Irish college sites are non too FAQsual

While Irish colleges and universities are finding their feet in the Internet world, it is worth having a look at how colleges in other countries are coping with new technology.

Harvard University - www.harvard.edu - has a rather austere-looking homepage, which is in keeping with its reputation as a very serious institute of learning. Following the About Harvard link leads to a Frequently Asked Questions section in a couple of clicks. This is something that is very rare on college sites, though eventually the people that run them will realise that a good FAQ section will make their job a whole lot easier.

Split up into sections such as general information, academic programs and historical questions, Harvard's FAQ answers the 40 questions that were most commonly e-mailed to the website. The first question - Where is Harvard University? - was one I used to be asked every day when I worked at a newsagent shop on Harvard Square. (It was always right in front of the asker's eyes). The online guided tour of the sights and sounds of America's oldest university is well worth looking at, as are short movies such as The first year at Harvard - where a student explains how she ended up doing research on mushrooms.

The site is not without its humour. There is an interesting story presented on how Stanford University was founded when Harvard mistakenly turned down the offer of a large endowment from Mr and Mrs Leland Stanford because they were poorly dressed. Harvard dismisses this as an Internet-based urban legend on the perils of arrogance, but the fact that it is addressed at all shows a healthy, irreverent attitude to the new media.

The University of Sydney (www.usyd.edu.au) is rarely referred to as anything other than Sydney Uni in the city itself and this informality extends to how its web presence operates. The homepage has a sketch of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge superimposed on a picture of Sydney's skyline. Beside this is a picture of a college building and another which changes depending on which link you hover over.

The link that immediately catches your eye reads . . . "SWOT (Sydney Welcome Orientation and Transition program)" and contains information on everything a prospective student would need to know, from settling in to university services and sports associations.

There is a very good Frequently Asked Questions section for foreign students and an innovative Information for Parents section which offers a guide to admission and enrolment procedures. You can also download a version of the parents' brochure in PDF format.

Each faculty, from agriculture to veterinary science, has its own separate website prominently linked from the main one. The campus lifestyle section emphasises that "Being a student at Sydney is not just about study. Features of the university include various services, student organisations, and a rich social and sporting life." Bright, sharp and easy to navigate, Australia's oldest university can be proud of its website.

Oxford - www.ox.ac.uk - has a very good history section, as you would expect from the oldest English-speaking university in the world.

The homepage belies the university's stuffy reputation with a very simple design and one-word links divided into For (students, staff, visitors etc) and About (departments, museums, research etc).

The FAQ section opens with "How do I get to Oxford University?" The answer says a lot about how Oxford makes money from day visitors: the answer is not "By studying very hard" but instead deals with trains, cars and taxis. The lesson for Irish college sites from all of these is simple - a prominent FAQ section is a necessity.