RMIT University:
Course Marketplace & Club Platform

RMIT University needed to replace fragmented legacy systems with a modern, unified platform for short courses and student clubs. The existing tools were slow, disconnected, and students avoided using them. We built a custom platform from scratch that now handles course discovery, enrolment, payments, merchandise, and club management across multiple departments.

The Challenge

RMIT's short course program was running on disconnected systems. Course information lived on static pages. Enrolment happened via email forms. Payments were processed manually. Student clubs had no digital presence beyond Facebook groups.

The university needed:

• A modern course marketplace with search, filtering, and online enrolment
• Integrated payment processing compliant with university financial policies
• A club management system with merchandise stores, event management, and member tracking
• SSO integration with RMIT's existing identity systems
• A platform that could scale to handle orientation week traffic spikes

What We Built

Short Course Marketplace

A Netflix-style discovery experience for RMIT's short courses and professional development programs. Students can browse by category, search by keyword, view detailed course information, and enrol with payment in a single flow. The back-end gives administrators full control over course creation, pricing, scheduling, and capacity management.

Club Management Platform

An online hub for RMIT's student clubs and societies. Each club gets a customisable storefront for merchandise, event listings with RSVP and ticketing, member management, and financial reporting. Club leaders manage their own content while university administrators maintain oversight.

Unified Dashboard

A single administrative interface where RMIT staff can manage courses, clubs, orders, members, and reporting. Designed for people who aren't developers, with clear navigation, bulk actions, and export capabilities.

Technical Approach

We built the platform on a modern stack designed for longevity and performance:

• Architecture: Full-stack JavaScript with server-side rendering for SEO and performance
• Database: PostgreSQL with optimised queries for complex filtering and search
• Payments: Stripe integration with university-compliant financial reporting
• Auth: SAML SSO integration with RMIT's identity provider
• Hosting: Cloud infrastructure with auto-scaling for traffic spikes
• Admin: Custom CMS built for university staff workflows

"We worked with Tim from Sonder on one of our biggest digital projects to date. Not only was his team professional and friendly, but they were there when we needed them the most."

The Outcome

The platform launched on time and immediately replaced five disconnected systems with a single, modern experience. Student engagement with short courses increased significantly. Club merchandise sales that previously required manual processing now happen automatically. University staff spend less time on admin and more time on what matters.

The platform has since expanded to serve additional departments, and we continue to develop new features based on user feedback and university requirements.

What this means for your university

We've proven this works at one of Australia's largest universities. The platform architecture is designed to be adapted for other institutions, with shared development costs and customised deployments. If you're dealing with similar challenges, we've already solved most of them.