When setting up your Community, you have two options: build from scratch or use a ready-made template.
Build from scratch if you want complete flexibility - you can design a Community that reflects your institution’s unique culture, priorities, and student needs. It’s a great choice if you already have a clear vision for how you’d like students to engage - and is still very quick and easy to do.
Use a template if you want to get started quickly with a proven structure. Templates are pre-designed with common use cases in mind (Prospective students, Admitted students, Student success, or Ambassadors), so you can launch your Community in minutes and adjust as you go.
Both approaches put you in control - it just depends whether you’d like to customize from the ground up or start with a strong framework and fine-tune along the way.
Community templates
To try out a Community template, follow these simple steps:
Log into your University Dashboard.
Navigate to the Community tab in the left-hand navigation menu.
Click + Create a new Community.
The below prompt box will appear, with pre-made templates for you to choose from.
Remember, no one can see or find your Community until you invite members. You are free to test different set-ups until you're happy!
If you'd rather build your own tailored Community, just click Skip using a template.
When you click on one of these templates and add a Community name/description, a list of pre-populated Groups will then appear for your Community based on your selection.
These autogenerated Groups can be edited or deleted - so you can adjust Group names to fit your institution, or remove a Group if it's not right for this particular Community.
It's also important to note that you can make edits at any time - to the Community name or description (your students see the description when they join), or to the Group names, tags and descriptions. You can also add and remove Groups whenever you like, even after the Community is live.
For a video walkthrough of how to create a Community using a template, see the Loom video below:
Create a Community from scratch
It's really just as easy to skip using a template and create your Community from scratch. Many of our University partners choose to do this so that they can put together a space which truly reflects the nuances of their institution.
To do this, simply:
Log into your University Dashboard.
Navigate to the Community tab in the left-hand navigation menu.
Click + Create a new Community.
The below prompt box will appear. Click Skip using a template.
You will see a box asking you to give your Community a name, and a description. A name might reflect your intake and who the Community is for - i.e. University of {Name} Offer Holders 2026. Your description is visible to invited students when they join. Keep it concise, and set expectations.
Navigate to the Groups tab, and click Create New Group to add in your first Group.
You will be prompted to add in a name, description, and choose relevant tags (as many as are relevant) and click Create Group.
You can add as many groups as you like - we'd recommend adding at least 8-10 to get started with - covering a space for students to ask questions, a general chat group, a group for accommodation/housing, groups for departments or faculties, hobby and interest groups, and anything else you'd like to provide for incoming students!
You can always make changes, too - there are edit and delete icons next to each group in your University Dashboard - and many of our partners find it helpful to build as they go - starting with core groups, and adding additional spaces as they see fit, as well as approving student-requested groups.