The World Maritime University (WMU) in Malmö, Sweden is an international postgraduate maritime university founded by International Maritime Organisation (IMO), a specialised agency of the United Nations. With approximately 350 enrolments per year, their mission is to provide the international maritime community with a centre for high-level maritime education and transfer maritime technology.
Over the years, WMU had been using spreadsheets and cumbersome paper-based processes for managing student information, applications, enquiries and enrolments. Their registrar system had limited functionality and could only be accessed locally, hindering their capabilities and slowing down processes.
The key drivers for WMU’s decision to overhaul the university’s system was to make it accessible around the world, at sites in both Europe and China, the remit was to consolidate, integrate and significantly improve existing systems; and with the Board of Governor’s support their company-wide vision lead them to implement the Tribal Campus Student Information System for managing their end-to-end student lifecycle.
Requirement:
WMU, were looking to partner with a provider that understood the education sector and its pressures. After receiving Tribal’s response to their requirements, and following several discussions with senior Tribal team members, WMU staff were confident that Tribal could deliver a system that meets their goals. Those requirements included a consolidation of systems, a more integrated and modern interface to improve and streamline key processes such as applications, enrolments and curriculum management.
A cloud hosted solution was critical, WMU needed improvements in visibility of information and real-time reporting to improve decision making across their global network. Tribal and WMU identified a Student Management System covering the following features was required;
- Application Management
- Enrolment Management
- Course Development & Management
- Curriculum Management
- Timetables and Scheduling
- Assessment and Attendance
- Progression and Graduation
- Alerts and Correspondence
- Fees Management
- Reporting
- Student Portal
- Online Application and Enrolment Portal
The Solution:
WMU recognised that Tribal understood their requirements, and that Tribal Campus was the solution with the functionality they needed to support and improve the entire student life-cycle from enquiry and application, through to graduation and alumni. Tribal Campus provided the advanced functionality with the student engagement portal and administrative, financial and curriculum management features.
The project commenced with an analysis workshop to identify key requirements of the system with WMU flying over from Malmö, Sweden to collaborate with the Geelong-based Tribal Campus team.
The implementation of the solution started soon after in September 2016. At the commencement of the project tasks and roles were clearly defined between WMU and Tribal’s experienced and collaborative team. The implementation was completed remotely from Geelong, Australia, to Sweden within the specified timeframe and the solution went live in January 2017.
Benefits:
After a year of using Tribal Campus, WMU staff have experienced great efficiency in their day-to-day tasks. The solution consolidated all student information into one central database which improved reporting quality and delivery across the University resulting in significant time savings and in-turn increased productivity.
The cloud-based solution has allowed better collaboration between teams based in Europe and China. Administrators globally can now access the system to process applications and enrolments, transfers and review results and qualifications.
It has improved their application and enrolment processes, eliminating paper work, allowing administration staff around 25% more time to focus on tasks relating to WMU’s growth i.e. processing increased numbers of application and enrolments. Admissions decision time has also been reduced with heads of programmes now able to make decisions whilst on duty travel.
The solution has not only benefited administration staff but also teaching staff and students. It has allowed teaching staff more time to focus on education and student success. It has provided students visibility of their own records, allowing them to track their progression and removing the need to visit the registrar office.
Pete Marriott, Assistant Registrar said, “Tribal was chosen by WMU because they understood our processes from the outset. Being able to physically work with the team in Geelong enabled us to quickly cover all of our system requirements and this ultimately resulted in the project being completed on time. The implementation of the Tribal Campus solution has introduced efficiencies in application and decision-making processes, enabling the University to handle increased numbers of applications as we expand our portfolio of postgraduate programmes and without the need to hire new admissions staff.”
Leah Penny, Tribal Regional Business Development Lead said “From the first touch point with World Maritime University, they knew what they required to improve the way they managed student data. They had strong executive sponsorship in Pete Marriott, which resulted in a highly collaborative and successful project. Our partnership with WMU was established positively from the beginning and Tribal look forward to continuing our support of WMU’s mission to be the world centre of excellence in postgraduate maritime and oceans education, professional training and research programs globally.”
