The University of Westminster and software company, Haplo, have collaborated to produce an innovative system to support Graduate Schools which is now known as PhD Manager and available to other institutions.

Lindsay Wright from the University of Westminster and Jennifer Summers from Haplo presented the project at the UKCGE 2016 Conference in Liverpool.

Like many institutions, the University of Westminster has established a Graduate School to improve support for their growing Doctoral Research community. The University approached London-based software company, Haplo, to create a better system to support the new Graduate School than the existing mix of Student Record System, spreadsheets, and hard-copy applications.

Jennifer Summers led the design of the new system from Haplo, ​“Working closely with the Graduate School Registry, we realised the key to a successful system was good quality data. Every design decision was aimed at improving data quality from enabling access by everyone involved, online applications and assessments, providing a multitude of dashboards and reports, and regular prompts to users to check and confirm the accuracy of records.”

Lindsay Wright from the University of Westminster Graduate School Registry commented, ​“Introducing PhD Manager has had a dramatic impact on the Graduate School at Westminster. We have moved away from a reactive system to a proactive one, and we are now able to spend our time on reporting, monitoring and improving the student experience. It has helped increase the speed with which problems are resolved; provided better insight into a wide range of Graduate School functions; and makes it easier for us to support mobile and dispersed supervisory teams and Doctoral Researchers as it is accessible from anywhere.”

Tips for institutions implementing a new system

• Implementing an electronic system is a significant undertaking. You need to ensure that you put enough time aside to develop and launch the system.
• Use the opportunity to review your regulations and processes before implementing the system. However, be aware that implementing the system will change the way you work as you’ll have greater visibility of your processes and more easily be able to spot areas for improvement.
• Review the quality and completeness of your data before deployment so you can benefit from the new system as soon as it’s launched.
• Build positive engagement. Involve Doctoral Coordinators, interested supervisors, and Doctoral Researchers in the development of the system right from the start of the project.
• Regular communication to everyone involved is critical to a successful deployment. Send regular emails, hold drop-in sessions and create user guides, to reduce barriers to adoption across the University.

PhD Manager are sponsors of the UKCGE Graduate School Managers Network. 

Links

University of Westminster 

PhD Manager

UKCGE Graduate School Managers Network

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