Dive Brief:
- A new multinational survey from Unit 4, a company that provides enterprise applications to service organizations, finds around 33% of students express disappointment in student administration systems and around 70% recommend their institutions review and adjust digital strategies, eCampus News reports.
- The survey was carried out by DJS Research last spring, with a sample of 2,000 full- and part-time students in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Benelux, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, with the goal of measuring students' perceptions of digital administration solutions in use and whether a great experience contributes to a competitive advantage for the institution.
- Among U.S. students taking the survey, 44% want more digital interaction with their institution, and 36% of respondents overall suggested they spend less time studying because admin systems in place are overly complex.
Dive Insight:
As more interactions and transactions between institutions and students go digital, colleges and universities will need to take the user interfaces of student administration systems into account. Whether they're trying to access course information, purchase books or make payments to the bursar's office, students are best served by a system that is intuitively designed and easily navigable. To put it simply, the difference can, in some cases, be comparable to that of using a paper map versus receiving directions from an app like Google.
On that front, institutions should work closely with vendors to best meet the needs of students and others using these systems. Doing so is key in finding the best fit for your campus, and it can save time, energy and money in the future spent reconfiguring a system.