At the Browzer Buzz 2026 event, the University of Bath shared how they built an epic online community by using student-written content.
The challenge
Louise Sansam (ResLife Marketing, Communications & Events Manager) and Sarah James (Campus Services Marketing & Communications Manager) knew that for ResLife to feel like a community rather than a corporate department, students needed a digital home that actually felt like theirs. Somewhere they could access important and helpful information, enabling them to make the most of their university experience.
How the University of Bath built a meaningful digital community
Building a functional platform was the straightforward part, building a meaningful community was an intentional strategic shift.
The ResLife homepage, powered by Browzer Engage featuring a wide range of student-facing content
Rather than treating the site as a noticeboard for university announcements, Louise & Sarah made a deliberate decision: Prioritise student-written content. Real voices. Real recommendations. Real life at Bath.
In 2023 ResLife began using Browzer Engage, a platform which displays content to students in a highly engaging way, ensuring key messages are delivered in a way students actually engage with. We’re talking fun videos, blogs, recommendations, guides and much more.
Student contributors started writing about the things they actually wanted to read such as going out in Bath, battles of the supermarkets, what to expect when you arrive, what it's like to eat halal on campus, reviews of the new food counters and a manual for making friends.
The kind of content that no comms team could write authentically, no matter how hard they tried.
Make it everyone’s platform
One of the quiet superpowers of the Bath’s approach is that reslife.bath.ac.uk isn’t treated as a central comms channel, it’s a shared resource that teams across the university actively use.
Accommodation teams link to Welcome Guides and key articles in room-offer emails
Front of House teams use QR codes to share useful content with students at the point they need it
Events Team runs fortnightly event drops, with Resident Life Advisors recommending articles
Sustainability, Student Support and Central Marketing all contribute content and help extend its reach
The lesson?
A platform becomes part of student life when it’s embedded into the way teams already support students. When everyone has a stake in the platform, the platform earns its place at the centre of student life.
“If you want students to engage with your platform, let them write it.”
The results
The trajectory tells its own story, arrivals content alone clocked 23,703 sessions which was a whopping 13% of all site traffic in September, and more views than the homepage itself.
But the most telling numbers aren't on the analytics dashboard.
“Very good information about living in halls, welcoming environment and staff.”
In the MEGA event satisfaction scores (a key measure of how ResLife feels to students), the rating climbed from 5.49/10 in Autumn 2022 to 7.61/10 in Autumn 2025.
That's a 38.6% uplift in three years!
The sense of community score has risen from 6.66/10 to 7.40/10 over the same period.
An 11.1% improvement on a measure that's notoriously stubborn to shift.
From blog to backbone
What Bath has built isn't just a website. It's the connective tissue of ResLife.
The place where students go first, where teams collaborate and where the brand finally has somewhere to live that matches its personality.
149,000 users and 288,000 sessions
Average dwell time of 1 minute 40 seconds – well above industry benchmarks
60% direct traffic, 23% organic search, 13% social – a healthy, sustainable traffic mix
Consistently strong engagement scores
Ready to transform student engagement?
