Service Excellence Programme - Student Administration & Support – Special Circumstances
Service Excellence Programme – Student Administration and Support
Project Initiation Document
Tier 4 Compliance
(Project Code – SAS008)
Page 4 of 20
Service Excellence Programme - Student Administration & Support – Special Circumstances
1 Contents
1 Contents 2
2 Document Management 3
2.1 Document Owner(s) 3
2.2 Revision History 3
2.3 Document Distribution 3
2.4 Document Approvals 3
3 Background 4
4 Objectives 4
5 Deliverables 5
6 Scope 6
6.1 In Scope 6
6.2 Out of Scope 6
7 Benefits Management 6
8 Costs 7
8.1 Project Roles Funding 7
9 Project Approach 7
10 Project Plan Milestones 9
11 Stakeholder Engagement 10
12 Assumptions and Constraints 10
12.1 Assumptions 10
12.2 Constraints 10
13 Dependencies and Impact 11
13.1 Dependencies 11
13.2 Impact 11
14 Risks 11
15 Governance and Assurance 11
16 Appendix A - Detailed Project Plan 13
17 Appendix B - The Key Stages of the Agile Process 15
18 Appendix C – Benefits Log 18
19 Appendix D – Detailed Stakeholder Communication plan (Draft) 19
2 Document Management
2.1 Document Owner(s)
Role / Name / Dates (start/end)SA&S Project Manager / Jaffar Hamoudi / May 2017
2.2 Revision History
Revised by / Reason / Date / VersionJaffar Hamoudi / Initial draft / 12 June 2017 / 0.1
Jaffar Hamoudi / Incorporated feedback from Kate Monroe and added costs for tablet computers / 15 June 2017 / 0.2
Jaffar Hamoudi / Incorporated feedback from Franck / 29 June 2017 / 0.3
Jaffar Hamoudi / Amended Deliverables table following Feedback from Franck / 30 June 2017 / 0.4
Jaffar Hamoudi / Version 1 / 11 July 2017 / 1.0
2.3 Document Distribution
To (Name/Group) / Date / VersionRobert Lawrie, Kate Monroe, Franck Bergeret / 12 June 2017 / V0.1
Robert Lawrie, Barry Neilson, Franck Bergeret / 29 June / V0.3
2.4 Document Approvals
Name/Group / Title / Date / VersionProgramme Board / 1.0
Robert Lawrie / Project Sponsor / 19 June 2017 / 0.2
Kate Monroe / Business Lead / 19 June 2017 / 0.2
Project Team / 15 June 2017 / 0.2
Franck Bergeret / Programme Manager / 30 June 2017 / 0.4
3 Background
The University was subject to an audit of our Home Office licences in November 2016 relating to our sponsorship of international students (Tier 4) and staff (Tier 2 and Tier 5) last year. Following the audit, the University’s licences for all tiers were renewed.
Penningtons Manches LLP previously conducted a separate audit of Tier 4 Compliance Processes in October 2016 to identify best practice and areas for improvement.
During the audit processes, we identified areas relating to sponsorship of Tier 4 students that require improvement. To progress this work the University’s Home Office Assurance Group has agreed that this be progressed through the Student Administration and Support Service Excellence Programme through the Tier 4 Project Group.
The benefits of this work will be:
· Strengthening of best practice in all areas of Tier 4 Compliance
· Reduction of risk associated with our Tier 4 Sponsor Licence
· Increased assurance for University Senior Management regarding institutional levels of compliance
The project has 2 phases. Phase 1 will deliver a new face-to-face registration process in week 0 for Tier 4 students, new contact points for engagement and monitoring and put in place arrangements for monitoring students while working or studying away from the university. Phase 2 will deliver solutions to address the recommendations of the Audit report.
4 Objectives
The aims of this project are to:
Phase one objectives
1. Implement a new international check-in process for students beginning their programme of study at the University of Edinburgh from September 2017.
2. Develop and implement a EUCLID solution to support the new international check-in process.
3. Define and implement 10 contact points for schools to use for engagement and attendance monitoring.
4. Remove existing Census points. Define and implement a process for preventing students who have not fully matriculated from attending classes.
5. For students working or studying away, put agreements in place with partner institutions and define process for monitoring and reporting Tier 4 students’ engagement and attendance.
Phase two objectives
6. Create MI reports to allow monitoring and reporting of issues to the Home Office Assurance Group.
7. Define process of escalation for students with poor/non-attendance
8. Put in place guidance and provide training to Schools & Colleges on the use of Engagement tools and information recording.
9. Provide guidance and training to Schools and Colleges on absence management
10. Implement training programme for all areas of compliance including Admissions
The benefits to the University will be:
· Strengthening of best practice in all areas of Tier 4 Compliance
· Reduction of risk associated with our Tier 4 Sponsor Licence
· Increased assurance for University Senior Management regarding institutional levels of compliance
5 Deliverables
The key deliverables are set out in table below.
Objectives / Deliverables / PriorityPhase 1 / Implement a new international check-in process for students beginning their programme of study at the University of Edinburgh from September 2017. / International check-in process for students beginning their programme of study at the University of Edinburgh from 1st August 2017. / Must
EUCLID functionality to capture and store Biometric card information and capture and record electronic signature as proof of biometric card collection. This functionality will be ready for January starts. / Should
Develop and implement a EUCLID solution to support the new international check-in process. / EUCLID functionality to support the new international check-in process from 1st August / Must
Remove existing Census points. Define and implement a process for preventing students who have not fully matriculated from attending classes. / Ten new contact points used by schools to record student engagement. / Must
Removal of the Tier 4 Census as an attendance-monitoring event. / Must
Put in place a process to prevent international students attending classes before they have attended the international check-in and evidenced their permission to study in the UK. / Must
For students working or studying away, put agreements in place with partner institutions and define process for monitoring and reporting Tier 4 students’ engagement and attendance. / Formal process for reporting student attendance while working and studying away from the university. / Must
Phase 2 / Create MI reports to allow monitoring and reporting of issues to the Home Office Assurance Group. / New MI reports to allow effective monitoring and escalation of issues. / Must
Define process of escalation for students with poor/non-attendance / Put in place process and guidance for dealing with non-attendance by students. / Must
Provide guidance and training to Schools and Colleges on absence management / Develop and implement effective training programme for all areas of compliance. / Must
Implement training programme for all areas of compliance including Admissions / Must
6 Scope
6.1 In Scope
The scope of the project is:
1. Implementation of pre-matriculation visa checking and recording;
2. Introduction of ten new points of contacts for Schools;
3. Revision of handbooks and policy guidance;
4. A process for dealing with Tier 4 students while working or studying away from the university;
5. Addressing specific recommendations from the audit report.
6.2 Out of Scope
Areas that are out of scope of this project include:
1. Creation of single compliance unit is out of scope;
2. Audit report recommendation relating to recording and monitoring of hours of Tier 4 sponsored students employed by the university.
7 Benefits Management
The following key benefits have been identified. Details of how these will be measured are set out in the benefits log which is included in appendix C.
8 Costs
The estimated costs for this project are noted below.
DaysType / No. Days
Build (incl. BA) / 180
User
Total days / 180
Staff will use the tablet computers during the face-to-face checking process to take photos passports, visas and biometric cards for upload onto the students’ record as well as capturing the students’ signatures to evidence biometric card collection. Using tablet computers will speed up the face-to-face check-in process allowing staff to process students faster reducing queues and thereby improving the students’ experience. The estimated cost of the tablet computers is set out below.
Tablet computer optionsOptions / Unit Cost / Number Needed / Total Cost
1. Lenovo Tablets / £234 / 15 / £3,510.00
2. Apple iPad Mini 4 (16GB) / £242 / 15 / £3,630.00
There is an existing supply of tablet computers in Student Systems Operations. The immigration and compliance team will use these to process the face-to-face checks. There will therefore be no requirement to purchase new tablets.
8.1 Project Roles Funding
Role / Name / Days / FundingProject Manager / Jaffar Hamoudi / 20 / Funded through SEP
Business Analysts, Tester / Combination of Shirley McCulloch
Laura Cruickshank / 100 / Funded through SSP resource
Developers / Morag Iannetta
Harry Newton / 80 / Funded through SSP resource
Technical operations / 8 / Funded through SSP
Training / N/A / Funded through SSP resource
Total Build Days / 212
This resource will be monitored through time recording data.
9 Project Approach
This project will adopt an agile approach to develop the desired systems solution. The main stages of agile are set out below mapped to the standard project stages and the KMPG methodology, which has been used to date. On approval of this PID, this project will have completed planning.
Fig 9.1: Agile Project Stages
This at a high level will involve the following phases:
· Planning phase:
This involves identifying the key stakeholders that will be involved in the project from the beginning to the end.
At the end of planning a list of activities will be set for the next phase (foundation) with responsibilities, stakeholders involved and timeframe.
· Foundation phase:
This is an important phase as it defines the desired solution. All of the analysis work that leads up to the start of the software development and implementation will be undertaken in this phase.
For this project, the aims of this phase are:
1. Identify and validate requirements with the users.
2. Produce a plan of what the new system will need to do in the form ofa user story map. Users, developers and business analysts working together will develop the user story map.
3. Plan the minimal viable solution taking into account the constraint of the mid-August go-live.
At the end of the foundation phase we will have enough information to start the development work, we will be able to plan what will be developed and when, and have a relative estimation of the work. We will not have a complete design of the system, this will evolve and change as the system is developed.
Due to the relatively small scale of the required systems changes, it is expected that the foundation phase will be completed as the same time as the planning phase.
· Development Iterations phase:
During this phase, we will aim to make usable software live as quickly as possible, so colleagues can use it, give feedback, spot bugs, and suggest improvements. Feedback is much more useful and constructive when colleagues are working with the software rather than from the outcome of testing.
Development will be broken down into iterations, or short periods of work (usually a couple weeks). At the end of the iteration, we would normally release software to the live environment. We then build on top of this through numerous iterations (and releases) until we have delivered the required solution. This means that during the development period, we will also collect more user requirements (stories) and be designing the next pieces of the system, and this goes on throughout the development period.
Due to time constraints, the functionality to support the face-to-face visa check-in will be delivered in two stages as shown in table 9.1 below:
Stage / Description / Target Date1 / Pre-matriculation visa check functionality including photo upload functionality utilising tablet computers. / Mid July
2 / Functionality to capture and store Biometric card information and capture and record electronic signature as proof of biometric card collection. This functionality will be ready for January starts. Students’ signatures to evidence biometric card collection will be captured using tablet computers. / Mid December
Table 9.1 Functionality deployment stages
More detail about the key stages of agile projects is provided in appendix B.
10 Project Plan Milestones
An initial outline plan has been prepared. The outline project plan is included in Appendix A. This is the baseline project plan.
Phases / MilestonePlanning / PID approved- End of planning / 23/06/17
Foundation-duration
3 weeks / Requirements Analysis and solution design / 23/06/17
validation, estimate, prioritise, plan releases- High level product design
International Check-in and Engagement Points / Deliver UAT testing/Training completed / 24/07/17
Pre-matriculation visa check functionality including photo upload functionality (Stage 1) deployed to production / 2707/17
Go-Live pre-matriculation visa check (Stage 1). / 1 August
10 Contact Points Defined - all Colleges / End Aug. 17
Implement plan to stop not fully-matric students attending classes / August 17
Biometric Card data and confirmation signature capture ready / Dec 2017
Working and Studying Away Student Engagement / Put Agreements in place with overseas study abroad hosts regarding monitoring Tier 4 student attendance and engagement / End Jan 18
Agree reporting duties with partners / End Feb 18
Phase 2 – Audit Report Remedial Actions / MI Reporting / Dec 2017
Implement Training for Absence Management / End Nov 17
Training programme for all areas of compliance implemented / End May 18
Project Closure / June 2018
11 Stakeholder Engagement
A detailed stakeholder engagement plan is currently being developed in conjunction with the Kate Monroe.
A draft Stakeholder communication plan is included in appendix D.