Project manager : Dr / Mahmoud Monier

Introduction:

One of the top priorities to the Ministry of Higher Education is to introduce and develop communication and information technology within the organization of higher education. This is evident through the third phase of Higher Education Organization as Egypt witnesses a new era.  This phase aims at using communication and information technology to raise the educational, research and administrative capacity of Higher Education and Scientific Research organization. It also aims at the continuous development of scientific and training programs and syllabi and their teaching methods in addition to developing new other methods of education to keep pace with the global development and to cover the growing demand for higher education. This requires taking advantage of the information resources and international libraries and raising the capacity and skills of the academic and administrative staff in the institutions of higher education and scientific research while dealing with communication and information technology and multimedia.

While activating the assigned role for the communication and information technology Project (ICTP), which was a key element in the Loan Agreement between Egypt and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (Loan Agreement No. EGT 4658 ratified by the parliament on June 18, 2002), and which aims at supporting and financing high priority fields in the strategic plan of the higher education development project, financing the projects of developing management information systems  at universities raises the efficiency of the administrative system in higher education institutions which would benefit the quality and efficiency of the provided education.

Project Goals:

The main objective of this project is to establish an integrated management information system which enables us to automate the dynamic administrative processes in the university. This can be achieved through:

1-      Supporting the decision making process.

2-      Improving the services provided to the graduates, students and faculty stuff.

3-      Improving the accuracy of the follow up and management of student data in the university.

4-      Achieving work flexibility within the different departments of the university.

5-      Building strong and continuous relationships inside and outside the university campus.

Project phases:

1-      Buying computers needed for the project and distributing them to faculties and departments of the university.

2-      Collecting the necessary data for the system.

3-      Analyzing the system and finding out its inputs and outputs.

4-      Making a preliminary visualization of the system through initiating preliminary screens of it.

5-      Making seminars to the staff of involved faculties and departments and displaying the  screens of the proposed system to make sure that it meets the requirements of the concerned authorities.

6-      Uploading the system on the computers and entering or transferring the data from the proposed systems in the center.

7-      Making a preliminary test of the required functions at different levels.

8-      Receiving the system.

The top achievements

1-      A Center to manage information systems in the universities supplied with hardware & trained technical personnel cable of running the systems.

2-      Developing unified systems for students’ affairs, higher studies, faculty staff, schedules, control and exams at all universities, and linking them to electronic coordination and the Supreme Council of Universities.

3-      Uploading all regulations and the data of the students registered in faculties and providing computers, printers and scanners needed for the work.

Project Outputs:

1-      Establishing a strong and effective management information system.

2-      Achieving integration between developed management information systems and other available systems provided by the Ministry of State for Administrative Development.

3-      Preparing electronic data that enables the processes entering and converting data.

4-      Good training for faculties & departments staff in the different universities.

5-      Integrated training for the technical team to manage and maintain the system so the team will be able to modify the system to reach the project’s main goal which is to reach an integrated electronic system to manage all administrative processes within the university faculties and its various departments.

Beneficiaries of the project:

1-      Students of the various faculties and institutes of the university.

2-      Postgraduate students.

3-      Graduates.

4-      Academic Staff.

5-      The administration of the faculties and the campus.

Faculties selected for the project’s implementation:

1-      Faculty of Women for Arts, Science and Education.

2-      Faculty of Nursing.

The plan to ensure the continuity of the project plan

The continuity of the project can be ensured through financial revenue that can be achieved through:

1-      Allocating a part of the annual expenses of the university students for the center in return for the services provided by the Center for: the new students - university students - graduates - postgraduate students.

2-      Holding specialized training courses in the field of information technology (such as specialized Microsoft courses - Oracle courses...).

3-      Providing marketing services to external organizations through the free services provided by the project for the university students and staff.

4-      The University can provide institutional support by establishing a central unit to support, maintain and develop information technology.

The volume of the entered data:

Some faculties’ data was entered in terms of (the group name and status, seat number, section and type of education).

Activities related to the quality of the project’s implementation:

Controlling the quality of the project, its strategy and its monitoring methodology will be effective through participating in all the activities that will take place in the project including but not limited to:

1-      The continuous check and track of the targets of the project and its daily activities.

2-      Controlling the system through criteria and standards to ensure having integrated quality and performance.

3-      Applying evaluation programs for continuous improvement.

4-      Analyzing the collected data and reviewing the required documents.

5-      Identifying the problems related to the project’s development through information management, data analysis and daily reporting.

6-      Applying a quality assurance system through indicators to determine the strength and weakness points of the project and its various activities.

7-      Quality control through a specialized committee to evaluate the progress in achieving the progress of the project and its applications.

8-      Quality evaluation should include all activities included in the project through:

-          Setting standards for the quality and efficiency of infrastructure of the project.

-          Linking the faculties of Ain Shams University in order to collect data centrally and evaluate it through quality standards.

Activities in the field of awareness of the project and its goals within the university:

To get all the employees in all departments of the university; University stuff and students with the objectives and benefits to be achieved by the project through

1-      Seminars.

2-      Workshops.

3-      Brochures and pamphlets about the project to distribute in the various university departments and faculties.

4-      The project's website, which includes an explanation of the objectives and project details.

Thus, the various departments and faculties of the University would be aware of the benefits and objectives of the project to achieve the cooperation and support for this project.

Other activities and tasks:

1-      Making other systems similar to the required system to enter the data in all departments that serve the stuff.

2-      Making other systems similar to the required system to enter the data of student affairs in various faculties.

3-      Entering all students’ data from their own files in the different faculties

4-      Entering all stuff data from their own files in the university administration.