The Benefits of Modern Student Admission Software

To wrap up our series on admissions, we’re talking about the benefits of student admission software.

If you’re curious about the impact of upgrading your current student admission management system to a more modern solution, this list could help you plan your next steps.

1. Overcome Bottlenecks and Keep Applicants Flowing

Some institutions take a first-in, first-out approach with applications, but when you’re dealing with tens of thousands of applications, that’s not always practical.

If an application stays in the admissions process for too long, the applicant may enquire about how it’s progressing, which then creates more work for the team. Fortunately, automation and prioritisation tools inside modern student admission software can help to keep things flowing and reduce unnecessary enquiries.

You could use Tribal Admissions to gain visibility into any bottlenecks, then reprioritise staffing resources by adapting your desk structure and workflows. If a course is experiencing a high in-flow of applicants, you could use the Permissions feature to temporarily assign more team members to that course. And of course, the Bulk Decision Processing feature means that each team member could potentially process upwards of 500 applications in a day.

This kind of speed and agility is critical for universities experiencing fluctuating numbers, as has been seen throughout the last few years — especially following the significant increase in applications reported in 2023.

2. Solve Problems Quickly

What happens when there’s a problem or change to your admissions process, and your admissions software needs to adapt?

With older style software solutions, admissions teams would likely need to submit a ticket to a busy IT team that may require three weeks to action the request. And that’s assuming they actually understand the problem in the first place.

But modern student admission software benefits business users by empowering them to solve problems quickly. With Tribal Admissions, everything is pre-defined, so there’s no need to understand the technical details or data systems underpinning it. Because it’s both accessible and user-friendly, users can adapt their existing resources without messy workarounds or extra bits of code.

3. Modernise Technology (and Reduce Tech Burden)

Outdated technology in universities is a multifaceted problem. One issue is that it likely requires more management, training, and maintenance from the in-house IT team, whose resources are already stretched.

Compounding this problem is that it can be more difficult to attract, train, and retain talent in higher education. It takes a long time to teach new hires how a university works and the different systems being used — it can take an entire admissions cycle to get them to a point of productivity. And then, IT professionals in higher education may feel like their career options are limited if they’re stuck working on legacy systems that are built on older technology and infrastructure.

As such, modern admission software can make a difference for IT teams by reducing their overall burden, while modernising the technology they work with.

4. Gain a Competitive Edge

The last decade or so has seen the landscape dramatically shift for universities, leading to greater competition — not only between countries, but also between institutions. This increase in competition is driving greater focus on quality and experience. In particular, newer universities that may not be able to compete on prestige or rankings must 'reinvent the student experience' in order to attract students.

Savvy institutions can benefit from modern student admission software that streamlines and automates some of the admissions process. This enables admissions teams to focus on delivering a top-notch student experience that gives their institution a competitive edge.

Also consider that your admission management system forms part of your student experience and should leave a good first impression on applicants. And well-designed admission software will help to reassure students that your institution should be their top choice if they are offered places at multiple universities.

5. Standardise Processes

Most institutions, whether they’ve been around for 1,000 years or 60 years, have slightly different admissions processes — and as a result, many rely on highly customised software solutions to match. But what if there was a standardised way to do admissions based on modern best practices?

Well, with the right admissions software, there is. When they switch to modern student admission software, institutions may adopt the pre-built, standardised process that’s baked into the software. This, of course, can lead to flow-on benefits, such as:

• • • Reducing uncertainty for applicants
    • Making the process more efficient for admissions staff
    • Reducing the need for time-consuming custom builds and spec work

The Tribal Admissions software helps to standardise the admissions process, based on our experience of installing more than 100 admissions systems. We know what an entry point is, how qualifications should be used, the importance of clearance checks, and more. These insights have enabled us to identify best practices and confidently define what the underlying data model should look like for admissions, while still making it extensible using APIs.

6. Boost Team Productivity

With budgets under pressure and shrinking workforces struggling with inefficient manual systems, many institutions are looking for ways to improve their operational efficiency. One of these ways is through a modern student admissions system, with process automation and low-code solutions enabling smaller teams to get more done.

For instance, Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Western Australia, recently implemented Tribal Admissions because they needed a more efficient admissions process to handle their 60,000+ admissions applications per year. They started using Tribal Admissions because they wanted a solution with automation that could streamline workflows, support decision making, reduce manual efforts, and cut down on errors.

7. Continuous Development & Improvement

One final (but significant) benefit of student admission software that we wanted to touch on is the continuous development and improvement you get if your software is a SaaS (software-as-a-service) product.

Of course, not all student admission software is a SaaS deployment — to our knowledge, Tribal Admissions is currently the only enterprise SaaS admissions product on the market, with an architecture that can handle admissions at any scale. And this lends it several unique benefits, such as:

• • • Support – Universities don’t need to worry about making updates or upgrades (and the training and knowledge that these require), as these are taken care of by Tribal and rolled out automatically
    • Frequent feature releases – If there’s a new feature developed, Tribal will simply switch it on when it’s ready (whereas, in-house managed platforms may delay updates for 6+ months because they’ll need to take the system offline to implement and test new features)
    • Bugs taken care of – Likewise, Tribal’s developers are responsible for fixing bugs, typically rolling out global bug fixes within 24 hours (whereas, on-premises systems may take weeks or months to receive a patch for their IT team to apply and test)
    • Feedback – Tribal can continually adjust the product, features, and user interface based on user data and behavioural feedback across all higher education users to make the software and admissions process better
    • Compliance – With legislation constantly shifting, Tribal can ensure that the student admission software evolves with it, and that institutions meet their obligations

Aside from these benefits, SaaS student admission software is also especially beneficial for smaller businesses and universities because there’s no large capital expenditure upfront.

Learn more

Want to learn more? Explore our previous blogs in this series on university enrolment trends, challenges for admissions teams, and student admissions software features.

Or interested in exploring Tribal Admissions for yourself? Contact Tribal or book a demo to discover how we can help you upgrade your student enrolment experience and admissions process.