College boosts efficiency with new student tracking system

A new student tracking unit is being installed at Waltham Forest College to reduce the time it takes to access its database systems by 50 per cent.

Colleges currently can spend up to 80 per cent of their IT funds on keeping database systems running, suggests a recent Becta seminar.

Capita Further and Higher Education won the contract to supply the college with its highly accredited UNIT-e Student Record and Tracking System. The software simplifies the management of student information and allows better access to reports that will aid decision making at the college.

“The software we had been using did not perform as we needed it to. We created a number of databases to ensure we could get to the information we wanted and so it was necessary to have four or five people working to keep these systems updated,” says Martin Moore, director of systems and planning at Waltham Forest College.

“With UNIT-e, all the functions will be available within a single database and we predict that we will reduce the time we spend accessing the information we need by 50 per cent.”

The new system will assist the college’s leadership team to gain further understanding of attendance, performance and enrolement. Through the reports generated, they will also have a clearer view of which courses are under or over performing.

Chris Cooper, director of Capita Further and Higher Education, says: “UNIT-e will simplify the management of many college processes, such as course payments, Education Maintenance Allowance management, student course transfers and reporting on student performance.

“After years of having to work hard to get technology to support their processes, the team at Waltham Forest College will now be able to manage and access the information they need instantly.”