Woman professor at desk on tablet

3 ways to modernize your registrar's office to support student success

Summary

Considerations for a digital records management strategy

Read time: 5 minutes

From registering for classes on their phones to using an intelligent locker for parcel pickup, students seek modern amenities when it comes to their college experience. But what about the paper-based, labor-intensive administrative areas such as student records and documents? When it comes to campus-wide modernization, these departments and processes are often overlooked — but can actually make a big difference in the success of your students.

You can transform your university by reducing paper and moving towards online forms, consolidated information and automated workflows in admissions, financial aid and student records. See how you can begin modernizing the administrative processes at your university — starting with the registrar’s office.

Digitally track, monitor and store student records

Student information can come into your university from a number of different sources, including email, traditional mail and fax. These various pieces of information make up a student record. These records play a critical role in the student experience at your university, by allowing authorized parties to access the same set of accurate information at a glance. Using an automated workflow solution, you can automatically index, name, route and archive incoming documents in the system according to your pre-determined folder structures and naming conventions. With this information centralized in one place, it’s easier to get a more holistic view of the student’s record — instead of siloed, difficult-to-find information in different departments.

In addition to how records are compiled, you should ensure there is a consistent digital records management strategy throughout your institution. The process to collect, store, manage, organize and share your documents should be the same or similar across departments.

Once your student records data is digitized, centralized and consolidated into a system that makes sense for ease of use and access as well as cross-departmental communication at your university, you can begin to use that data to take your efforts to support student success one step further.

Use analytics to support student success

Once institutional data is digitized and centralized into a system that makes sense for ease of use and access — as well as cross-departmental communication at your university — you can begin to use that data to take your efforts to support student success one step further. By having all information about a student at your fingertips, the registrar’ office, for example, can be alerted when a student changes their major multiple times in a given time period, and reach out to see if this student may need additional guidance when it comes to their academic goals, further increasing their chances of a successful, on-time graduation.

Modernize your administrative processes and support your students by taking the right steps to digitize, centralize, consolidate and protect their information.

Get easier access to student records

Recommended for you

Universities: use data analytics to boost revenue
Universities: use data analytics to boost revenueArticles

Universities: use data analytics to boost revenue

Higher education data analytics and personalization can help universities to market more effectively to target audiences and boost revenue.

How Clemson overhauled print and mail to generate $2.5M in revenue
How Clemson overhauled print and mail to generate $2.5M in revenueArticles

How Clemson overhauled print and mail to generate $2.5M in revenue

Clemson struggled with print and mail efficiency. See how they overhauled processes and generated $2.5 million in revenue.

Webinar: Modernizing admissions workflows in higher ed
Webinar: Modernizing admissions workflows in higher edVideos

Webinar: Modernizing admissions workflows in higher ed

See how top universities are addressing common admissions challenges using digital information and automated workflows.

  1. [1] Privacy, Anonymity, and Big Data in the Social Sciences Jon P Daries, Justin Reich, Jim Waldo, Elise M Young, Jonathan Whittinghill, Andrew Dean Ho, Daniel Thomas Seaton, Isaac Chuang
  2. [2] University of Central Florida Hack Exposes 63K Social Security Numbers James Eng - http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/university-central-florida-hack-exposes-63-000-ss
  3. [3] Facts About Paper: The Impact of Consumption - The Paperless Project - Join the grassroots movement http://www.thepaperlessproject.com/facts-about-paper-the-impact-of-consumption/
  4. [4] Mobile Advising: Engage Students and Contain Costs http://er.educause.edu/articles/2014/4/mobile-advising-engage-students-and-contain-costs