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How to choose the right application management system for your institution?

Nov 7, 2022 | EdTech

A certain kind of fulfillment comes with finding that critical thing you have been searching for. Similarly, making great choices gives lasting satisfaction long after your decision.

For a Higher Education Institution (HEI), it is quite common to come to a crossroads where taking the path leading to success is the utmost priority. One of these such junctures comes when searching for an online application system. As a crucial tool for engaging in the global market for students, HEIs need a capable, hands-on partner delivering this platform.

Why should universities use application management systems?

In a fast-growing, global village, there has to be an effective and efficient educational system. Students can perform better when education institutes are prepared to measure up to global and international standards. Reaching this mark begins with establishing a student application management system.

When universities embrace a student application management system, much more can be executed with less effort.

The main benefit of the student application management system is that the admission process becomes more accessible. Higher Education Institutions receive hundreds of thousands of applications from aspiring students every year. Unfortunately, not every student can be admitted. Administering a rigorous process of vetting and evaluating can be time-consuming and hard to apply the same methodology consistently. An application management system allows prospective students to be assessed easily and shortlisted.

It is an exciting time to work in the international higher education sector. With ever-increasing competition, new tools and technologies are developed almost daily to help universities raise their visibility and increase applicant conversion.

How does it work?
All required documents and information are collected online and through video interviews using an application form modified to fit your school’s admission protocol. Through this process, the best students can be selected using programmed tools for scoring and evaluation.

Furthermore, using a student application management system helps to reduce costs. When evaluations are conducted online, score sheets can be circulated across units and departments using the application. This means money does not have to be spent on printing materials or files to move the data from one team to the other. Additionally, electronic storage is more efficient and environmentally friendly.

And this, in turn, has a favorable implication for financing. Using an application management system saves the management from the cost incurred due to mishandling and incorrect processing.

Accuracy is another benefit of a student application management system. During the manual collation of results, errors may occur with names and numbers. Using a student application management system helps to reduce the mistakes as an AI tool checks to ensure authenticity and consistency. Students are then given feedback when errors occur due to incorrect information or unverifiable details.

A student application management system gives education institutes a global reach and outlook. In addition to processing and verifying the information from applicants, systems are programmed to help education institute monitor their market growth and development. Every entry into the registration portal can be monitored and quantified to help account for where and how applicants are discovering the HEI. Hence, information like the number of applicants can be observed.

More than anything, making the admission process more accessible to prospective students helps an institution to have more applicants and, ultimately, more enrolments. As globalization shrinks the distance between places and people, now is the time for HEIs to focus on growing. A robust student application management system is the most vital tool to ensure this growth.

Much like trying on different shoes to ensure a proper fit, HEIs should review multiple options to ensure they have the right online platform.

Here are some things to consider concerning potential partners:

  • What do you need an application management system to collect from likely students (passport details, test scores, recommendations, motivational letters, etc.)?
  • What tasks would you like to associate with the admissions process (invoice payment, class size monitoring, interviewing, etc.)?
  • Knowing precisely what you want will help you choose from the wide variety of providers and their unique and diverse systems.

Price
You enter the store with a budget and plan when shopping for groceries and clothes. The same should be the case when choosing an online application management system. Having a set budget will help you streamline your search for partners that will be willing to accommodate your economic situation.

Delivery
As anyone who has tried to furnish a room knows, there’s a reason that IKEA is usually the cheapest option. Like DIY furniture, an admission system can require extra work and customization before it’s ready. Given your available resources (IT, support, etc.), the feasibility of additional work should be considered.

Other elements related to the delivery concern.

  • Implementation time. How long before all users are onboarded
  • Simplicity. Will it be easy for future new users to learn from existing users?
  • Flexibility. Do you need a system that is flexible concerning strategic changes and redefinitions?
  • Adaptability. Can you choose what elements you need and adjust standard features? In the future, can you add additional features?
  • Future developments. Does your provider take client feedback to produce changes and improvements?
  • Support. Will you be offered technical and administrative support?
  • SaaS solution or something else. Are you getting a cloud-based or in-house solution?
  • Considering all these factors makes it easier to choose a solution that best suits your institution. While it may not solve 100% of your problems, working with a reliable system developer typically delivers the best results. As effective partnerships are not quickly established, it’s essential to take time and shop around before selecting. Once you have commenced the partnership process, changing to a new partner could be daunting and time-consuming.

At DreamApply, we have been developing our system continuously for nearly a decade. We keep close working relations with our customers and clients to better understand and meet the growing needs of today’s HEIs. We can help you figure out how well our system fits your needs and how we can improve your application management processes.

Our experiences include:

  • Review the institution’s process to find out areas that can be improved while addressing the factors that make applicants drop off.
  • Working in collaboration with the client to set up the best process that will be effective for their institution and streamline the system.
  • Starting and completing a high-tech configuration process tailor-made to suit the system’s complexity. This process is thorough, and when completed to the desired standard, you can manage tens of thousands of applications with DreamApply.
  • Training dedicated support managers who will oversee these changes.
  • Give your institution the facelift it needs today.

Request a DreamApply demo

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