LEAPS pre-application enquiry database

Proposal Sponsor:

Rebecca Gaukroger Director, SRA

Overview

Student Recruitment & Admissions (SRA) currently hosts a Filemaker database on a staff member’s desktop PC, which is accessed by undergraduate admissions staff in all three Colleges to review and respond to pre-application enquiries (PAEs) from the Lothians Equal Access Programme for Schools (LEAPS). The LEAPS PAE database underpins the recognition of LEAPS applicants in the admissions process, and aspiration-raising amongst this key widening participation group.

This University-managed database is distinct from the LEAPS-owned database, which is out of scope of this proposal.

The LEAPS PAE database needs to be migrated to a University server in order to manage risks regarding the effective operation of the process, data protection and appropriate data retention.

Other contributors:

Kathleen Hood, Lesley Stokes

Why is it needed/What are the benefits?:

Hosting the database on a University server will minimise risks and increase reliability, enabling admissions staff in Schools access to relevant information when they need it.

Complying with data protection legislation. Enabling only those who need access to this sensitive data to be able to access it.

Fit with University Strategy

Themes: Equality & widening participation

Widening Participation is of strategic importance to the University. The University’s relationship with LEAPS and the progression of LEAPS students to the University is a key element of our widening participation strategy.

What would happen if the project did not take place?

The LEAPS PAE database contains sensitive personal information regarding individuals who are not yet students or applicants.

Currently, connection to the database is unreliable. This unreliability undermines the process operated by SRA and the College admissions offices, and the service to prospective WP students. It also poses risks in terms of data protection and longer-term data retention. If the project does not happen, these risks will continue to exist and may become more likely to occur as the desktop PC will likely need to be upgraded to remain compliant with supported infrastructure.

No backup currently confirmed; possibly backed up to departmental drive so risk that data could be lost will remain.

Who does it affect?

The change will affect SRA and the undergraduate admissions offices in 21 Schools.

Procurement activity required?

Possibly, there is potential to use an existing SITS module (enquiries), or this could be built in-house.

BI/MI requirement?

There will be no need to report via BIS, though data outputs will be required.

Additional Information

The LEAPS PAE database is used to store and share information about over 1,000 LEAPS students each year. Pre-applications enquiries are received and processed between August and November.

Compliance justification

Meet external legislative requirement

Address obsolescence of technology component

Maintain critical university business system AND no practical workaround available

Further detaills why this should be considered compliance:

Data Protection: the database holds sensitive personal information about individuals.
The hosting of the database in Filemaker on a local desktop PC is not sustainable.
The current hosting arrangements can be considered to be a workaround, though they are impractical and the risk of something going wrong is increasing as the desktop running the workaround is likely to need to be upgraded to remain within the supported infrastructure.

Scoring is not included as this is a compliance project.

Planning Status:

Fully Allocated

Programme Priority:

Portfolio Priority:

Planned Start:

15/16

Multi-Year:

Project Owner:

USG

Procurement > £50K:

Funding Source:

Core Grant

IS Admin Tab

Estimation Reference:

Concerns

Concern re access, security, data retention, data protection. The current system is considered to be end of life, and is no longer scalable.

Is this based on an Access FileMaker database?

Yes

What do the application & database currently do? i.e. what are the main functions?

The people who use it love it as it’s relatively simple, as they can set up letters and run reports easily.

It gets data from LEAPS regarding prospective students and why they would be eligible, and this is put into filemaker. Admissions officers in Schools then look at the information, write their comments, and then prepare a letter to say whether the School is likely / unlikely to be able to make an offer to the prospective applicant. SRA then relay the information back to LEAPS so they can tell the student the likelihood. This means students who might not apply to us otherwise are more encouraged to apply. It is also used for monitoring to check against EUCLID record for LEAPS tagging.

Is it possible to move this to supported infrastructure as-is (i.e. with NO changes to the application)?

Not without significant effort.

Would this need to be rebuilt from scratch as a separate application?

Yes, likely. Or there is potential to use new module in EUCLID. This estimate assumes that it would need to be rebuilt from scratch, but use of the enquiries module in EUCLID may be appropriate.

Is it possible to have in EUCLID?

SITS does have an enquiry module, but that’s not been rolled out. Different table from applicant, so could convert into a student.

Would changes to the existing application need to be made in relation to data retention?

Yes, there would need to be housekeeping to remove old files.

Is this redevelopment?

Likely – considerations would be peak load, stability, availability, security of the data.

Estimation confidence

Not very confident ( a lot of uncertainties)

Link to Proposal Suggestion Document

LEAPS PAE Database Replacement

Estimated IS Apps Days:

Large

Estimated Business Partner Days:

Medium