SharePoint for student recruitment. A new approach for student applicants

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1 SharePoint for student recruitment Background In 2007 the University of Essex embarked on designing and implementing an electronic document and records management system to replace their paper based document records management processes. A two year SharePoint project was initiated, beginning with an examination of how to store and use the University s central student files. The Information Systems Services team and the Registry worked together to draw documents from the University s in house system for editing and updating files and other sources into a single student file (the Electronic Student File hosted in SharePoint 2007). The purpose of the project was to reduce the need for physical storage space and to reduce the resource required for filing new student files and ongoing filing of documents. Electronic files are less likely to be mislaid of misfiled and offer improved access, as well as improved security. The workflow functions were expected to speed up some processes and certainly allow students to track progress of their requests, improving their experience of Registry. Their next step with the Electronic Student File was to create an at a glance screen tailored to each Registry staff member s requirements. The project s SharePoint developer then implemented workflows which manages registry processes from initiation to completion. More recently students have been given access to the workflows, allowing them to initiate requests, such as changing their programme of study or asking for a dissertation extension, and then tracking the progress of their request online. A new approach for student applicants The project team then considered how SharePoint could be used to enhance the student application process for undergraduate courses. They immediately identified that SharePoint workflows would be useful for monitoring academic selectors approval of applications, interview outcomes and disability needs assessment. There was an opportunity for significant savings in staff time and for a reduction in the movement (and potential loss) of paper files. These benefits were realised to an unexpectedly positive degree in that during the first year of operation undergraduate admissions managers estimated that they were able to cope with a 40% increase in applications, with no additional staff resource almost entirely because of the electronic management of applicant files. After the implementation of electronic applicant files for undergraduates, the University of Essex turned its attention to postgraduate applications (a more complex undertaking because applications are made directly to the institution, rather than handled by UCAS). 1

2 The School of Health and Human Sciences was chosen as a pilot because of two factors: its admissions system for postgraduate taught courses was still paper based, and their application process demanded more information from potential students than standard applications. Applicants for the courses in the pilot would be funded by the National Health Service, and be employed by it, so more data was required at the application stage (such as nursing pre-registration qualification certificates, permit to work in the UK and statutory checks for those working with working with children and vulnerable adults). Postgraduate electronic application files from pull to push That year long pilot has since transformed the institution s approach to handling incoming online applications for postgraduate taught and postgraduate research study. Sharon says, Both postgraduate taught and postgraduate research applications used to come in through a straight forward ASP web form hosted on our website. Because we couldn t 100% trust the quality of the data being inputted by users, and because we had a one size fits all application form, with no inbuilt intelligence to ask different questions for different applicant types, we couldn t risk the data going straight into our postgraduate admissions database. Instead, the web form data would go into separate holding tables in the database, separate from the active ones. Then the applications would wait until a member of staff could check the incoming application, before it was approved for import into our main admissions database. You can understand that, although this process wasn t as slow as manually entering the data from scratch, it was still both time consuming, prone to human error and relied on pull technology nothing happened until a member of staff pulled the data out of its holding location and processed it, she explains. Additionally, applicants had to separately submit their supporting documents, either via or by post, which then had to be paired manually to the right Electronic Applicant File and uploaded (and sometimes scanned first, in the case of paper supporting documents). The University s application forms for postgraduate study have been completely recoded in ASP. Net to carry the intelligence to ask the right questions and ignore others, depending on the type of application (course or subject applied for) and type of applicant (home/eu/overseas). It also allows applicants to upload supporting documents online, which are then tagged with appropriate metadata (such as postgraduate application number) and automatically transferred into SharePoint to be viewed in the Electronic Applicant File. As part of this process a validation script is run to ensure that only clean data gets through to the University. That data is then automatically pushed into the institution s postgraduate admissions database, with no human intervention required, ready to be assessed for selection via SharePoint and its associated workflows. 2

3 Why SharePoint? The University of Essex makes extensive use of Microsoft technologies. We needed a solution that would integrate with Microsoft products, such as Outlook, Office and Exchange, and be familiar to our users. We also wanted software with longevity, with a reasonable guarantee that it was going to be supported for a long time. It was also important to have a solution which was configurable and which could be programmed against using in house programming expertise (we have ASP.NET C# trained developers). There was flexibility in our choice of system too as we have an in house designed and maintained student records system, not a purchased piece of third party software. We had previously implemented an eportfolio system for the University using SharePoint, hence the software was a familiar platform to us. Lastly, with SharePoint, it is possible to create InfoPath forms and to tie those to workflow. This is an essential part of supporting the University of Essex s Electronic Applicant File and Electronic Student File processes. Working with international agents Despite having a relatively small international office, by the start of the 2011 academic year, the institution had over 3,000 registered overseas students, which represented almost 25% of its total student population. Of these new entrants, nearly a quarter had submitted their applications through one of the institution s contracted agents. The majority of those applications was received either via or fax and needed to be keyed into the admissions database manually. (There was a brief trial of a third party purchased piece of software for agents to submit applications via, but that would not integrate with the University s admissions databases, so still required data to be replicated). Therefore, in the interests of leaner business processes, better data quality and faster turnaround times, the Agent Online Services project was commissioned. In 2011, phase one of the Agent Online Services project was able to give all of the University of Essex s contracted agents access to information on their client s applications in the institution s postgraduate admissions database system (with a modified view and via managed accounts), via SharePoint. The agent accounts allow agents to view their list of current applicants to see how their application is progressing. Agents can drill down into individual applicant files in more detail to search the entire applicant history and download their offer letters and CAS documents. This has proved a useful way for agents to stay informed regarding the status of any application, compared with the previous practice of ing or telephoning for updates. Feedback has been largely positive although agents from regions with poorer internet connections have reported that Agent Online Services has been slow. In the Summer of 2012, following a small pilot, a second phase of the project went live, giving all of the University of Essex s contracted agents the ability to create, edit and submit online applications on behalf of their applicants, as well as uploading supporting documents, all via a brand new website which seamlessly integrates with the SharePoint site. 3

4 There have been significant savings in staff time for the international office and the data quality has also improved. You can imagine the amount of time that had to be spent manually inputting information from application forms and, with foreign names of course there is a greater risk that naming conventions can be confused as well as a higher risk of mistyped names, says Sharon. Business intelligence The University has also developed a set of student recruitment reporting tools, as part of a wider suite of business and information dashboards created for the university. Reports are run each day and are also available as PDFs, meaning that faculties and departments can now keep track of recruitment more easily and use the data to inform resource allocation decisions. Lessons learned Our SharePoint Services are currently still running in SharePoint We are presently undertaking a slow migration process, using external contractors, to upgrade the service to SharePoint The need to migrate has revealed less than best practice in our SharePoint architecture, data storage, risk management, backups and coding conventions. These mistakes were made due to both inexperience and the relative newness of SharePoint when we first started using it. The migration is giving us the opportunity to tackle those issues. Future plans Phase three of the Agent Online Services will focus on using SharePoint to deliver enhanced services for International Agents, including automated reports and invoice generation online. A new project is also well underway to use SharePoint for a marketing and student recruitment activities reporting system. This will be a dashboard environment of student recruitment activity, correlating activity with enquiry and application data and enabling more effective activity planning. In 2014, the University will be starting development on electronic case files. This will enable the Student Support Office to handle business processes related to advice (on funding, immigration, community and general welfare), disability and injury support, needs assessment, and wellbeing appointments (counselling and mental health) electronically. Moving to SharePoint and electronic document storage has made us more efficient as institution. But more than that, I think my colleagues have welcomed the transparency it has brought to the work of the University, says Sharon. 4

5 Investment and ongoing support SharePoint environment (virtual servers, storage space, backup systems, software licences) Office Web Apps environment (virtual server, software licence) Hardware and software for scanning documents Investment in external training courses for key staff Current support levels include a business analyst, a business development manager, a database administrator and two in house SharePoint developers An external SharePoint consultant company is used to provide some additional ongoing support, as well as undertaking work on the migration from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint