University Enrollment Management Using Document Management Software
[salesforce form=”5″]As all registrar and admissions officers know, the times of the year when applications for admission start rolling in are both an exciting and stressful time. Higher education in all of its forms is extremely beneficial to everyone who is able to take advantage of these learning opportunities.
The application and enrollment process is a detailed one for those applying as well as those receiving applications and enrollment. There are many forms, letters, applications, and tests to fill out, send in, and receive.
Did you know that more than 28,000,000 students enrolled in one of the 7,226 reporting post-secondary educational institutions in the 2012 – 2013 school year? Of those students, 20,000,000 of them enrolled in the fall. That is more than 20 million applications processed each fall.
Between the years of 2002 and 2012, enrollment in post-secondary educational institutions increased by 24%; this means that the amount of paperwork to store and track increased by that amount as well.
Student Application Process
The student application process is fairly standard, with some variations from institution to institution.
The basics of the student application process include the following documents:
- Enrollment application
- Official transcripts
- Test scores
- Letters of recommendation
- Entrance essay
- Financial aid information
While these are the primary documents included with an application, there are schools that require more and some that require less. Did you know that in 2009, Tufts University encouraged their applicants to submit a short YouTube video with their application?
The processes listed above don’t even include all of the other documents that come into play from time to time among college applicants, including the following:
- Nonresident tuition exemption
- Resident status verification
- Address correction or change
- Confidentiality holds
- Cross enrollment
- Fee waivers
- And many more
Document Management Software
Document management software (DMS) is essentially a catalog or library of your documents. It is software that manages, tracks, and stores documents.
Other features of DMS include the following:
- Metadata: Examples of this type of data includes the date the document was received, the user history, and possibly extracted text for greater searchability.
- Integration: Examples of DMS integration include the ability to open a document within the DMS, make changes, and save or share it without having to leave the DMS program.
- Retrieval: By using powerful and smart programs, documents can be quickly retrieved using basic or partial search terms. This is a time-wise document-retrieval solution, so employees don’t have to spend hours searching or categorizing documents into a specialized and often complicated system.
- Sharing: When it comes to document sharing within an education institution, privacy laws are paramount. With secure and compliant DMS, documents can be shared with ease.
Managing and Processing Student Applications
eFileCabinet DMS can help in the management of student applications. The mountains of paperwork are often received electronically, and those paper copies received through the mail are often digitally scanned and stored for easier management. Cutting-edge DMS will allow you to efficiently store, track, and share the necessary parts of the applications to process for admission.
To make the DMS process even sweeter, the software can be set up to perform workflow actions to save time. These workflow actions mean that you can specify what part of the application goes where, and it will do so automatically. You can also set up automatic transfers, deletions, and archiving, among other tasks. This way each person involved in the review process and decision making receives the documents they need when they need them for a streamlined and headache-free process.
DMS and workflow processes aid in the time spent receiving, processing, and managing student enrollment applications. With eFileCabinet, you can also be sure that your entire document processing and sharing is done within industry-specific compliance standards.
Student Application Processing Solutions
As you can see, a functional, cutting-edge, industry-compliant DMS will save you time, money, and frustration as you take advantage of the electronic technology available to you. If DMS saved you only 15 minutes per application and you processed only 10,000 applicants each fall, you would save over 41 hours of processing power. But on average, 5 hours of productivity is saved each week by setting up DMS workflow by companies that use a document management software program.
In addition to the time and productivity savings, think of all of the space you will save with an electronic document management system. No more filing cabinets taking over your office. Yes, you can even scan and store old student documents that you have to keep for historical and public informational purposes.
eFileCabinet has the student document processing solutions to fit your needs. Fill out the form on this page to see a demo of eFileCabinet software.