The University of Hertfordshire

The University of Hertfordshire has achieved its IT strategy of one integrated solution for student management, finance, accommodation and personnel with online access for staff and students through the Accelerate MIS system.

The University of Hertfordshire, based in Hatfield, provides a rich learning environment for a diverse community of over 20,000 students on a wide range of courses. High quality teaching is supplemented by excellent study facilities and a groundbreaking portal, which gives students 24/7 virtual access to the main teaching, learning and administrative elements of the university wherever they are in the world.

RedSky IT has been working in partnership with the university since 1995 when the it first began looking for replacement software for its student administration system. Since then, RedSky IT has helped the university to build the foundations for the powerful Accelerate MIS system we see today.

Hertfordshire offers one of the widest ranges of courses to be found in any university in the UK and because of this diversity, it knew that the student administration system it chose had cope with a huge amount of extremely complex data. It also decided that it wanted a truly integrated solution that would eliminate issues associated with interfacing to many diverse software systems and inherent problems with data compatibility.

In 1996 it chose RedSky IT to develop a single, secure, relational database that would hold details on students and staff, including academic and personnel records, admissions, enrolment, accommodation, academic programmes, graduation, alumni and finance.

Since its implementation seven years ago, this database has been developed into the Accelerate system we see today. Accelerate is used comprehensively throughout Hertfordshire to run its complete administration processes, including the generation of HESA returns and UCAS information relating to applicants.

Accelerate tracks student information from their initial application, right through to registration, enrolment, study and their progression to graduation.

Its finance functionality is fully comprehensive and because of its integration with student records, it brings major benefits with student fee invoicing as it automatically recognises the study mode and status of students and invoices them accordingly.

The integration of the finance and personnel functions enables efficient allocation of salaries to the appropriate budget heads plus the facility for payroll expenditure forecasting.