One of the UK’s youngest universities, The Solent had grown from a small Institute of Higher Education, established in 1989, into a fully-fledged university in 2005.  Despite its rapid growth since the 1980s the university has retained its student focus in all its activities.

However, with this growth the university also retained the student enrolment process it had used in its earliest days.

Problems

• Student enrolment had become
  • Costly
  • Lengthy
  • Resource intensive
  • Replete with errors
• Accessing data over multiple campuses spread over a large area
• Interoperability with various IT systems

Results

• Some 98% online enrolment
• Annual savings of £70,000
• More accurate and up-to-date data
• Stakeholder access to student data across all university sites
• Improved staff and student satisfaction

The Issues Faced

Student enrolment had become unwieldy for Solent University’s 17,000 students.  Manual enrolment was a lengthy process and an immense drain on the university’s staff, resources and funds.  The University found that manual enrolment produced frequent data errors which themselves were costly and time consuming to correct.  Add to this the £70,000 it cost each year and it is apparent that the enrolment process was not value for money.

While collecting this data was itself a challenge the university also found it difficult to manage this data across multiple campuses and different IT infrastructures.

The university needed an online enrolment system that was swift, worked with its current IT systems and was accessible to staff across different sites.  For staff and students this new system needed to be user-friendly, efficient, and most importantly accurate and trustworthy.

The Solution

Solent University turned to Campus_Interact, CampusIT’s online student experience management platform, to improve their student enrolment system.  As Campus_Interact integrates into the existing digital and IT infrastructures it offers staff and universities a familiar interface with powerful new features.  This mean that once a student updates their records the information is available across the institution’s various sites and systems.

In addition, Solent University adopted the CampusInteract Process Studio which allows staff to change workflows, add business rules, incorporate services without the need for programming or IT knowledge.  As a consequence staff now have complete data control and can customise the enrolment process for every courses, campus and student type.

Outcomes

With CampusIT’s solutions Solent University now enrols 98% of its students online using a comprehensive system which manages students’ personal information, accepts fees, and is automated.

“We know that online enrolment is just the starting point for us. Our vision of excelling at the student experience is an on-going journey. What we get with CampusInteract is the roadmap for that journey.”

With Campus_Interact students now have complete control over their own data: enrolment is now smoother, more efficient, and less of a strain on the university’s resources.  By allowing students to input their own data the university can be assured information is up-to-date and accurate.

By taking the enrolment process online the university’s staff can now concentrate on core tasks while the university saves over £70,000 each year.  But the benefits for Solent University are not only financial, staff and students’ satisfaction has increased and the University’s student data is more accurate and usable.