Reengineering the residence application and admission business processes at a selected tertiary institution

Abstract

Institutions of higher learning are operating in an environment that is continuously informed by the markets and government regulations, hence the need for continuous improvement initiatives in order to remain relevant to the dynamic changes in higher education. The improvements are done by reviewing the course content, operations, and business processes, which includes an application and admission process. This study analyses the residence application and admission process (RAAP). The business processes and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system support the realisation of the application and admission process of the university. The review of the current application and admission process will be based on business processes, business process reengineering, and the business process modelling theory. Therefore, the problem statement for the study is that the impact of information flow during the application and admission of students for residency at the university involves business processes that are inefficient and ineffective. This results in mistakes being made by administrators, and students who are dissatisfied. The study is based on two research questions: Firstly, what strategies can be used to improve the application and admission process of the role players at the selected tertiary institution, and secondly, how does the application and admission process affect service delivery to the students and residence administrators at the selected tertiary institution? The aim of the study is to explore how the participating students and administrators in the residence application and admission process perceive the efficiency of university business processes. A further aim is to explore how the processes can be reengineered to fulfil the requirements of the students and administrators. The research methodology employed to resolve the problem logically is qualitative in nature. A research paradigm guides the actions of the researcher with regard to the generation and interpretation data, which results in knowledge production. The inductive research approach is well suited for the research strategy. For the purpose of this study, a case study strategy is deemed suitable because of its qualitative nature, and comprehensive knowledge of the university processes is required to understand and address the research problem. The unit of analysis of the study is the university’s administrative department business processes. The purposive, non-randomly selected students who applied for residency and the employees of the applicable departments within the university form the unit of observation, which is also a source of data. The data are collected by means of interviews using semi-structured questionnaires, with the samples being non-random and purposively selected. The data collected in the case study are then be summarised and categorised into themes. The themes are uses to present the “As-Is” and the “To-Be” application and admission process.