What Students Expect from a Digital University

Today’s prospective student has managed all their affairs by phone their whole life: bank transfers, purchases, medical appointments, food orders. At university they expect the same standard — matters handled immediately, in one place, with clear status updates. And they treat this as the norm, not a bonus.

This article sets out what students genuinely expect from a digital university and why the gap between that expectation and reality strikes directly at recruitment and reputation.

The Reference Point Has Moved Beyond the University

Students do not compare the dean’s office with the dean’s office of a decade ago. They compare it with their banking app and with the mObywatel platform — services where matters progress automatically and users receive confirmations and status updates without needing to call. This is the generation of digital natives. An email chain going round in circles and being redirected to a service window reads to them as a signal that the institution has been left behind.

On one of these expectations there is no longer any debate. Students widely use AI: a February 2025 study by HEPI and Kortext found that 92% of students use generative AI tools, and an international “PLOS One” study of 23,000 respondents from 109 countries confirmed that ChatGPT has become a daily learning tool. A student who gets an instant answer every day expects the same fluency from their own university.

Five Expectations That Recur Most Often

Distilling dispersed needs to a common denominator, students expect a few concrete things from a digital university.

• Instant service, no queues. A request submitted digitally and carried through to completion, without transcribing data and being passed between windows.
• A single communication channel. Instead of email, notices and phone calls — one place where it is clear what is happening with a matter.
• Transparency and status updates. Automatic confirmations and deadline reminders; certainty that nothing has slipped through the cracks.
• On-demand answers. Explanations from course materials when they are needed, not once a week at office hours.
• Flexibility without a quality penalty. Remote participation that is genuine participation, not a lesser version of the class.

The common denominator is straightforward — the student wants to know what will be done, when, and by whom.

Accessibility Is Not a Niche — It Is Everyone’s Expectation

Digital accessibility deserves a separate mention, because it tends to be pushed into the category of a niche concern. Unjustly. An accessible interface (WCAG) serves students with disabilities; it also raises quality for everyone — readability, simplicity, usability on a phone. It is also a legal obligation for public universities, and the current state falls far short of the ideal — an audit of 309 universities found that half of public university websites have serious accessibility errors. For students, a poorly designed interface is an everyday barrier, not a minor detail.

Why This Determines Recruitment Outcomes

The digital experience is not a soft add-on to the offer; it is part of the product the university sells to applicants. And the market has just tightened. In the 2025/2026 academic year approximately 450,000 students were admitted to first-year programmes — 12,000 fewer than the year before — and the proportion of 20–24-year-olds entering higher education dropped from around 60% in 2019/2020 to around 53%. This means the applicant pool is shrinking, the number of secondary school leavers is falling, and alternative career paths (immediate employment, courses, working abroad) genuinely compete with a degree for the same individual. Universities therefore have to compete for students. Smooth digital services act as an advantage in that competition; cumbersome ones act as a deterrent that applicants talk about among themselves.

This expectation hits hardest at three touchpoints: handling administrative matters, access to information, and the format of classes. Each can be met digitally today — we show how in articles on AI in the dean’s office and on hybrid classes on equal terms.

How MenToR Responds to Student Expectations

The MenToR platform was built around precisely these expectations. The DEAN module provides instant matter handling, a single communication channel and automatic status updates. The LUMEN module gives students on-demand explanations from course materials. The FORUM module ensures that remote participation is on a par with on-campus attendance. All of this with an accessible interface (WCAG) and data processed exclusively in the EU.

If you want the first interaction a prospective student has with your university to work in your favour rather than against it, let us start with a brief conversation about student journeys at your institution.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do students expect from a digital university? Above all: instant service with no queues, a single communication channel, clear status updates and confirmations, on-demand answers, and the flexibility to participate remotely without loss of quality. Their reference point is a banking app and the mObywatel platform, not the dean’s office of a decade ago.

Does the digital experience affect the choice of university? Yes. With a declining applicant pool (approximately 450,000 admitted in 2025/2026, 12,000 fewer than the year before), smooth digital services are becoming a recruitment advantage, while cumbersome ones act as a deterrent. A student’s first contact with the dean’s office is often their first test of how the university treats its students.

Do students use artificial intelligence in their studies? Widely. The HEPI and Kortext study of 2025 found that 92% of students use generative AI tools, and the international “PLOS One” study confirmed that ChatGPT has become a daily learning tool. Students expect a similar level of fluency from the university’s services.

What is digital accessibility (WCAG) and why does it matter? It is the conformance of interfaces and materials with accessibility guidelines, which is mandatory for public universities. It serves students with disabilities and at the same time improves readability and convenience for everyone. Half of public university websites have serious errors in this area, so there is significant room for improvement.