The registration period has always been something of a nightmare students go through annually. Walk into any college, and you easily spot students lined up in queues waiting for their turn to appear before the faculty adviser to get that green, pink or white sheet of paper stamped.
The time when final grades are due, choosing classes … these are also some other dreaded moments in a students' life.
Acknowledging these problems, many universities in the country have brought information technology into the equation. And a digital campus has made university staff and students that much happier.
During the fifth annual SunGard Higher Education Middle East User Group meeting held in Dubai, many higher education institutes came together to look at IT solutions that can make their services better.
Notes met Mathew Boice, general manager Middle East, SunGard, among other IT experts, who talked about IT solution needs in UAE universities. SunGard Higher Education provides software and systems implementation to colleges and universities.
Ongoing services
According to Boice, universities nowadays need to provide ongoing student services.
"This is why many institutions are looking at adding IT solutions or updating what they have. In some cases such as UAE University, they have revamped their infrastructure to better serve students," he said.
Boice added that students at many universities have a difficult time when they want to access certain facilities either to register online, reserve dorm rooms, check their academic standing, education status or log on to their university e-mail.
What are universities looking for?
"Most of the time, universities concentrate on three major services. One is creating a stable database for student services, which does not only provide students with access to certain facilities, but also allows the institution to follow up with the students after graduation," Boice said.
He added that universities also look at ways to make administrative work more efficient. "For that they look at programmes in which access to certain services such as human resources, finance, management and others is faster and easier," he said.
Boice believes institutions are now recognising the valuable role that technology plays in supporting the higher education "renaissance" across the Middle East and Africa.
Other institutions that have already implemented IT solutions on its campuses include the American University of Sharjah, the Dubai Knowledge Village, the Higher Colleges of Technology and the University of Sharjah.
UAE University has been one of the major institutions to deploy Luminis a student portal created by Sungard.
"It is a special portal for students that allows them to have access to all university services," said Michael Dobe, assistant provost for IT and CIO at UAE University.
"This includes access to instructors, e-mail, library services, calendar, university message board and grades."
"It is a central place that allows students to interact with each other and with the university."
The banner system
UAE university has also installed Sungard's banner system, which allows online registration, faculty advising, room reservations, etc.
"It's a very simple and efficient programme. If students wish to reserve a certain room in a hostel they can do that. This system supports the students and at the same time connects them to the human resources and finance departments," said Dobe.
Another institution that is using the banner system is Fujairah Women's College.
"The banner system is very helpful for the students and faculty members to view class records and course progress," said Dr Johan Grainger, chair of the Student Success and Library Learning Centre at the college.
Andrew Ness, supervisor of Academic Services at the college, believes that there is a lot of potential for the banner programme.
"It's a very efficient programme because you have access to the files of students, faculty and human resources. It is basically a large database, which is currently being used by more than a 1,000 institutions around the world," he said.
