Overview
Background
A university wide policy was brought in during the academic year 2016/17 to recommend that some postgraduate taught degree programmes require a non-refundable tuition fee deposit to be paid by applicants to secure their offer of a place. The policy had been developed to help introduce more consistency of practice across the University when deposits were charged and to also improve prediction and conversion rates. (Link to policy: https://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/spgsc-paper-a-280916.pdf)
The Schools of Informatics and Geosciences have been piloting a deposit scheme since March 2017. However the process of administering the deposit scheme has been more manually time-consuming for the support teams than had been anticipated.
The result of this is a reluctance to roll out the deposit scheme to other schools within the college due to the negative impact this would have on the support team’s workloads.
As a result the IT Liaison Officer for CSCE approached Project Services to request help in identifying ways in which the processes surrounding the deposit scheme could be streamlined through process reengineering, system development or system configuration changes.
Scope
The scope of this project covers analysis of the processes and systems involved in the PGT deposit scheme within the College of Science and Engineering. The focus of this project will be on providing process efficiency recommendations to the College of Science and Engineering, however the project will seek to consult with the other colleges and as a result may provide recommendations that benefit the colleges too.
The project will look only at post graduate degrees and only at the payment of offer based deposits.
Out of Scope
- Implementation of recommendations. A follow project should be initiated for any implementation work.
- Recommendations for improvements to other PGT deposit processes outwith the College of Science and Engineering.
- PGT Application Fees
- Deposit scheme for undergraduate degrees
Objectives and Deliverables
|
No. |
Description |
Priority |
Owner |
|
O1 |
To identify the PGT Deposit process pain issues |
Must |
Project Services |
|
D1.1 |
As-Is process maps/process description |
M |
Project Services |
|
O2 |
To present recommendations for achieving To-Be process |
Must |
Project Services |
| D2.1 | Recommendations report of process improvements | M | Project Services |
|
D2.2 |
To-Be process maps/process description |
S |
Project Services |
|
D2.3 |
Requirements Specification (if system changes are recommended) |
S |
Project Services |
Benefits
Project benefits:
- Identification of options for resolving process pain points including 'quick win' changes
Possible Future benefits (after implementation):
- More efficient process will allow the college to roll out the scheme to all schools. This should, as the policy suggests, help to increase the acceptance rate of PGT offers.
- Simpler user journey for students making PGT deposit payments
- Time based efficiency savings for Admissions Team when managing prospective PGT deposits
- Simpler reconciliation of payments
- Reduction in manual errors
- Improved reporting ability
- Defined process and that could be utilised by other colleges
Success Criteria
|
Deliverable Reference |
Description |
Measure |
|
D1.1 |
As-Is process maps/process description |
Signed off by CSE Recruitment and Admissions |
|
D2.3 |
Requirements Specification |
Signed off by CSE Recruitment and Admissions |
|
D2.2 |
To-Be process maps/process description |
Signed off by CSE Recruitment and Admissions |
|
D2.1 |
Recommendations report of process improvements |
Signed off by Project Sponsor and Student Systems Partnership |
Project Milestones
Target Date |
Previous Date | Title | Stage | Complete | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21-May-2018 | No date available | Approval of Project Brief | Plan | No | |
| 11-Jun-2018 | No date available | Execute | Analyse | No | |
| 25-Jun-2018 | No date available | Deliver | Deliver | No | |
| 02-Jul-2018 | No date available | Project Closure | Close | No |