Scandinavian Higher Education Website Experience 2023

Monsido analyzed the primary websites of the top Scandinavian universities to determine their optimization and accessibility.

The following are the top performers in the areas of Digital Accessibility, Content Quality Assurance, Response Time, Performance, and SEO.

Illustration of laptop, books, and a man holding the Danish flag

Top 5 Websites Overall

In the Overall category, we highlight the best Scandinavian Higher Education websites in terms of SEO, response time, performance, and accessibility. A high overall ranking was achieved by these websites in 2023. Keep up the good work! Congratulations!

*Overall Ranking is based on the average (weighted) ranking across all categories.
Overall Ranking* University Name
1st Design School Kolding (Designskolen Kolding) (DK)
2nd The Royal Danish Academy of Music (DK)
3rd Royal Institute of Technology (SE)
4th Linköping University (SE)
5th Copenhagen Business School (DK)

Top 5 Websites for Web Accessibility

17% of the Scandinavian population live with some sort of disability. Digital accessibility is vital to many of them. Your website should be accessible to everyone, regardless of age, level of digital competency, or disability. This is especially true for students, employees, and their families.

Monsido scans websites for accessibility issues. Recommendations for fixing these problems are also provided along with an overview of how well your website is performing.

We advise achieving an accessibility compliance score of at least 70% for organisations using the Monsido platform in order to demonstrate progress towards compliance. The average score for this report of Scandinavian Higher Education websites was 70.85%.

These 5 Top Universities in the report scored highest for Digital Accessibility in 2023.
*Based on the number of WCAG 2.1 A & AA checks passed on the Monsido platform in a 500-page scan.
Ranking University Name Accessibility Compliance*
1st Chalmers University of Technology (SE) 76.72%
2nd Aalborg University (DK) 75.91%
3rd University of Stavanger (NO) 74.37%
4th Royal Danish Academy of Music (DK) 73.62%
5th IT University of Copenhagen (DK) 73.15%

Top 5 Websites for Content Quality Assurance

The Content Quality Assurance module looks for misspellings, broken links, broken images, and readability issues. By taking on Quality Assurance, you can decrease bounce rates, increase conversions, and improve your SEO, helping (future) students more easily find the information they need about their university or education program.

The websites of Universities in Scandinavia received a 65.83% average rating. The Universities listed below deserve special praise for raising the bar for Content Quality Assurance.

*Based on the number of pages without broken links, broken images, and misspellings.
Ranking University Name Content Quality Assurance*
1st Örebro University (SE) 98.4%
2nd BI Norwegian Business School (NO) 96%
3rd Roskilde University (DK) 95.4%
4th University of Stavanger (SE) 95.2%
5th Copenhagen University (DK) 94%

Top 5 Websites for SEO

On-page SEO still plays a significant role in search engine rankings. Common errors like missing H1 tags, broken links and too many internal links on a page can harm your rankings and visitor experience.

The average SEO score for the websites of the Scandinavian higher education websites was 80.31. We praise the following universities for being leaders in the SEO category.

*Based on the number of pages that are compliant with all Monsido SEO checks.
Ranking University Name SEO Compliance*
1st Oslo & Akershus University College (NO) 96.48%
2nd Karolinska Institute (SE) 93.49%
3rd Umea University (SE) 91.87%
4th Royal Institute of Technology (SE) 91.42%
5th Chalmers University of Technology (SE) 91.39%

Top 5 Websites for Response Time

In addition to improving user experience, having a quick-loading website is important for SEO because Google uses it as a ranking factor. With Monsido's Heartbeat module, you can keep an eye on how well your website is performing to guarantee a positive user experience for your visitors and prevent any potential member annoyance.

The Scandinavian higher education websites had an average response time of 417 ms. Your score must be under 200 ms for you to be considered an excellent performer. The top five Scandinavian high education institutions should be pleased with their exceptional response time results.

*Average response time is based on average response time (ms) over a one week period in Monsido’s Heartbeat module.
Ranking University Name Average response time (ms)*
1st Design School Kolding (DK) 99 ms
2nd Royal Danish Academy of Music (DK) 101 ms
3rd Copenhagen Business School (DK) 158 ms
4th Karolinska Institute (SE) 167 ms
5th University of Stavanger (SE) 172 ms

Top 5 Websites for Performance Score

Getting a pulse check on the overall website performance score (0–100) based on Google LightHouse and Core Web Vitals provides a comprehensive view of how visitor location, network speed, and device affect your site's performance.

The average desktop performance rating for this benchmark report was 53.48. We suggest you aim for a score between 90 and 100. Below is a list of the top five Scandinavian higher education websites based on this report.

Ranking University Name Performance score (0-100)
1st Umea University (SE) 91
2nd Uppsala Universitet (SE) 89
3rd Royal Institute of Technology (SE) 83
4th Örebro University (SE) 82
5th Design School Kolding (DK) 75

All Scandinavian Higher Education Websites We Tested in This Report

We looked at the websites of 30 Top Higher Education websites in Sweden, Denmark and Norway for 2.5 weeks at the end of February 2023.

If you can’t find your university name and are curious about what your website score will look like - scan your website here.

Are you on the list and would you like to receive your in-depth results on all parts of your website?

Let's get in touch and discuss your results!

  • Umea University
  • Uppsala Universitet
  • Royal Institute of Technology
  • Örebro University
  • Design School Kolding (Designskolen Kolding)
  • Linköping University
  • Oslo and Akershus University College
  • Havforskningsinstituttet
  • Swedish University of Agricultural Science
  • Karolinska Institute
  • Lund Universitet
  • Norges Idrettshøgskole
  • The Royal Danish Academy of Music
  • Technical University Of Denmark (DTU)
  • The University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway
  • Copenhagen Business School
  • The University of Bergen
  • Chalmers University of Technology
  • BI Norwegian Business School
  • Stockholm University
  • University of Southern Denmark
  • Western Norway University
  • Copenhagen University
  • Aarhus University
  • Gothenburg University
  • Roskilde University
  • Aalborg University
  • The University of Oslo
  • IT University Copenhagen
  • University of Stavanger
  • Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
  • The Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Not on the list at all? We work with 1000s of organizations across many different sectors. We’d love the opportunity to scan your website and see how Monsido could help your organisation. Book a demo with us!

See How Your Website Scored in 2023

See your website's scan results and how your legal firm performed in this report.

We can also scan your internal user portal if you need to understand its performance.

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How the rankings work

Monsido:

  • Scanned a sample of 500 pages from the main publicly facing websites of 30 top Higher Education websites in Denmark, Sweden and Norway using Monsido’s Web Governance software during a two-week period in February 2023.
  • Ranked the top 30 Higher Education websites in Scandinavia based on their scores in Web Accessibility, Content Quality Assurance, SEO, and Response Time.
  • Calculated the Overall champions based on the average (weighted) ranking in all categories, prioritizing Web Accessibility, then Content Quality Assurance, Response Time, and SEO and Performance.

Improve Your Accessibility Rankings

Benefits of improving accessibility:

Increased Audience

By building an accessible website, you open yourself up to a much larger audience as 1/5 of the world’s population is living with a disability that could prevent them from using your site.

Improved SEO

Many web accessibility standards overlap with good SEO practices like ensuring descriptive alt and title attributes, checking for correct HTML, and offering a site map to users.

Enhanced User Experience and Quality Assurance

Accessibility means creating a website which provides a good experience for everyone, so when you ensure a good experience for users with disabilities, you can rest assured that your overall website experience and quality will improve.

Strengthen Brand Image and Reputation

Committing to accessibility is not just good for your users, but shows you take your social responsibility seriously and can benefit your brand. So make sure to promote your accessibility efforts.

Monsido Accessibility Handbook