Queensland Dept of Education and Training to review student admin system

The Queensland Department of Education and Training (DET) will shortly begin a review of the state's TAFE student administration system ahead of a potential move to a new system in the next two years.

The department currently manages the student records and financial management system, which is used by 11 institutes and two statutory TAFE institutes to deliver educational services to 90 metropolitan areas, on behalf of TAFE Queensland.

According to the department, the system interfaces with other core applications such as SAP, CRM, a my.TAFE learning management system, a ResourceBank content management system and other internal and external departmental applications.

However, the PeopleSoft/Oracle Campus Solution-based system is showing signs of ageing, having been in use for seven years and having undergone a major facelift in 2008/09.

As a result, the department will review over the next two years the functionality of the student administrative system and develop student management options for enhanced enrolment, student self-service and e-business capabilities.

For the longer term, the department will also re-examine the business requirements for a student management and administration system and analyse a range of systemic solutions, support models and ownership models.

It will also assess whether to migrate to a new off-the-shelf administrative system or develop one in-house.

In 2009 to 2010 the TAFE Queensland network delivered vocational education and training to 230,000 students.

Earlier this month, the Queensland DET said school students in the state will receive 65,000 notebooks before the end of the year thanks to a new deal between itself and Acer.

The Acer Aspire 1830T notebooks will be supplied under round three of the National Secondary School Computer Fund, with CIO of Queensland DET, David O’Hagan, saying the project is a first because of the 3G capability of the devices being rolled out.

“A rollout of high-end, 3G laptops has never been done before in Australia, let alone on this scale,” O’Hagan said. “This 3G initiative will ensure more than 60,000 state high school students [will] have access to the department’s online learning environment, anywhere and at any time.”

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