From weeks to days: an admissions transformation story

The problem was not effort

Hull's business case put two of its admissions processes at an expected £527,113 a year between them. That is fifteen full time roles. One was checking documents from international postgraduate applicants. The other was answering questions about fee status.

Neither process decides anything. They are what an applicant sits through before anyone can give them an answer. The applicants waiting are international postgraduates. They usually hold offers from more than one university, and they are working backwards from a visa appointment and a fixed course start date. Every day without an answer is a day they can spend deciding somewhere else.

Nothing was broken. Every application still got processed. It just took a little longer each year. In admissions the university that answers first usually wins, so taking longer costs Hull students it had already convinced.

Applications kept going up. The team did not. Hull had to get through more of them without cutting corners and without more budget.

The four figures above are delivered results. The £527,113 is an expected figure, taken from the business case built for Hull on two of the six processes. That case shows the investment paying for itself in under four months.

Your speakers