Business Analysis Of The Research Office And Future State Plan

BR No

Business Requirement (BR)

1.1

An appropriate level of services must be delivered to all PhD students in all faculties.  

1.2

Adequate human resources (managers, administrators, supporting staff, and many more) will be deployed to meet service requirements from PhD research students, their supervisors, reviewers and all faculty members who are involved in the provision of education services.

1.3

The organisational structure of the Research Office must facilitate the flawless delivery of required services to all service recipients.

1.4

The efficacy of service delivery will have a higher order of priority than any considered efficiency gains of restructure or standardisation of processes and practices across faculties.

1.5

All extensive documentation required to control PhD research student programmes will be electronically stored with high security and operated by a suitable Document Management System (DMS) with proper online access. This access is available only to authorised personnel and capable of meeting all security, privacy and other regulatory essentials of the University, its policies and procedures.

1.6

Appropriate IT systems support all business processes required to influence PhD study programs to improve their efficiency, quality of generated outputs and the nature of work for human resources involved in these processes; The major business processes, which need to be supported are:

· Annual Reviews

· Student Application Approval and Enrolment

· Student graduation

· Supervisor Support

· Examinations processes, and

· Research Ethics support.

1.7

New systems to support Research Office business processes must be integrated with Uni 1 system and other university systems to boost user efficiency and be perceptive for users with a variety of experience levels.

Future State details

Satisfied business requirements (section 1 above)

Managers are readily accessible to students in all faculties. Research Managers are readily accessible to students in all faculties. Thus the PhD students do not have any further confusion about whom to contact among all five faculties for resolving their issues and queries. A single point of contact is available for students from each faculty for their questions and concerns, specific to their faculty.

1.1

1.4

The students have access to a database of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ database) to ensure Research Managers use their time efficiently in contacts with students to resolve issues, which require their involvement, Research Managers keep FAQ database regularly updated, to ensure its currency.

1.1

1.2

· The services provided by Research Office staff are of expected professional and academic standards. They offer timely and meet service recipient expectations and needs. For example, students are satisfied with the level of service provided, have their questions answered correctly and promptly, have sufficient support to perform routine activities during their research work, and many more.

1.1

1.2

1.4

Roles in Research Office (for example, Research Administrators and Resource Managers) are redesigned when a requirement arises, and job descriptions are adjusted to ensure the functions performed by existing resources can be efficiently delivered.  

New resources are acquired and trained to provide the required level of service to students and all faculty members involved as and when needed.  

The organisational structure of the Research Office supports equally efficient service delivery to students and academic staff in all five faculties.

1.2

1.3

Necessary and essential training to Resource Managers is accessible and provided to ensure students in all faculties have access to knowledgeable Resource Managers, able to meet their needs as efficiently as possible.

1.1

All documents related to PhD research student processes are stored with high-end security and managed by a computerised Document Management Systems, with appropriate online access available only to the certified personnel.

1.5

Appropriate IT systems are in place to support all business processes within the Research Office to manage PhD study programs:

· Application approval,

· Student Supervisory tasks and activities,

· Research Ethics related processes,

· Annual Reviews,

· Examinations processes,

· Student graduation, etc.

1.6

All new systems are integrated with existing university systems (e.g. Uni1) so that ‘once only’ data entry/updates are required to maximise user efficiency.

1.7

Research Administrators can handle student application approval processes efficiently – they can easily allocate work to approvers, manage and control throughput to minimise approval times.  Their work is streamlined, and activities are automated where possible.

1.6

1.7

Students’ activities are effectively supported by the new system:

· Students can easily change the title of their thesis online, update their research proposals and see feedback received on annual reviews, and maintain their thesis online,

· They can keep track of their regular supervisory activities, maintain a diary of all work completed during the second year of study and work plans for the final year of study, as required for Annual Reviews,

· They can liaise online with Reviewers and are able to easily arrange their annual review interviews.

1.6

1.7

Supervisors:

· can keep supervisory lists for their students up to date at all times (online Change of Supervisor Form facility),

· have online access to all their students’ documents, relating to previous annual reviews,

· can submit Examination Submission and Examiners Nominations forms online,

· can liaise online with Reviewers and can easily arrange their annual review interviews.

1.6

1.7

Reviewers, performing Annual Reviews, have uninterrupted online access to all required review documentation in digital format with a facility to print documents when required.

Annual Review processes are efficient, streamlined and automated where appropriate.

1.6

1.7

Examination processes are more efficient. Here quicker turn-around times are experienced (currently around 12 weeks):

· Research Managers can arrange examinations easily, utilising new systems,

· Examiners can use electronic documents to perform examinations and submit examination results online,

· Research Committee members have online access to examiners’ results and can finalise examination processes more efficiently then currently.  When theses need to be revised and resubmitted, they have online access to all required information to make a final determination.

1.6

1.7

Workflows for business processes are implemented to facilitate a smooth transition of work between individuals, teams and different methods.  Automated work processes are performed to eliminate tedious, repetitive work.

1.6

No

Question

Answer

Prof Ru Shi - PVC Research Degrees

1

It is not clear how the work is split between Research Managers (RMs) and Research Administrators (RAs). What the roles/functions of RMs and RAs are their functions?

2

You mentioned the Research Office is currently run using standalone excel spreadsheets. Can you explain what information is secured in them and how those spreadsheets are actually used?

3

In your webinar, you described the annual review processes for the full-time students.  What will the same for the part-time students?  Are their reviews occurring at the full-time equivalents of the full-time students? For example, if a student studies half of the full-time load, will his/her first annual review occur at the end of twenty-four months of their enrolment?

4

What processes are used in Research Ethics? Why was it referred to as an area demanding a Research Administrator to lead it?

5

What actions need to be performed and by who when a student submits the Change of Thesis Title form?

6

What currently happens when a supervisor submits the Change of Supervisor form? What actions need to be performed and by who?

7

What actions/activities are currently performed when a supervisor submits the Examination Submission and Examiners Nomination forms?

8

What is the process involved in approval of examiners by the university’s Research Committee?

9

Can you describe the examination processes?  

10

How decisions are made about examination grades when different grades are given by individual examiners?

11

Is it possible for a student to have more than one supervisor allocated? Prof Sor has been trying to modify the supervisory panel for one of his PhD students.

12

If a supervisory panel can have multiple members, is there one primary supervisor who is the point of contact for the student or communication on supervisory matters is communicated to the whole panel?

13

Can you describe examination processes elaborately?  Why five copies of the thesis are required and how are they used? Can this be replaced with an online thesis?

Ms Katie Brennan, RA Annual Reviews

14

Can you describe in more details each annual review process for both full-time and part-time PhD research students?

15

What are the results of the third annual review if the review panels believe the work is not of the desired standard?  Can the student rectify this assessment and have another review?

UR No

User Requirement (UR)

PhD Applicants

Applications will continue to be submitted online, and then all applicant documents will be stored in the DMS. Finally, the available data are extracted to minimise data re-entry.

Multiple submissions of documents will be available.  Once documentation of the application is done, the system will send an alarming notification to the appointed Research Office staff to commence the assessment of each application.

Research Administrators and faculty staff approving applications

The student application approval processes can be managed efficiently by the Research Administrators – they will be able to quickly allocate work to approvers, manage and control throughput to reduce approval times.  Their work will be trimmed, and activities will be automated where possible.

PhD Research Students

Students from each faculty will have a single point of contact (the equivalent of current Research Manager) for their queries and issues, specific to their faculty.

Students will have access to a database of answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) online, with a response tailored explicitly to each faculty.

Note:

Research Managers will update FAQ database periodically to ensure their time is better spent on attending to issues, requiring their involvement.

In the online mode, the students will be able to change their private details as well as their thesis title securely online (the equivalent of submission of Change of Thesis Title Form).

Supervisor(s)

Supervisors will update online supervisory team member details for their students throughout their enrolment (the equivalent of Change of Supervisor form).

Supervisors will submit online Examination Submission and Examiners Nomination forms for their students.

Research Managers, Administrators and Research Office authorised staff

Research Managers, Administrators and all other authorised staffs will have the necessary secure online access required to handle all student research program activities.

To assure Research Managers use their time efficiently in contacts with students to resolve issues, which require their involvement, the students have access to a database of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ database).  Research Managers keep FAQ database regularly updated, to ensure the currency of the database.

Reviewers – Annual Reviews

Reviewers will have the necessary online access to all required information to perform their annual reviews and record review outcomes efficiently.

Examiners (external to the University staff)

Examiners will get a notification when they can record examination results online.

Research Committee Members

Research Committee members will be able to check online examiners’ results, reviewed and resubmitted examined theses. They will be able to record their final exam determination results online to streamline examination processes.

All users

Any duplicity of data entry and modification will be removed where possible – systems will be integrated so that data integrity is maintained throughout the systems.

A smooth transition of work among individuals, teams, work steps and procedures will be achieved after the implementation of workflows for business processes, with appropriate notifications generated to start the work.

Processes or their components will be automated where appropriate to eliminate tedious and repetitive work to improve resource efficiency.