York University was awarded first place in the 2015 Quality and Productivity Awards competition hosted by the Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUB0).
A pan-University team comprised of members from the Office of Institutional Planning & Analysis (OIPA), the Vice-Provost Academic and University Information Technology was awarded the prize for their submission “Integrated Academic Program Information: Informing Decisions through Integrated Systems Data Intelligence”. This year’s competition called for submissions that addressed the topic Achieving and Demonstrating Operational Effectiveness within Higher Education Administration.
Above: Team members from Vice-Provost Academic Office, Office of Institutional Planning and Analysis and University Information Technology who collaborated on the project. From left, Vice-Provost Academic Alice Pitt; Mira Miller, senior institutional analyst; Iris An, senior financial analyst; Josephine Tang, SAS programmer; Tien Ha, manager Enterprise Data Warehouse and Reporting; and Sarah Cantrell, executive director, Office of Institutional Planning and Analysis, Division of the Vice-President Academic and Provost. Missing from the photo is Dave Smith (retired director).
When the University embarked on an institution-wide academic and administrative program review, a key requirement was the development of meaningful data for academic programs. An Integrated Academic Program Information database was developed to meet this need. The database, created through collaboration between the three offices, pulled together admissions, curriculum, enrolment, scholarship and degree information to provide accurate, accessible, multi-year information in a single page format.
While originally created to support the program review, the Academic Program Information Form was adapted to support the cyclical program review process. Consultations with faculty members and the Vice-Provost Academic informed development of the original Integrated Academic Program Information Form. The database that produces the forms is now updated annually, with information being made available to all academic programs, not just those participating in Cyclical Program Reviews in any particular year. The information is summarized on one-page, and is accessible to York staff through the OIPA website under Academic Program Report.
The one-page integrated Academic Program Information forms can be updated in two days by a single staff member, where previously the data took approximately several weeks to pull together and was captured on more than 30 pages from various systems . Academic and non-academic staff no longer need to search through numerous sources for information for what they need, and are provided with readable, easily accessible information in a multi-year snapshot.
The Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO) Quality and Productivity Awards Program provides a national platform to share best practices, celebrate the successes of colleagues, and recognize exceptional innovation.
For more information on this project, contact Iris An, senior financial analyst in the Office of Institutional Planning & Analysis, at 416-736-2100 ext. 44404 or irisan@yorku.ca.