WordPress site Terms and conditions - free option

The University of Exeter offers WordPress to university staff and research students, enabling them to set up their own simple website or blog relating to their work or study at the university. This is not a service to set up personal websites.

There is a standard University template with options to customise, to enable users to easily build and manage their own websites or blogs.

Who may apply for a WordPress site

Any member of University of Exeter staff, or any University of Exeter postgraduate research student, can request a WordPress site. Undergraduate and postgraduate taught students at the University of Exeter may not request their own site, although they may be given access to edit an existing site by the relevant site owner

This is not a blogging service for personal usage. Blogging for individuals can be found at commercial sites such as www.wordpress.com. This activity is not managed or supported by the university.

Once a site is approved, the applicant will take on the role of ‘site owner’ or may nominate a colleague to this role. Site owners are responsible for all the content published by them and other contributors to the site as set out below:

Site owners understand and agree that

1. Exeter WordPress sites are publicly available and searchable by all Internet users, internal and external. Content must be kept up to date: the University reserves the right to remove sites that sit dormant for six months or more or if a site doesn’t meet the policies and requirements that are shown at the bottom of this document. If a site is removed the University will disable a site and maintain a backup of the site for an additional six months before it is removed permanently and cannot be restored from a backup.
2. University of Exeter will set up the initial space and the Digital Team may provide advice but cannot be responsible for setting up the initial site content and updates or troubleshooting issues moving forward.
3. Content must comply with our legal requirements relating to the web, which includes our accessibility policy, GDPR  and copyright.
4. Content must also be related to University research or study and not for personal interests or business
5. Sites on the Exeter WordPress Multisite offering must use the ‘University of Exeter theme’. If non-University-of-Exeter branding is required, please see Single site options.
6. Sites on the Exeter WordPress Multisite offering will have the URL, sites.exeter.ac.uk/site name. If a bespoke/different URL is required, please see Single site options.
7. Site owners are responsible for the moderation of comments posted on their site content. See Social Media Guidance.
8. Site owners comply with policies listed under ‘Policies and regulation’ below. The University reserves the right to take down any content that it deems to have breached University policies and any misuse of this service may be referred to HR (Human Resources) under the University’s Disciplinary Procedure;
9. Content that has been sponsored or otherwise paid for by any party external to the University of Exeter is not permitted on sites within the Exeter WordPress Multisite offering.
10. Serious and / or persistent violation of these Terms and Conditions of Use may result in the University taking appropriate action. This may include sharing information as required by law or permitted under the Data Protection Act 2018.
11. A site posting which is in breach of these Terms and Conditions of Use may lead to the University removing the site.

Policies and regulations

All content published on Exeter WordPress Multisite sites must comply with the following relevant University policies:

• Social Media Policy and Social Media Guidance
• EDI and related policies.
• Code of conduct for staff
• Information Security Policy
• Accessibility Policy

February 2023. The Digital Team reserve the right to make changes to this page at any time.