Tessera has successfully completed the design and development of the University of York Campus website, aiming to fully meet the institution’s needs through modern digital tools while delivering an aesthetically polished result.
On the occasion of the official authorization from the Ministry of Education for the establishment of the University of York Europe Campus (CITY U.L.E.) in Greece — a non-state, non-profit Legal Entity of Higher Education (N.P.P.E.) under Law 5094/2024— Tessera has undertaken the implementation of the new website: https://city.yorkeuropecampus.eu/. The authorization was announced by the University of York on September 3, 2025.
CITY, University of York Europe Campus is the official university campus of the University of York (UK) in Southeast Europe. It addresses both Greek and international audiences, showcasing undergraduate and postgraduate studies (BA/MA/MBA/PhD), the academic ecosystem, student life services, and application processes.
CITY approached us in 2024, when the law enabling the establishment of private universities was passed, and requested our collaboration to develop a highly complex website. This would go beyond a simple online presence, incorporating a range of additional functionalities, which we will outline below.
The new University needed to have a modern and respectable online presence that would highlight the offered fields of study, its academic staff, as well as the history and evaluation of the parent institution.
What the client requested was the development of a website that would be fully manageable by its staff at all levels.
It was not enough to simply provide a basic system for posting news and announcements. The database had to be structured in such a way that an administrator could easily:
All of the above needed to be supported in two languages, English and Greek, at least in the initial phase.
Naturally, the website had to display properly (be fully responsive) across mobile devices, tablets, and smartphones.
It also had to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at every point — particularly in every form where visitors would be asked to provide contact information.
And of course, it needed to be attractive and fast!
Finally, it had to be accessible to people with disabilities, meeting the W3C WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility standards.
Tessera responded to CITY’s invitation-challenge and began implementing the project in January 2025.
Initially, we selected the WordPress CMS as the development platform, using the Breakdance Builder along with the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) to design the infrastructure — namely, all the required databases. The client’s requirements were analyzed, and the entities along with their respective fields were created.
The next step was the visual design, developed with reference to the main University of York website and the color palette already used by the institution in its printed materials. Overall, the University of York’s brand guidelines were followed. It is worth noting that the logo was not available at the beginning — we were simply waiting for it. It arrived relatively late, fortunately without any color changes that would have required us to redefine the website’s color scheme.
This was followed by the design of pages for staff, the three schools, the departments, and the courses within each department, along with the interconnection of all these elements with their respective entities.
We also enabled search functionality across the data of each entity.
In parallel, we developed pages for the University’s branches in other countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan).
Towards the end, we were asked to add a new feature: the presentation of the SEERC Research Centre, along with full management capabilities for these pages. This requirement was provided to the client free of charge, as part of our strong working relationship.
Before the final delivery, a series of security, performance, and functionality tests were conducted, as is standard practice for all our projects.
The website was delivered SEO-friendly, GDPR-compliant, and fully accessible to people with disabilities.
Notable design features we implemented include:
The client received a fully developed website with complete management capabilities across all sections, exactly as initially required.
We provided in-depth training to four University staff members who would be responsible for managing the website. User guides and training materials were also delivered. We are now in the maintenance and support phase, where:
The website is hosted in a specialized data center, using a high-performance VPS with a 99.9% SLA.
After three months of operation, we have observed that the website performs reliably even under increased traffic conditions. In early October, it handled over 5,000 unique visitors within a 15-day period without the slightest performance issue.
The client expressed their gratitude extensively for our collaboration.
We received positive feedback such as:
I feel like I’ve received a great gift.
An unexpected gift.
The upgrade is fantastic!
What a gift!
Thank you very much.Tessera has been a trusted partner for over 15 years.
Having built two websites and completed several projects over these years, they have consistently demonstrated professionalism, creativity, and reliability.
Their dedication and expertise make them a long-term, invaluable partner I would recommend without any hesitation.
Thank you Tessera!
We would also like to thank CITY. It was an excellent collaboration, and we hope that the website will make a meaningful contribution to informing and supporting students, as well as academic and administrative staff.
