It is proposed that a national student record system be selected, procured and deployed in every higher education institution in the UK thereby delivering significant benefit to all institutions, students and staff and resulting in substantial financial savings and major reductions in organisational pain.
Every higher education institution has to have a student record system. Every institution buys, installs, develops and maintains its own at significant cost, not just financial but also in terms of people, change impact and significant distraction from core education and research activities.
The innovation proposed here is for the selection and deployment over time of a national student record system in every higher education institution in the UK. The impact of this will be transformative and bring huge benefits to institutions and all the people who work in them as well as streamlining regulatory and reporting requirements. Implementation will not be wholly straightforward but will be no more complicated or challenging than the status quo over the next decade – and significantly cheaper.
There are only a handful of providers of student record systems and one dominant provider in the UK. By establishing a national student record system, the government would take huge amounts of cost out of the higher education system and remove significant pain from HEIs and their staff. This will be a huge win.
