Manchester Metropolitan University and Unit4, have announced the successful go-live of the second phase of its industry-leading Student Journey Transformation Programme, due to complete in 2020.

The Student Journey Transformation Programme is a large-scale change initiative to improve the quality of service provided to students and place them at the heart of everything the university does. It will enhance many aspects of the University’s business administrative processes and systems and will provide more efficient, responsive support for the students’ journey from initial enquiry to becoming an alumni member.

Phase 2, which completed in December 2018, is the first large-scale change affecting some staff across Manchester Met. All UCAS and Initial Teacher Training applications (along with the earlier releases of auditions, open days and enquiries functionality) will now be received and processed through Unit4 Student Management, adopting new processes and procedures.

The new system and processes were phased in Faculty by Faculty, starting with the Faculties of Science and Engineering and Business and Law, prior to the remaining Faculties being brought on stream.

The Programme is on track to be fully operational by 2020, managed in a phased approach. Focus areas include Student Services and Experience, External Relations, Finance, Student Programmes and Curriculum and Assessment. Other key areas within the Programme include Data Governance and Migration, Implementation and Transition. A dedicated team from within the University, including current students, have been appointed to manage and complete the Programme over a period of 36 months.

“Higher Education is changing and the speed of change is accelerating year on year,” said Andrew Kemp, Transformation Director at Manchester Met. “Universities understand the need to change to enable a more personalized, self-service, digital experience for students and staff uitilising standard processes where applicable. We believe the best way to accelerate institutional growth and boost student success is to reduce siloed systems and processes and instead have a single, more integrated approach across the University. We are an early adopter of these new solutions which underpin the change we are implementing, and are already starting to see the benefits, whilst understanding the challenges such change brings with an early adopter approach. There still appears to be some reticence in the sector to implementing new systems and standard processes that are not widely proven in the market but this will have to change to meet student and university goals now and in the future along with the speed of delivery of that change. Working with Unit 4, we’re confident this partnership will, through a phased and managed approach, deliver future proofed enabling capability and flexibility for both the University and our students.”

“There is huge demand in the global higher education industry for new enterprise resource planning systems and student information systems based on flexible, modern ways to interact and work,” said Stephan Sieber, CEO of Unit 4. “The requirement to provide a new quality of service for students and to diversify services with a more commercial mindset, is driving institutions to look at new systems and processes that combine the best of what they have now with new technology and innovation to deliver better, faster, simpler digital interfaces to support all University activity. Manchester Met is leading the way for others, and clearly shows the advantages outweigh the challenges of change.”