In my opinion, the reputation of the further and higher education sector as being ever-evolving is well deserved. Certainly when I joined Brighton Institute of Modern Music (BIMM) five years ago, the college was a very different place with just a few hundred students and one campus rather than over a thousand students and the three campuses that we have today.
Although our growth has been impressive, we, like colleges up and down the country, are often at the mercy of market conditions which these days seem to be ever more competitive. This is given further credence by a recent survey undertaken by Capita Further and Higher Education, which indicated that 65% of respondents felt that the increased competition between universities, due to tuition fees, could risk putting smaller institutions out of business.
To avoid running this risk, us smaller institutions need to be on the ball when it comes to adjusting. While we might not be able to control the outside influences on our shifting sector, we are able to turn our attention inwards, monitoring any and all internal processes to ensure they are flexible enough to cope with the changes, but also to make sure they are working as effectively as possible.
Administration might not be something that comes to top of mind when you think about improving internal processes, but it can have a significant impact on the bottom line. This rings as true for the initial enrolment process, as for course offerings (to attract and retain a good number of high quality students), and for utilising staff and facilities efficiently.
With ubiquitous austerity measures and funding cuts across the sector, no college or university is in a position to invest in technology that doesn’t provide a tangible return on investment.
However, in an effort to respond more effectively, six months ago we at BIMM decided it was time to upgrade our management information system (MIS). We had seen significant growth in the number of students enrolling over the past 10 years, and a shift towards higher education. With further growth predicted, we wanted a more sophisticated system that could develop with us.
We had been using Excel spreadsheets to keep on top of our student data which was a system that worked perfectly well for us when BIMM was founded in 2001. As we grew, however, it became clear that we had reached the limit of what Excel could do.
We needed a way of looking at disparate data all in one place, which would provide us with adequate information to respond to a changing marketplace. With Excel, we had various ‘islands’ of information, extremely difficult to cross-reference with each other but all too easy for inaccuracies to creep in and errors just aren’t acceptable when you have over 300 students sitting exams. It was also a noticeable problem that staff time was being clogged up with getting the necessary information on the system.
At just six months since we upgraded to an MIS, it might still be early days but I’m happy to report that the initial signs of our investment paying off are extremely positive. We have the reliable, accurate, accessible exam and assessment database that we wanted, and tutors are already using it to uncover patterns in learning. Should a student start to fall behind, they will spot it easily and can step in to address the problem before the issue becomes too serious. This will further increase our staff’s ability to get the best out of our students and help to ring-fence our reputation.
Yet, we also have an awful lot more than a database. For example, the time it takes to do our timetabling will now be greatly reduced. Done manually, this has previously taken us two months to do. Using an MIS, we’ll be freeing up a massive slice of time for staff to spend on the students rather than on administration.
Another area of benefit is enrolling students online; currently, it takes staff three weeks to enrol the students. For me, having the capacity to enrol students online is particularly exciting, not just because of the potential time saved, but because if we take this one step further and incorporate an online enquiry system, our ability to understand and meet demand will be greatly improved. Monitoring enquiries will show trends of what are the most popular subjects and, conversely, the least. It can also show us where demand exists that we are not currently fulfilling, perhaps down to class timings, location or staff availability. This will help us stay on top of offering courses that students want to study and keep our classrooms full.
As an award-winning music college taught by top musicians, BIMM might be a unique organisation but we are certainly not alone in wanting to grow, improve and prosper despite the current economic climate and a more competitive sector. It’s my belief that smaller colleges should investigate using a management information system as the rewards greatly outweigh the investment, financially but also in an improved overall student and staff experience. At BIMM, we want to continue to be successful and streamlining our internal processes has been a step in the right direction.
Mark Irwin is head of higher education at Brighton Institute of Modern Music. www.bimm.co.uk
BIMM uses Capita FHE’s UNIT-e management information system.
www.capitafhe.co.uk