Work carried out under Service Excellence noted that:

• Programme and course data is not being held or maintainable in one golden copy data source;
• There are confusing, inflexible processes and systems which don't encourage compliance or support the variety of programmes currently offered;
• There are inefficient methods of presenting information to both students and prospective students which are confusing and incomplete;
• The systems and processes for producing key recruitment materials are inefficient and has risks for data quality;
• Timelines for the approval of programmes, courses, fees and scholarships are not co-ordinated;
• The University's admissions requirements are not always clearly articulated to prospective students.

The ambition of this project is to deliver:

• Through detailed design, will re-design, simplify and standardise University-wide processes which support the creation and update of programme and course information, both for student and prospective student purposes;
• Improve the consistency, quality and comprehensiveness of recruitment marketing information by maintaining a golden copy that complies with consumer protection law, as outlined by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA);
• Identify technical solutions to support the above processes, to reduce the staff time required to source, edit and publish this material each time it is needed;
• Identify a suitable online interface to provide all the information a student needs to support them in their studies;
• Clarify the roles and responsibilities of staff at each stage in the process through identification of a target operating model, ensuring accountability and ownership;
• Identify training requirements both through business change and future needs;
• Create an implementation plan to deliver the above, identifying if multiple projects are required;
• Deliver a final business for the SA&S sub-programme board for approval.

The benefits to the University will be:

• A standardised process which is clear and well understood across the University, removing doubt about the requirements for approval and giving access to the information required at every stage;
• The ability to track the progress of new programme proposals at any stage, removing doubt about the status of a proposal or what needs to be done to take a proposal to the next phase;
• Clear roles, responsibilities and levels of ownership, ensuring that all role holders are clear about what they are expected to do, and that the process is adhered to by Academic and Professional Services staff across the University;
• Programmes which are clearly aligned to School strategy, avoiding the creation of Programmes which are not financially viable and do not have a place within the School’s plans;
• Improved consideration, support and system provision for non-standard Programmes, to improve data quality for statutory reporting and to avoid existing systems and support provision having to be retrofitted to support non-standard Programmes which have already been approved;
• A single data collection process would enable information for all subject areas, programmes and courses to be collected at the same time, reducing the time that staff currently take to collect this information  and removing duplication of effort;
• Increasing efficiency and effectiveness and removing time-consuming manual and duplicate processes associated with the production of the UG prospectus and PG brochures would release staff to focus on other activities;
• An editorial overview would ensure that key elements of programme information (e.g. entry requirements) are described in suitable detail, are clearly displayed and are presented in a consistent manner. Improving programme descriptions would help to reduce prospective students’ confusion and uncertainty, resulting in reduced prospective student enquiries and improved end user experience.
• Publishing information for offer-holders in a “durable medium” would enable the University to comply with consumer protection law.