keynote per zettervall: admissions in sweden – a story of legislation, systems and cooperation -...
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Keynote Per Zettervall: Admissions in Sweden – A story of legislation, systems and cooperation Sprekers: Per Zettervall (Swedish Council for Higher Education) Locatie: RotondeTRANSCRIPT
Admissions in Sweden
2014-06-03Per Zettervall
System modernization2
HE and HEI:s in SwedenHow many are there? How big are they? Where are they? Etc…
16/05/2013
Some swedish facts• 9,5 million people
• 450 000 km2
• 21 inhabitants/km2
• From north to south:1 572 km
• Towns:̶.Stockholm 1,4 million̶.Gothenburg 550 000̶.Malmö 280 000
HEI:s in Sweden• 55 institutions in total
• Oldest: Uppsala university (1477)
• Youngest: Linnaeus university (2010)
• Largest: Stockholm university 36 700 students
• Smallest: Gammelkroppa forest school, 25 students
• Distance: Luleå-Malmö 1 470 km
• All basic and second level education financed by the government for swedish and EEA students
• Each HEI gets paid for the amount of full time students, enrollment and achievements
• Expensive educations get more money per student
• However, there is a maximum amount for each institution that the government will pay for
• Hence, all institutions try to hit that exact number which effects the number of courses available to students
Financing of HEI:s
Fields of cooperation UHR-HEI:s• Virtual organizations: Efficient way of using admission experts
• Advisory groups: What funtionality to build (and what not to build)
• Production coordination: Deadlines, planning…
• Specification of requirements: Detailed description of functionality
• Testing: Does the new functionality work well för the HEI?
• Development: Done by ITS at University of Umeå
• Financing using the reversed Robin Hood-method
• MOOC:s
• Admission of international students (outside EEA)
• Expansion of vocational training
• Cooperations, thoughts of merging with others
• Fewer applicants expected up to 2020 due to demographic reasons
Hot topics for the universities today
About UHROur tasks, our work, some figures
Continual development, communication and provision of a broad range of advanced services in the form of:
• Studies and analyses
• Objective and relevant information about higher education
• Admission services
• Expertise and service on admission procedures
• Recognition of qualifications from abroad
• Opportunities for international collaboration
• Application management
The Swedish Council for Higher Education’s areas of responsibility
• 225 employees
• 2013 – 823,735 applications/458,318 admissions
• Antagning.se / Universityadmissions.se
• 6 million unique hits (2013)
• studera.nu
• 3 million unique hits (2013)
• SweSAT 2012 – 133,000 registered
• 60 international programmes
About us
System modernization15
AAn introduction to the swedish admission system and to the hottest topics of today
16/05/2013
• ”Everyone knows that an applicant with a score of 17,25 is much better than an applicant with a score of 17,24”
• ”The SAT test is bad at predicting how successful the student will be”
• ”Fairness is a top priority”
• ”And so are costs”
• ”Rules should be detailed, there is no room for uncertainty”
• ”Things such as motivation, suitability and other things that can not be desribed in figures or numbers can not be relied on”
• ”Code of conduct is important"
True (or not) about swedish admissions
• UHR has agreements with 37 universities and university colleges
• The agreements are the framework for cooperation and sharing of responsibilities between UHR and the university.
• UHR handles seven national admissions rounds
Relations between UHR and HEI
One country – Two systems
The history of Student Information Systems• First version of Ladok: 1975
• Several different systems until 1993 when all converted to Ladok
• New version ”Ladok Nouveau” in 1999 due to Y2K
• And now, the system is rebuilt from scratch, Ladok3
The history of Admission Systems• First version in 1975
• Updates/new versions in 1991 and 1997
• Two systems, one for single subject courses and one for study programmes
• Since 2006, NyA handles it all
The NyA System
• National Admissions System
• Developed by the Swedish universities and colleges together with the UHR
• Used by all of the largest universities and university colleges in Sweden
• Used for admission to all higher education̶.Programs, single subject courses on all levels (except for doctoral
studies)
The NyA System – User Interfaces
Java client Applications Registering qualifications Administering system rules Admission rounds Scheduling automated processess
Web application(Teacher web) Lists and statistics View applications and documents
Web application(Applicant web) Course search and application Status of processing View credentials
NyA
Scanning
LADOK
BEDA
ApplicationAssessment
Applicant
Notification of results
From application to admission 3-4 months
The admission process
HP
The Admission Process in NyA
The Admission Process in NyA
Course transfer
Course search and application
PreparationAutomated application processing
Assessment of
qualifications
Selection and notification
Result transfer
Transferring Courses to the System
• Courses from local course databases to NyA• Setting up an admission round
• Admission round is used to administer courses and programs with the same application period
• Setting up requirement and ranking models
The Application Process in NyA
Course search and application
Preparation of applications
Automated application processing
Assessment of
qualifications
Selection and notification
Result transfer
Course transfer
Course Search and Application
• Course search on the web (www.antagning.se) • Online application• 99,9 % of the applications submitted electronically on
Antagning.se/Universityadmissions.se
The Application Process in NyA
Course transfer
PreparationAutomated application processing
Assessment of
qualifications
Selection and notification
Result transferCourse search
and application
Preparation
• Qualifications transferred to NyA electronically• Documents are scanned and digitalised• Registering qualifications into the system• Admission fees and exemptions
The Application Process in NyA
Course transfer
Course search and application
Automated application processing
Assessment of
qualifications
Selection and notification
Result transfer
Preparation
Automated Application Processing
• Automated assessment of general eligibility• Qualifications matched with entry requirements (requirement
models)• Automated ranking according to ranking models
The Application Process in NyA
Course transfer
Course search and application
PreparationAssessment
of qualifications
Selection and notification
Result transferAutomated
application processing
Assessment of Qualifications
• Manual assessment of qualifications• Exemptions from formal requirements• Ranking of applicants• Local admissions officers and professors
The Application Process in NyA
Course transfer
Course search and application
PreparationAutomated application processing
Selection and notification
Result transfer
Assessment of qualifications
Admissions Selection and Notification
• Applicants are admitted in order of preference• Two selection rounds• The applicants are required to reply after the first round
The Application Process in NyA
Course transfer
Course search and application
PreparationAutomated application processing
Assessment of
qualifications
Result transfer
Selection and notification
Transferring the Admissions Result
• Admissions results are sent to the universities• The results are loaded into the study documentation system (Ladok)
The Application Process in NyA
Course transfer
Course search and application
PreparationAutomated application processing
Assessment of
qualifications
Selection and notification
Result transfer
Distributed Handling of Applications
• A central service agency (UHR)̶.Scanning/digitalising documents̶.Registering digital documents̶.Assessing eligibility ̶.Contact Centre for applicants̶.System operation
• The universities ̶.Assessment of course specific requirements̶.Courses and programmes at advanced level̶.Exemptions from formal requirements
• All applicants send their documentation to one place Cost efficient for the universities Easy process for applicants to understand and complete Every university can view applicant documentation at anytime
• Possible to request originals and other types of documentation when necessary Suspicion of fraud Documents are illegible DVD:s, books etc
Scanning
• Contact Center answers questions of a general character regarding the application process
• UHR and HEI provides a second line for telephone and mail for applicants with questions of a more complex and personal character
• Open 9 am to 4 pm. Until midnight on critical dates
• Always first to report if there are problems with the web site
Contact center
• Use all resources in a cost efficient way so that all participating universities can better manage their time and receive a qualified assessment of the applicants qualifications.
• One application – one admissions officer
• Agreements with 23 universities
• Sometimes problematic to get the right resources and the right amount of them
Virtual organizations
Admissions Decisions
• Each university makes its own decisions regarding admissions, including exemptions.
• The applicant submits an appeal of any admission decision to the decision-making university.
• Legal framework
1. University law decided by the Parliament/Riksdagen
2. Higher Education Ordinance decided by the Government
3. Directives decided by the Swedish Council for Higher Education on behalf of the Higher Education Ordinance
4. Local regulations decided by each university/university college
5. Guidelines, manuals, handbooks
Data exchange
School Qualifications database
Scholastic Aptitude Test
Tax Agency
Ladok
Admission System
Ladok
Postal Service
Study Support
Statistics Sweden
• Yearly, about 1,8 million € (2.2 million $) spent on further development, new functionality
• About 4 million € (5.1 million $) spent on maintaining the system
• About 1,6 million € (2.1 million $) spent on Service Operations
• …a lot of money but costs are shared between HEI…
• …complex regulations = a complex and expensive system…
Costs for NyA…
• A brand new national student records system, Ladok3, is being developed right now and discussions are ongoing what functionality should be in which system.
• The need for (mostly foreign) applicants to attach scanned documents to their application.
• Improvements of the application web site regarding accessibility
• New system/database for High School certificates
• Automated tests, improved logging
• System stability issues
• New regulations, more complexity added
What´s on the table right now?
The award winning application web site…It´s only a swedish award, and only in the category ”educational web sites” but nevertheless…..
The scary date…
• Ca 50 000 applications the last hours
• The applicants browse a lot
• Different issues at CGI
• The universities are pretty ok with an extension of the deadline
• And are somewhat reluctant to finance further investments
• However it is not good for UHR to be known for ”the system that breaks down annually”
What is the problem?
Application management and development
SCRUM
Sprints - Iterations
Retrospect affects planning of future sprints through changes in prioritizations, requirements and new User Stories
Teammember Product Owner
Stake holders, Others
Sprint
Backlog
User Stories handled in the sprint/iteration
Sprintplanning, day 1
Sprint Demo
Retrospect
Product Backlog
3 weeks
Från koncept till Product Backlog
User Stories –focus on use and usability in the development project
The System Object NyA
• NyA, the system̶. The expert client̶. Antagning.se/Universityadmissions.se ̶. Teachers web (webbgränssnitt för sällananvändare av NyA)̶. Interface to external systems̶. NyA-Open (copy of the database)̶. Beda (national certificate database)
• The process that the system supports
• Documentation regarding process and system
The yearly plan
Tracks and product owners in NyA
Product Owners
Reference group
Reference Group
Reference group
Backlog Backlog
Backlog
• Development is split into tracks/system parts
• Every track has its own Product Owner who is responsible for the backlog
• Every track has a reference group with stake holders from HEI
• The product owners and the main product owner meet every other week in the Product Owners Forum
Application Management
The strategy (3 years)
Backlog (always)
The yearly plan (1 year)
• Long term goals
• Prioritized areas of improvement
• Principles for prioritizing
• Definition of the tracks
• Special focus areas
• Specific development projects
Product Owners Forum
Application council • List of things to do
• Continous prioritization
• Development, requirements and testing within the team
Reference group
Application Management
Group
www.uhr.se
Thank you!Per Zettervall
www.uhr.se