-----Original Message-----
From: Academic, financial or space planning in UK universities
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mike Milne-Picken
Sent: 20 April 2006 09:35
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Student Numbers Forecasting

In an earlier post (10 January) I explained that while working in FE I
had 
been using a web-based curriculum planning tool - EBS Curriculum
Planner.  
You'll need to read my post of 10 Jan on the server archives to get an 
overview of the features of the system.

In the last few months I have been working as a consultant for an FE 
college with a very large proportion of HE.  They also introduced EBS 
Curriculum Planner.  One of the features that we were working on was 
planning at the HE module level - it is at module level that resources
can 
be calculated and allocated for budgeting purpose.  We found great 
potential in the tool for academic resource managers and corporate
planners 
to develop quite sophisticated systems of forecasting and planning
resource 
allocation. 

Planning information is stored in relational database tables held within

the student record system, and data can be moved from both the current 
student year ['Course File' and 'Module File' if you want to think in
those 
terms] and back into the data tables for the next year.  Spreadsheet
based 
views of the data are integral and any data can also be easily exported
to 
Excel, either directly (click on an icon) or using a reporting tool that

allows bespoke .XLS reports to be generated in MS Access code.

The student records system on which it is based is not used in the HE 
sector - EBS (formerly fdlearning and before that Fretwell-Dowling), 
however, is part of the Tribal group that now also owns SITS.  The two 
products were merged into the Tribal Technology part of the group 18
months 
or so ago, but have now been moved into "Tribal Education" from 1 April 
2006.

I think there would be great value in developing a version of Curriculum

Planner for SITS/HE.  I have previously put this to Tribal but have not
had 
a very positive response; I recently put this to a representative from
the 
benchmarking part of Tribal, but again have yet to have a response.  I 
suspect it is not (yet) high up their agenda - maybe they do not
appreciate 
how important planning as distinct from recording actual enrolment is?

I think what would influence them is customer demand.

Now that I am back in the HE sector, I find myself needing to reinvent
the 
wheel and establish an effective student number planning and forecasting

system for my new university employer.  Rather than go down the well-
trodden route of using spreadsheets (that I started on 20 years ago in 
Polytechnic days!), I'd rather find something that is a) web-based b)
uses 
relational databases c) is cheap and effective!

I would be keen to act as institutional coordinator for a group of 
institutions willing to contract with Tribal for such a planning
product, 
using my experience both in HE planning and with the existing EBS 
Curriculum Planner, to come up with something that meets the needs of
many 
HE institutions, especially those already using SITS.

If you are interested in this - no obligation at this stage! - please
send 
me your details.  If you are an existing SITS customer, it would be
helpful 
if you could put in a formal request for this through your contact
point, 
as I'm not getting much response from them yet.

Kindest regards

Mike Milne-Picken
Director of Strategic Resource Management and Planning
Liverpool Hope University 
Hope Park
Liverpool 
L16 9JD

E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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