What SAMIS covers
In this section, we describe in general terms what the SAMIS covers.
At this stage, some of this naturally comes in terms of the project to
implement SAMIS. We mention again the name of the system,
and cover the scope of the system and of the project,
and give a brief outline of the timescale for implementation.
The system and its name
The University has purchased a new "student" system. We are
calling it SAMIS, which stands for Student &
Applicant Management Information System. The supplying company
is called Strategic Information Technology Services Limited, so this system
is often referred to in other institutions as "SITS".
The scope of the system and of the project
SAMIS will take us all the way from enquiries and applications through
to assessment and graduation.
We have split the project into four main strands of development. Each
of these is autonomous to a certain extent, and work is progressing on
all simultaneously.
Admissions: Work started on UCAS Admissions, which has now gone
live, and is being used across the University. Some areas remain outstanding
- particularly relating to Clearing and Confirmation in August 2002 which
will be addressed closer to the time. Direct Admissions and Enquiry Management
is currently in development. Future areas might cover prospectus management
and on-line admission handling.
Scheme and Assessments: The "Scheme Definition" was
one of the first areas looked at, and provides a structure within which
the University's programmes and units can be modelled. The main aims in
designing this have been to make it easy to report on, and easy to extend.
The bulk of this work has now been completed, and the group working on
this are now considering assessments. In SAMIS, assessment management
is tied very closely to the way in which the scheme is defined, so this
is a direct progression.
Student Lifecycle: This covers the day-to-day management of student
records, starting with registration, going through changes of circumstances,
to end-of-year progression (though this area will be covered more and
more by the assessments group mentioned previously). It also covers statutory
returns such as HESA and HESES. One of the larger areas covered here is
widespread interaction with SAMIS via the web, for both students and staff.
Student Finance: Student Finance starts with the allocation and
generation of fees for all students held in SAMIS, and goes through invoicing
to fee collection, debt management, and reconciliation. It also covers
predicting tuition fee income, and communication with the Student Loans
Company. Further areas might cover grant- and loan-tracking, and sponsorship
& bursary management.
The aim is to implant SAMIS much more widely within the University than
has been possible with the previous system, stusys. We always
planned to have many more people use stusys, and through Registration
On-Line we were very successful in getting thousands of student users
to enter/check/update their own data in the system. There was also wide
staff use of the web-based Student
Enquiry Screen. However, much more distributed use of the system is
planned in the SAMIS context.
The timescale for implementation
The outline plan envisaged having undergraduate admissions in operation
for Autumn 2001, and this has already been achieved. Other student data
was to be migrated into the new system around March 2002, such that the
2001/02 academic year would start in the existing system, stusys,
and finish in SAMIS. Registration 2002 was planned to be done completely
in SAMIS. Details of the progress made can be found in the news
archive section of this site.
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