Once operational, the newly-installed Application Tracking System,
developed by Netlink, will enable concerned faculty, staff members and
applicants to track the status of individual applications at each stage
of the internal review process, officials said.
The project was launched in September by Prof. Joydeep Dutta, Vice
President for Academic Affairs. It aims to enhance the overall
processing of admissions applications within AIT. Initial
implementation will be for the January 2011 intake. Based on the
results, the application tracking system will be fully implemented for
processing all applications for the August 2011 intake.
“The principle is much like allowing a customer of DHL to track online
the whereabouts of a sent package,” said Mr. Benjamin Gargabite,
Coordinator, Admissions and Scholarships, who added that the new
electronic system is intended to boost efficiency to the entire
admissions process, and to keep applicants informed.
For example, all online applicants will immediately receive an
auto-generated confirmation that their application is being processed,
he said, which is the vision of the vice president.
On October 28, over 40 staff members from the Admissions Office and
staff from each of AIT’s 32 fields of study underwent a training
workshop on using the new Application Tracking System.
Mr. Gargabite explained the multi-step process that applications now go
through once they are received by AIT. Currently, applications received
by the Admissions Office are sent to the school deans, who then
distribute them to the individual field of study coordinators. These
are then reviewed by faculty members who then channel their
recommendations back through the coordinators to the dean. School deans
then instruct the Admissions Office regarding the issuance of official
acceptance offers or rejection notices.
“With this new system, each of the points in the chain will be
tracked,” Mr. Gargabite said.
One of the drawbacks of the manual process is in not fully knowing
where individual applications are at any one time. “Now we will be able
to evaluate how long an application spends at each point, and know
where the bottlenecks are,” he said.
Portable bar code scanners have been installed in the Schools and
Admissions Office that can read electronic code numbers, representing
the 12-digit application code numbers.
“There will be no need to waste time keying in application code
numbers,” explained Mr. Gargabite.
Netlink Systems Analyst, Mr. Anthony Edwin P. Guirnela, explained the
barcode system imprints the date and the time and stores it in the
system. Later on, data can be used to calculate the turn-around times,
showing precisely how long an application stays in a particular point
area.
“The system will allow AIT to know how long each application form
spends in the Admissions Office or in the Schools,” Mr. Guirnela said.
Those processes are viewable online by the Deans, the Field of Study
Coordinators, and the VPAA. Everyone concerned has the same real-time
information about a particular application’s status,” he added.
Lacking statistical data on acceptable length of time for each unit to
process the applications forms, officials say the barcode system will
be used to gather data to inform decisions on appropriate time
intervals for each stage.
“When there is delay, there will be quick follow-up. Greater
efficiency, shorter processing periods and faster follow-up should
assist us with improved enrolments,” Mr. Gargabite said.
