FlexiDirectA service and customer based approach to postgraduate admissions

Context

▪ La Trobe University has a deliberate strategy to consolidate what are currently fragmented process and functions in Admissions and Scholarships.

▪ The vision is a consolidated Admissions and Scholarships Office that will coordinate and deliver outcomes from application through offer and acceptance to initial enrolment. This will include accurate and personalised information on advanced standing and scholarships.

▪ To achieve this we need our staff to be able to focus on adding value the student. The strategy is for large volume processing we need to automate or develop strategic partnerships OR BOTH.

▪ This is the context and driver for the Flexi Direct pilot.

Background – the LTU Perspective

▪ La Trobe University is trying to push harder into the direct admissions postgraduate space.

▪ No desire or real capacity to build a bespoke system

▪ La Trobe University sought a solution that would improve the applicant experience and provide more effective administrative processes

▪ Effective workflow management

▪ Up to date data on applications, offers, GPA, Verification of qualifications

▪ An ability to monitor performance on turn around time from application to offer

Background – the VTAC Perspective

▪ The Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre has supplied admissions services to institutions for fifty years, with the majority of the applicant cohort current year 12 students applying for undergraduate courses

▪ VTAC strategic direction to broaden involvement in servicing needs of institutions across Victoria given the changing admissions landscape

▪ Recognition at VTAC that there was a gap in the market for servicing direct postgraduate applications

Project Progress

▪ Pilot program running from March 2016 to March 2018

▪ La Trobe postgraduate coursework courses

▪ Domestic and a limited number of offshore international applicants

▪ Operations Working Group meets regularly

▪ Ensures effective implementation and common understanding

▪ Steering Committee provides project governance

Features

▪ Application system has custom URL and is branded to La Trobe’s style guide

▪ Customised registration and course application

▪ Substantial flexibility to configure intake periods

▪ Customisable system generated correspondence to applicants

Features

▪ Pre-assessment tasks completed by VTAC assessment team

▪ Document verification

▪ ARTS results matching

▪ International qualification assessment

▪ English language proficiency checks

▪ GPA calculation

▪ Teaching method assessments

Features

▪ Detailed course worklists for use by selection officers to assist selection decisions, update application statuses and issue offer emails directly

▪ Ability to drill down into individual applicant details including previous study, uploaded documents and correspondence

▪ Offer files processed daily

▪ Dashboard for managers to see turn-around times and other key statistics

Worklist shots…

Project successes

▪ Improved student experience - faster application turnaround times for La Trobe or at least metric based decisions for improvement

▪ Effective data – useful from an internal and and external compliance perspective

▪ A familiar worklist environment for operators

▪ New pilot partner institutions coming on board

▪ further development has ensured that a system that was specifically designed to La Trobe’s specifications can be configured and customised to meet needs of multiple institutions

Challenges and Opportunities

▪ Development of FlexiDirect system evolved from the existing VTAC application system, so challenges in separating functionality and ensuring that development is done efficiently for FlexiDirect

▪ La Trobe has seen directly the gaps in its processing and turn around from application to offer (an opportunity for improvement)

▪ La Trobe will need to ensure that FlexiDirect is part of its overall admissions armoury including admission functionality that might be available in the student system

▪ Opportunity for VTAC to support multiple institutions in responding to changes in government policy

Future Directions …

▪ Enhanced use of analytics to support improvements to applicant experience and lead generation information

▪ Australian Catholic University commenced applications 2 August, University of Melbourne Master of Teaching applications open 5 September

▪ The model will assist in supporting the transparency of admissions agenda

Future Directions

▪ Pilot period runs to March 2018 (includes ACU and University of Melbourne- Education)

▪ Timeframe for decision to proceed with the product to be determined

▪ Costing and Pricing models currently under consideration

Questions?