Queue-Free Registration Reality For Uni Students

Queue-Free Registration Reality For Auckland Uni Students

PeopleSoft’s student administration system, nDeva sees The University of Auckland enroll students online for the first time

Auckland, June 6, 2001 – This year has proven a success for student enrollment for the University of Auckland, with over 27,000 students registering online for higher education courses. The University’s new web-based PeopleSoft Student Administration system – nDeva, – has seen registration delays eliminated and queue-free enrollment for all students.

The PeopleSoft nDeva system went live in November 2000 as part of the student administration system. The University was already running PeopleSoft Financial and Human Resource Management solutions, so the move to integrate the student administration was the next step in the process to implementing a complete integrated solution across the board, replacing the SEARS system, which the University has operated on for the past six years.

“Implementing nDeva has added to the streamlining of the University’s administrative services,” says Kay Wills, Director of Student Administration for the University. “Aside from the enrollment technology, nDeva allows us to leverage a number of student service systems, simplifying tasks and creating a unified resource of information. Notably, students are set to become significant beneficiaries with the changes, but it is also markedly altering the way the staff operate.”

Since May the University has been in the process of redesigning the web pages, making the system even easier for students to navigate. The recruitment module will be live from July 1st and the advancement module from September 1st. From 2002, the University will also be offering web-based admissions. “We hope to have portal technology in place before the end of this year so that from 2002 all staff and student activities will be 100% web enabled,” says Kay.

The decision to switch to a completely online method of enrolling for 2001 involved a considerable amount of research and evaluation for the University’s administration team.
It could not be done in partial steps, all enrollments had to move online simultaneously. Using both the current system with the new one was not a feasible option. The process began in mid 1999, following the successful implementation of the PeopleSoft Financial and Human Resource Management Solutions.

“We have built our own in-house IT support team for the daily maintenance and procedural operations of nDeva, enabling us to keep costs down and ensure that the team is up to speed on any modifications,” continues Kay. “The PeopleSoft Consulting team are our support crew, and are on site for specific customisation - but such is the structure of the system, its day-to-day running is easily taken care of by the in-house team.”

The University has trained around six hundred staff on nDeva. To ensure that no students were disadvantaged, the University has also set up labs dedicated to enrolment and provides tutors on hand for those requiring assistance.

According to philosophy student Theresa Utah, “It took me about five minutes to complete my entire enrolment completely from home. The site is totally self-explanatory, not difficult at all. Aside from saving hours in time spent standing in lines and the costs involved in traveling to and from campus, I could also access information on any particular classes and their content – which I wouldn’t have been able to do before.” There is also a link to WINZ, so Theresa was able to organise her student loan details at the same time.

With this year’s enrolment a proven successful, the administration staff are now working through the implementation and intensive reconfiguring. “We have undertaken extensive business process changes to accommodate the system,” says Kay. “The structuring and management of degrees has been modified and significant academic changes are continuing. Though nDeva has already fundamentally changed they way in which we manage our student administrative services, there is still manual interfacing and backend work required with the automated processes. However, PeopleSoft 8 is expected to alleviate this, because it is a pure Internet solution, which can easily integrate with other systems.”

The University’s objective for nDeva is for it to become an all-encompassing information resource for students, with recruitment, graduation and advancement modules to be implemented this year.

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