does editorial approvals, and who monitors analytics and compliance.
  3. Build your guidelines and policies
    Document your content style guide, accessibility policy, brand standards, and data/privacy protocols. Make them accessible and known to all your contributors.
  4. Empower contributors with training and tools
    Governance works only when people know how to fulfill their roles. Run training sessions for editors. Provide templates, checklists, and clear workflows. Give them access to the right tools (e.g., a DXP/CMS with role‑based permissions).
  5. Leverage technology intelligently
    Use a DXP/CMS that supports distributed contribution but central control (for example, templating, permissions, workflow approvals). Use automation where appropriate (e.g., content expiry, accessibility scanning). And use an analytics dashboard to surface governance performance.
  6. Monitor, review, and evolve
    Governance isn’t a “set‑and‑forget” exercise. Schedule periodic reviews: content audits, accessibility checks, and user experience reviews, and update policies when new channels or tools emerge (as they do!). Use feedback from users and contributors to refine the model.

What strong digital governance can offer you

If you get governance right, you’ll start to see tangible benefits:

  • A more consistent and accessible user experience across all your digital touchpoints.
  • Better efficiency: fewer duplicated efforts, fewer bottlenecks, better reuse of resources.
  • Reduced risk: fewer compliance issues around accessibility, privacy or brand misuse.
  • Stronger alignment across departments—marketing, academic units, web teams—working together rather than apart.
  • More agility: you’ll be better placed to adopt new digital trends (for example, AI, immersive content, etc.) without losing control.

Effective digital governance is one of those foundational things that makes everything else in your digital ecosystem smoother: the content strategy, the UX, the brand experience, the compliance track.

It takes time, buy‑in, and clear communication—but your university or college will benefit from a more coherent, sustainable, and user‑focused digital presence that’ll be more resilient in the long run.

How is your university or college managing digital governance today? What challenges have you faced or overcome? We’d love to hear your experiences.