Seminar Attendance Monitoring

In 2009, the UK Border Agency's Points-based Immigration System introduced new standards of legal compliance for Warwick as regards monitoring student attendance. With an annual 3,959 seminar sessions in the undergraduate timetable alone, this was a mammoth challenge for WBS. The improved process, which can be extended to all WBS programmes, uses an automated system to scan forms and populate MIS data, currently saving an estimated half a clerical role.

Improvement Champion
Trixie Gadd, Administrative Director of the Undergraduate Programme, WBS

Facilitator
Catherine Gordon, Administrative Director, Specialist Masters Programme, WBS

This new process was launched in October 2009. A project to roll-out to postgraduate teaching is currently being scheduled by PROD.

Below is a summary of why we needed to improve this process and progress to date. More details are available from the workshop output (PDF Document) and project progress report

SEMINAR ATTENDANCE MONITORING PROCESS IMPROVEMENT	DESCRIPTION
Process Issue(s)	New system required for start of 2009‐10 to report accurately to the UK Border Agency on student attendance at teaching sessions. The current system will not meet this legal requirement. The Undergraduate Programme currently monitors only first year seminar attendance, on 12 modules, involving 1,344 discrete seminar sessions and 28,280 student attendance records. In 2009‐10 this must be extended to 61 UG modules, with 3,959 seminar sessions and 77,506 attendance records, and also to PG teaching sessions. The current monitoring system achieves only *47% complete records* and consumes *two person days per week* of Undergraduate Office staff time, in addition to the *time of seminar tutors (around 1000 hours per annum).* There is therefore a clear business need to devise a process which will improve timeliness and accuracy of seminar attendance recording, reduce staff time consumed, and be scalable to much larger numbers.
Planned Improvement	A straightforward School-wide process for the systematic monitoring of student attendance at teaching sessions to counter concerns over students’ pastoral care and participation and to meet new requirements to report to the UK Border Agency.
Benefits	Reduced time spent by UG Office and tutors on manual attendance logging, by using an automated system to scan forms and populate MIS data. Will save estimated 0.5 Programme Co-ordinator. Students will have access to their attendance data and be able to notify extenuating circumstances directly in my.wbs. The system will allow us to meet the requirements for reporting to the Border Agency via the Academic Office. New streamlined process can be replicated for PG programmes without the need for additional administrative resources.
Key process changes	Programme staff keep timetable & seminar group data up-to-date and visible on my.wbs. Lecturers print off attendance sheets, listing all students, from my.wbs. Lecturers circulate the attendance sheet, students sign against their names and the lecturer returns the attendance sheet to the Programme Office. Attendance sheet data is scanned into my.wbs and electronic records are automatically updated. Where signatures are missing, students receive an automated email message seeking explanations for absence to be logged via my.wbs. This information can subsequently be used to register sickness absence and for exam boards as well as to meet Border Agency requirements.
Progress	New system for undergraduates launched October 2009. Roll-out of system to postgraduates currently in PROD approval system.
Successes	The Undergraduate Office will monitor percentage of complete records achieved across all modules at the end of Term 1 and report back. If deemed successful, the system will be rolled out to all programmes in subsequent terms.
Improvement Team	Trixie Gadd \|(Improvement Champion), Kate Parkinson, Graeme Shaw, Simon Harper, Michael Eardley, Paul Dawson, Lorna Slack, Catherine Gordon (Facilitator)