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Nottingham Trent University
NTU’s strategic curriculum challenges
With over 40,000 students and staff spanning five university sites, Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is one of the largest and most recognised universities in the UK. The universitiy has been the recipient of a number of prestigious awards over the years, including The Guardian University of the Year 2019, the Times and Sunday Times Modern University of the Year 2018, and the Times Higher Education University of the Year 2017. NTU’s 2015-2020 Strategic Plan continues to build on this success.
At the heart of this ambition is the university’s curriculum. However, very quickly, it became clear that the manual processes used to design, approve and govern its curriculum didn’t support the university’s goals as outlined in the strategic plan.
Fundamentally, NTU lacked confidence in the accuracy of its curriculum information. NTU’s manual processes and lack of data transparency created a high potential for error. Additionally, the university’s limited reporting ability, high administrative costs and slow progress have made advancing curriculum a strenuous task.
To support its strategic plan and ongoing success, NTU required a more robust, coherent mechanism for managing course and module information that could support departments across the university with curriculum design and governance.
Why NTU chose Courseloop
Strength of technical capability
The CourseLoop Platform provides true end-to-end capability that addresses the challenges of institution-wide curriculum management. Our modular solution allows universities to invest in additional functionality as and when they need to extend capability, thereby removing worry and uncertainty about upfront investment costs.
Deep domain expertise
The CourseLoop Platform is built by higher education experts with real university experience. Our team genuinely understands your world. We have made it our mission to solve some of Higher Education’s most pressing curriculum management problems.
Alignment to NTU’s Strategic Plan
NTU has identified curriculum management as a strategic priority in its 2015 – 2020 Strategic Plan. CourseLoop’s end-to-end curriculum management platform, allows the university to make improvements in its curriculum design, approval and governance.
The Solution
NTU was looking for a solution that offered central management of curriculum information capable of delivering improved efficiency, improved management information, and improved monitoring and quality assurance.
After a local market scan and review, NTU decided to launch an open tender process in order to ensure it could identify the best solution. Five proposals were returned from vendors across the European Union and from CourseLoop in Australia, and after reviewing all solutions the university shortlisted the proposals down to two potential vendors.
CourseLoop’s Curriculum Management Platform was selected above competitors for its unrivalled functionality and flexibility. The Platform met all of NTU’s immediate business requirements and supported the configuration required to suit NTU’s approach and processes. The project team were also equally impressed with the platform’s user interface, particularly the intuitiveness and ease of use.
Key benefits of CourseLoop implementation:
- Definitive Source of Truth
The CourseLoop Platform acts as the definitive source of truth for curriculum information at NTU. The platform not only enables improved monitoring and quality assurance but also instills complete confidence in the integrity of the curriculum data, ensuring accuracy and consistency across the board. - Robust Governance and Approval Processes
NTU leverages CourseLoop’s dynamic workflow engine and automation to bolster its governance and approval processes. With a comprehensive change history feature, CourseLoop ensures transparency and accountability, facilitating robust and effective decision-making. - Enhanced Strategic-Level Reporting
CourseLoop empowers NTU with the ability to confidently and consistently report on the curriculum at a strategic level. This capability facilitates in-depth review and analysis, providing invaluable insights to inform strategic planning and decision-making processes. - Seamless Integration
CourseLoop seamlessly integrates with NTU’s existing university systems, ensuring a smooth transition and minimal disruption to ongoing operations. This interoperability enhances efficiency and collaboration across various departments and stakeholders.
