University of Suffolk

University of Suffolk Revolutionises Data Collection with Celcat

The University of Suffolk faced significant hurdles in its annual timetabling process due to inconsistent and poor-quality data collection from various departments. This manual, fragmented approach resulted in:

• Data submitted in an “assortment of formats” (Excel, Word, etc.).
• Missing information, leading to time-consuming follow-ups.
• Manual data entry into Celcat Timetabler, often requiring interpretation of unclear requirements.
• A challenging process that took 26-28 weeks to complete the entire year’s timetable.

As the university transitioned to a new 30-module credit model, the need for a standardised, efficient, and reliable data collection method became critical.

Embracing Celcat’s Data Collection Tool

Seeking to streamline their processes, the University of Suffolk explored Celcat’s Data Collection tool after a recommendation from the Celcat Professional Services team. A demonstration quickly revealed its potential to “make the impossible possible” by standardising data collection and improving overall efficiency through addressing previous pain points.

Deciding on a Strategy

Implementing a template structure aligned with Celcat’s event fields, ensuring all necessary information is captured consistently. This promotes uniformity in naming conventions.

Design & Data Integrity

Combining Excel flexibility with Celcat standards, the tool offers locked columns to prevent users from damaging scripts or formulas. Pre-filled data aligned with Celcat resources significantly reduces manual input and errors. It features multiple selection lists for modules, staff, specialist rooms, and general room layouts (e.g., lecture, seminar, computer, MS Teams), ensuring accuracy and ease of selection.

Getting the Template Right with Smart Automation & Enhanced Clarity

The tool also provides automated room allocation based on course numbers using a “best size fit” policy and allows for the incorporation of session titles (e.g., “Welcome Day,” “Reading List”) for health-related subjects to offer greater clarity for students. Furthermore, it includes validation of time fields to immediately flag erroneous entries and enables the automatic population of student numbers for returning students by linking directly from module sizes.

Uploading the Completed Template

Providing a user-friendly uploading process with staging tables and automated imports. While new to the technical aspects, the University of Suffolk staff found the process becoming easier with practice, thanks to clear steps provided by the Celcat Professional Services team.

Validating the Data

Enabling users to check, catch, and correct issues before committing data to the timetable, ensuring “only clean data makes it to the timetable.” This pre-validation is crucial for data quality.

Impact & Benefits

Though still in the early stages of adoption, the University of Suffolk has already experienced significant benefits.

Dramatic Time Savings

The annual timetable production process has been reduced by approximately half, potentially cutting the 26-28 week timeline down to 13-14 weeks. This allows the University of Suffolk to initiate data collection later (e.g., April/May) and still complete the timetable by July.

Improved Data Quality & Standardisation

The Data Collection tool has revolutionised how the University of Suffolk collects its data by promoting a single data entry process and eliminating varied formats. This ensures consistency and reduces missing information.

Enhanced Timetabling Efficiency

The combination of Excel flexibility and Celcat timetabling standards has made the process both easier and more efficient. Also, a streamlined workflow, particularly with Live Reports, provides critical insights. For instance, a new report identifies events without assigned locations, allowing for centralised, strategic room scheduling based on core timetabling principles (largest cohort, longest pattern, most constraints). This provides a “bigger picture” that was previously unavailable.

Empowered Timetablers

By handling the “heavy lifting” of data collection and validation, the Data Collection tool allows timetablers to focus on their core expertise: validating data and optimising the timetable.

Future Planning

The improved data visibility from reports is expected to inform strategic decisions regarding estate improvement and room requirements.

Scalability and Support

The Data Collection tool is designed by Celcat for Celcat, ensuring direct support and seamless integration. This “key benefit” means institutional knowledge is retained, even if staff leave, as Celcat support is always available.

User Adoption

While initial apprehension and resistance were present among some end-users, positive feedback has emerged. Demonstrations highlighting the “simplicity of the form” and the lightning-fast data import process (seconds) have built user confidence.

Management Confidence

Senior decision-makers are “absolutely delighted” with the tool’s performance, validating the decision to push forward despite initial technical hurdles.

Overcoming Challenges & Future Outlook

The implementation faced technical challenges, including an outdated integration tool at the University of Suffolk (not upgraded since 2016). This required significant expertise from the Celcat Professional Services team, whose “knowledge, experience, and skills” were “second to none” in overcoming these hurdles, including demands from the university’s IT department. Their support was crucial, as the internal IT department manages only servers and platforms, not third-party applications.

Despite being in its infancy, the Celcat Data Collection tool has already delivered substantial benefits for the University of Suffolk, promising continued improvements in data quality, efficiency, and strategic resource management. The university also plans to further develop the form and explore advanced features like importing student data into groups using unique student IDs, further streamlining the timetabling and allocation process.