Salford Software's Identity Management Helps Kingston University Through 'Clearing And Enrolment

The start of the new university term is an exciting and anxious time for UK students who have left school with A-level results to begin life in Higher Education, but it's the start of an intense period of activity within the universities.

For Kinston University this is made possible by an Identity Management solution implemented by Salford Software enabling it to process thousands of A-level results, clearing-hotline queries, offers and confirmations.

These are processed within a few days and behind the scenes the IT department creates thousands of new accounts across a diverse range of computer systems in preparation for enrolment and the start of studies.

"We adopted an identity driven approach to meet these challenges because the system clearly defines business rules and automates processes to improve the student experience during an extremely busy period," said Len Marshall, Senior Technical Consultant.

"The university is notified of A-level results before the students. UCAS data is fed into the Student Records System which triggers a flurry of identity-driven events. Providing the required information meets the business criteria, we create an account for each student in a dedicated Identity Directory with a unique username and a pseudo-random password."

"Identical accounts are immediately created across different directories to deliver identity-driven applications (a Virtual Learning Environment, Portal etc). From hereon, changes to user attribute data, including passwords, are synchronised automatically across all systems."

Students only require a single username and password to access IT within the university. This, coupled with a single-sign-on solution provides transparent access to services on and off campus.

The Identity Directory writes the username and password back to the Student Record System. This adds key instructions to letters that are posted to students informing them how they can enrol on-line.

"Experience has shown that the majority of IT problems relate to usernames and passwords when students start their studies. We exploit our identity solution to minimise these problems. We require students to change their passwords and populate forgotten password information before starting the enrolment process," said Len Marshall.

Once changed, the password is synchronised across all systems. The students then enrol with their own password instead of the complex one we generate. They can change their password again, remotely, at any time.

Students that don't enrol are flagged for automatic deletion across all systems through the Student Record System at a future time.

In the same way when a student finishes his/her studies, the Student Record System initiates the deletion of all accounts from live services, however, the identity information is retained in the Identity Directory for future alumnus requirements, life-long learning and continuing personal development as required by the university.

"We are looking at ways of exploiting identity management to further improve the student experience - there's no reason why the publication of A-level results has to be the trigger that initiates the processes that take place," said Len Marshall.

"We are designing an applicant portal with the aim of delivering personalised content and a 'taster experience' for all applicants - improving our ability to communicate with prospective students and give them familiarity with the Kingston IT environment."

"Identity management is providing Kingston University with the building blocks on which to provide a value-added service to its students and staff - making processes such as clearing and enrolment faster and more accurate and improving the overall interaction students have with the university from day one," said James Doggart, managing director, Salford Software.