When risual first engaged, Staffordshire were using a legacy student management records system to store, administer and manage all aspects of the student lifecycle from application and enrolment, through to the award of a degree. They had also developed a web front end for applicants and students to view course information as well as other components of their programme lifecycle.
The University acknowledged that their current Student portal offered limited self-service to the students who were using it, which also impacted on its usage and adoption across the university. The current portal lacked the level of functionality that more modern services offered and failed to meet the growing expectations of students in a Digital world.
When exploring the self-service functionality, Staffordshire wanted to ensure students had the ability to conduct tasks such as download
confirmation of enrolment letters, upload a photo for student card replacement, own their own data, and generate bank letters. This would provide students with an enriched digital experience as well as reducing the admin placed upon the university employees.
One DevOps team to build any portal you need
risual worked with the great team at Staffordshire University to develop and deliver the new Student Portal, taking a user-driven design approach which ensured the student experience was always the top priority. The new portal was designed to provide more self-service options, alongside streamlining some of the existing processes which were already proving beneficial to enhance and improve the portals usage.
Results
Since the platform has gone live, the university has seen significant benefits. Students are now adopting the new processes and taking advantage of the ability to self-serve. Within the first month of roll-out the university saw more students leveraging the platform than the previous iteration, with 53 bank letters generated, 232 confirmation of enrolment letters generated, and 65 requests for changes to students’ data. Staffordshire and risual see this as a great step in the right direction for students at the university. With the momentum this new service will generate, there are significant opportunities to continue development of the new Student Portal, including additional features that augment student experiences, fostering human connections and supporting the high-quality education Staffordshire offers.
