Specialists in academic websites and platforms
When you’re managing an academic platform that serves thousands of students, researchers, and staff, you can’t afford downtime, complexity, or broken search. You need digital tools that are secure, scalable, and satisfyingly simple to use – and a partner that truly understands the educational world inside out.
From academic library websites to research repositories, our digital platforms power mission-critical services with reliability and care. We truly understand the academic cycle – from student recruitment drives and open days to the scramble of UCAS deadlines and clearing. That means we plan for seasonal peaks and troughs in traffic, ensuring your platform performs flawlessly when visibility matters most.
Proud partner of the University of Oxford
We host and maintain one of the best university websites in the UK: the University of Oxford. Our partnership ensures its world-class research and digital presence remains secure, compliant, and accessible to millions of visitors. We made it faster, too: pages that once took more than 10 seconds to load, now appear in less than two.
How we help educational orgs
While we craft and care for digital platforms that let knowledge flow all year round, we’re also well attuned to academic calendars. From admissions and funding seasons to term-time publishing deadlines, we build, maintain, and look after platforms that flex with those demands.
We specialise in:
Scalable digital platforms for universities that stand up to heavy recruitment surges and term-time traffic spikes
Higher education CMS builds that make content teams’ lives easier, not harder
Academic publishing platforms that integrate seamlessly with existing systems and put accessibility first
Research repository software designed for discoverability, compliance, and long-term stability
Membership platforms that give teachers, researchers, and students secure access to resources, communities, and tools
Why academic groups choose Cursive
We’re a small team, but we’ve punched above our weight for almost 20 years – and we’re going nowhere. That’s why universities, public bodies, and educators come to us for specialist platforms, then partner with us to look after them long term.
Here’s why we’re a great partner for academic platforms:
We understand the unique challenges academic website builders and users face: complex content, strict compliance needs, diverse user permissions, and evolving research demands. We speak your language and know how to navigate sector-specific hurdles, delivering solutions that make stretched digital teams jump for joy.
As Wagtail and Django specialists, we craft software designed for security, flexibility, and effortless management, building on what we believe to be the very best CMS for university websites. Whether you need to design research repository features that guide users to vital work, or create accessible academic libraries, we have the deep digital knowledge to make it happen.
Our proactive human-centred digital care is always there: structured, steady, and responsive, designed to keep stress low and site performance high. We stay until the job’s properly done – and then we stay longer, if you want us to. Our robust, intuitive tools grow with your organisation – all supported by a team that cares as much as you do.
Our webcraft has helped institutions share world-changing research faster, engage audiences more effectively, and simplify complex workflows. In addition to hosting the University of Oxford, we also partnered with Oxford Brookes University to launch Hamilton Brookes: a membership platform giving primary school teachers access to curated teaching resources.
Whether you need to simplify a sprawling library, build an academic website from scratch, or transition to an easier CMS for higher education teams, we craft truly bespoke software, sites, and apps. We always start with discovery, digging deep into your priorities – whether that’s juggling high content turnovers or thousands of user permissions. And when digital challenges distract your team, we step in to fix bugs, clear backlogs, and strengthen your existing setup, helping you focus where it matters most.
The best public platforms get out of the way
Our work with leading universities and research organisations has taught us a simple truth: the most impactful academic websites are the ones people barely notice. They just work – whether it’s a recruitment hub gearing up for UCAS deadlines, a library portal supporting thousands of term-time users, or a research repository hosting world-changing publications. Our web platforms make knowledge discoverable in an instant, come ADA-compliant, GDPR-ready, and fully secure – all while allowing content teams to publish with ease.