Hogeschool Utrecht (HU), Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, uses Paragin Group software in two places where a lot of administration surrounds its students. Coachview, for course and training management, runs the logistics and administration of HU’s non-degree education. OnStage is where HU handles internships and graduation, from vacancies and contracts to students’ files and final products.
The two processes are very different. The starting point was the same: faculties, institutes and coordinators each had their own way of working, and HU wanted one shared, digital overview without losing the flexibility they needed.
The challenge: every faculty and every coordinator with a system of its own
Non-degree education: flexible processes, separate systems
The 21st century calls for highly qualified professionals, and flexible lifelong learning comes first. That is why HU has made post-hbo education, its non-degree programmes, a strategic priority. It is how the university shapes its role in society.
HU has a lot of experience in training working professionals. Every year it trains 25,000 students through part-time and dual programmes, master’s degrees and further education. Each of them is at a different stage of their career. To serve them, every institute and faculty keeps working on the quality of its services, which asks a lot of the logistical support behind the courses and of a clearly profiled offer.
Non-degree education also involves more flexible processes than regular education, and the faculties used different systems for it. HU wanted control over these processes without taking flexibility away from its faculties and institutes. It started five sub-projects to optimise its business processes, one of them business operations, with clear priorities: working uniformly, working efficiently (operational excellence), customer friendliness, flexibility and professionalism. In short, HU wanted to gain, and keep, a grip on the administration of its non-degree programmes.
Internships and graduation: files on paper and in inboxes
The internship and graduation process had the same problem in a different form. Each lecturer and internship coordinator had their own system for monitoring it. Students’ files could only be found with the lecturers themselves, and coordinators kept an overview by filling in a printout in their own way.
HU needed a system to archive the work and final products students delivered and to make their progress more transparent. It also wanted a job board where organisations manage their own internship vacancies.
The solution: Coachview at the centre of course logistics, OnStage for internships
Coachview, connected to the systems HU already had
HU took a thorough approach to selecting a system for non-degree education. It studied the systems each faculty used, had them demonstrated and distilled its requirements from them. Coachview fitted best as the spider in the web: it could optimise the whole logistical education process in a uniform way while keeping flexibility for the individual. Integration was decisive. Coachview had to connect with HU’s “Werk en Studie” website, the financial system and the student information system Osiris. HU has worked with Coachview since 2013.
Once HU had chosen Coachview, all users were trained straight away, learning by doing with detailed work instructions. Two key users supported their colleagues and kept an eye on the uniformity and efficiency gains HU was aiming for. Within six months, all the important logistical processes for non-degree education at more than 14 institutes ran through Coachview.
There were lessons along the way. One was how much room to give the individual wishes of end users. Coachview could handle them well, but at the cost of uniformity and efficiency. HU gradually let go of that individual approach, which made Coachview more broadly applicable across the institutes.
OnStage for the whole internship process
For internships and graduation, HU chose OnStage, a web-based portal. It went live in two steps. Arie Groenenboom, internship coordinator at the ICT Institute, explains how:
“We started the preliminary phase in May and the guidance process in September. We were well supported in the implementation.”
Not every coordinator was waiting for a new system. Rob Niekel, chemistry teacher at Chemical Research & Development, saw that from close by:
“In the beginning, internship coordinators didn’t feel the need to switch to a new system. They were used to their own way of working.”
The result: grip on non-degree education within a year, and internships in one place
Course logistics and finances under control
HU and Coachview also made the invoicing process uniform and integrated it into HU’s existing financial system, which gave full insight into and control over the financial flows. The last step, the link with the student information system, has been completed too. The goal was grip on and an overview of non-degree education, and HU achieved it in about a year. All the important logistical and administrative processes are now aligned and connected to the surrounding systems.
Margot Loop is application manager at HU:
“With the implementation of Coachview, we had grip and control over registrations, courses and the financial administration within a year!”
What that grip looks like in practice:
- Continuous insight into the number of enrolments per programme
- A structured course offer on the “Werk en Studie” website, linked to the Coachview training portal
- Financial overview and control through integration with DAX, with direct feedback in Coachview
- A management module with revenue figures per programme, per institute or per faculty
- Operational grip on lifelong learning through the Osiris integration
Internships and graduation in one digital place
In OnStage, the paper trail has gone. Serena van Lierop, coordinator at the Institute of Law, compares it with how things used to work:
“Where we used to have the contracts and papers on paper, the contracts were still sent to the organisations and the vacancies were sent via email, there is now a system where we can store everything digitally.”
“Everything is in one place and everything is digital. The preliminary phase is very clear.”
Rob Niekel sees the same change:
“It’s a clear system where everything is now stored in a central location and you no longer have to email for days before everything is in order.”
Confidentiality had been a concern, and he is positive about how it is handled now:
“This is now being taken into account in the templates, which is a very positive point.”
For Arjan Kroon, internship coordinator for Communication and Multimedia Design, the gain is access:
“Where access was previously lacking, it is now available in OnStage. It’s accessible and easy to fill in.”
He also sees room to do more with it:
← Back to all stories“The program offers so many possibilities; we’re not fully using that space yet.”
