University of Tasmania, Australia

 

SLIMS – What’s it all about?

The SLIMS Programme was established at UTAS to improve academic administrative systems and services for UTAS students and staff. Its primary objective was to make sure UTAS academic administrative systems and processes are capable of meeting current and future needs and supporting the University's growth.The Client Service Model: A Vision for Academic Administrative Services articulated the direction the University wished to take in providing academic administrative services to its students and staff. As such, it provided the overarching principles that guided the SLIMS Programme. 

These principles included:

• design and introduction of academic administrative services which are service-oriented and user-focused;
• simplification of the University's academic administrative processes;
• increase flexibility in processes and services to better respond to changing needs; and to
• personalise academic administrative services so that access to services is determined by the role a staff member performs or a student's position in the student lifecycle.

SLIMS started its life as a single project. It grew into a Programme to oversee and coordinate the introduction of a number of separate, yet related, projects. Each project within the Programme looks at systems and services applying across the student lifecycle - that is, from a person's initial enquiry about studying at UTAS, all the way through to graduation. Projects included:

• Student Management (replacing the University’s student management system and associated academic administrative processes);
• Course Structures (introducing common course structures across UTAS) and;
• Timetabling.