Launching a new, for-purpose university.

Uniting leaders in higher education

Students exploring options for university studies in 2026 are finding an exciting, novel opportunity in South Australia. Adelaide University, the first new major Australian university in a generation, will offer a world-class education in a vibrant setting known for its natural beauty and high quality of living.

Built on the legacies of the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia, Adelaide University aims to deliver Australia’s most accessible, contemporary, and future-focused curriculum, with a strong digital underpinning. On inception, Adelaide University will serve 70,000 students annually and contribute AUD $4.7 billion a year to the Australian economy. Established under legislation in March 2024, momentum built to bring the vision for the new university to life through a thoughtful co-creation transition planning process.

For the hundreds of thousands of international students who study in Australia each year and must also make visa and travel arrangements, planning for university starts as much as 18 months in advance. As a result, the Adelaide University website was one of the critical elements needed as soon as possible to introduce the new university to the world, attract bright minds, and open the pipeline for student applications.

Adelaide University partnered with Deloitte Digital to efficiently bring together best practices from the two legacy institutions across systems, platforms, technologies, people, and processes. Stakeholders from the two existing universities joined forces with Deloitte Digital and co-located to establish a clear vision and go-to-market plan. Bringing together the right expertise from both universities would be key to meeting deadlines and achieving goals.

Andrew Mazzarolo, Emily Primavera, and Ryan Bailey are just three of the individuals who came together on the centralised and broad project. This includes bringing together IT and systems, digital experience, customer experience and marketing, and content, assets, and design.

“We’re in a fortunate position to have two really strong teams working together to optimise all our existing systems, marketing, and digital capabilities — and figure out what to do differently to create outstanding experiences on our new website,” says Primavera, Senior Project Manager, Digital Marketing and Customer Experience.

With the website launch set for July 2024 to introduce Adelaide University to the world and start accepting international applications, the clock was ticking.

Making strong first impressions with personalised engagement

The work with Deloitte Digital kicked off with discovery sessions to understand how the individual universities operated and decide on the digital experience technology to meet the market leadership ambitions for Adelaide University. After joint ideation and strategy workshops with teams spanning IT, marketing, curriculum development, and more, the university selected Adobe Experience Cloud as an ideal foundation to deliver future-focused digital experiences that set Adelaide University apart.

“Adelaide University felt it was critical to create foundations which would allow them to go on and build something truly market leading, which is why our solution encompasses the very best of Adobe technology, providing native inter-connectivity between content, creative, data, and personalisation, ensuring that user experience is at the core,” says Mason Davies, Partner, Deloitte Digital.

Starting with the website, the team delivered on a tight timeline thanks to the robust out-of-the box capabilities and flexibility of Adobe Experience Manager Sites. The team used content fragments and experience fragments to simplify preparation of content for re-use in multiple locations. Primavera appreciated having capabilities to support Adelaide University now and into the future, including the ability to integrate with other systems, set up student and staff portals, and allow different parts of the university to look and feel slightly different, while staying connected with the same brand and experience.

“Ours is a bold vision to compete among the top 1% of global universities. We need to establish our leadership in providing stellar experiences from the very first time a prospective student visits our website to find out more about the university,” says Primavera. “Adobe Experience Cloud applications allow us to curate personalised, consistently branded journeys for students based on their academic interests and for those considering moving here to study from regions across Australia and key markets like India, China, Malaysia, and Vietnam.”

From site concept to go-live in under six months

With support from Deloitte Digital, the team met its website launch deadline early. “I’ve done this for 20 years and it was the smoothest deployment I’ve seen, at the largest scale we’ve ever attempted,” says Mazzarolo, Associate Director, Engagement and Experience Technology. “We were ready to go a week early with all the essential capabilities and functionality.”

The site debuted with 700 pages showcasing easy-to-navigate information on the university’s wide selection of academic offerings, the appeal of Adelaide and South Australia as a place to live and study, and details on how to enquire and apply.

“We launched our site in less than six months, even though we didn’t get to the final branding until June a month prior to launch,” says Mazzarolo. “Since we set up the design system in a smart way with templates, we were able to apply the branding elements quickly across the whole website.”

Bailey, Deputy Director of Marketing and Student Recruitment, credits the teamwork with making the initial launch a success. “There was already really good digital experience expertise in both universities,” he says. “We’re from two different universities but we’re also guided by the same student journey and vision to be an education leader.”

Welcoming students into courses in 2026

When prospective students fill out enquiry forms, integrations between Adobe Experience Manager Forms and the university’s CRM automate digital workflows for a smooth recruitment pipeline. The Adelaide University team will continue to expand and fine-tune its digital presence in the months to come, releasing additional information for prospective students ahead of applications opening for local students in mid-2025.

Looking ahead, Deloitte Digital is continuing to support a more tailored student experience with the integration of Adobe Experience Platform applications to unify all audience data. Data from unified customer profiles in Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform and the ability to report on end-to-end student acquisition journeys using Adobe Customer Journey Analytics will allow Adelaide University to optimise strategies for personalised engagement powered by Adobe Journey Optimizer for email, SMS, and push messages. It will also feed Adobe Target and Experience Manager Sites for website personalisation and Adobe Advertising for tailored messages across paid media.

Adelaide University is setting a new standard for Digital Student Experience. Currently, it is the only Australian university with a website run on Experience Manager as a Cloud Service, accompanied by student data and journeys powered by Adobe Experience Platform.

“With Adobe, we have a strong foundation and roadmap for helping students discover their own path at Adelaide University,” Primavera says.