The Student Affairs Department of the ROC van Amsterdam-Flevoland provides administration for approximately 40,000 students. Automation with RPA ensures that some of the most time-consuming processes run considerably more smoothly, such as certification and processing digital registrations in administration system Eduarte.

“Technology is playing an increasing role within our institution,” said Erik Schreuders, who is the deputy director responsible for student affairs. Part of that is robotization of repetitive manual processes that would otherwise cost employees a lot of time.

The first process that was successfully addressed is the “de-duplication” of students who registered through the website. “Our system uses the BSN number, date of birth and also last name or gender to check if a registered student is already known in the system. If so, we have to check some information to confirm that it is the same student. When that is the case, the duplicate registration is taken out, as a student only needs to have one registration.”

Robots de-duplicate thousands of applications during peak periods

That deduplication consists of many repetitive actions, especially in an organization that receives between 36,000 and 40,000 new applications annually. Especially during peak periods, there is an enormous amount of work. Just before the deadline, a huge increase in applications occurs because many students apply at the last minute. And even the robot then works at full capacity to keep up with that amount of applications.

“If people had to do this, it would take at least two weeks to process everything. Now it’s done in three to four days thanks to the robot. But we do have to modify the robot’s environment to have more capacity. Fortunately, we are getting that capacity with a second and third robot. The second one is already operational and the third one is on its way.”

Case study: processing digital applications

Robbie the Robot is the digital employee of the ROC of Amsterdam and checks approximately 40,000 digital student registrations annually. This prevents double registrations in the system, ensures fast processing time and a lower workload around the application deadline.

Diploma robot: 10 to 12 thousand diplomas annually

Currently, the ROC of Amsterdam-Flevoland is thus deploying new robots. One of these, called the ‘graduation robot,’ was recently put into operation. This functionality, “Candidating,” checks whether a student has met all the requirements to graduate. Once this is confirmed, the student is put into the system with a code indicating that the examination board has given approval. The robot then checks to see if the student’s status is ‘Final’ and what the scheduled completion date is in the future. If everything is correct, the student is then set to ‘Pass’ and further procedures begin.

This includes checking any exemptions the student has received and whether they are correctly recorded in the system. If everything is correct, the robot prints the diploma and results list as PDF files and merges them. Other documents may also be added, depending on the program.

Diplomacy robot provides extra checks and no mistakes

“The robot carefully checks the content of the documents. For example, if the results list says that you got a seven, in addition to 7, there must also be ‘seven’ in brackets. If this is not the case, the document is rejected. When everything is in order, the documents are saved in a specific folder in Teams. After a complete batch, Office of Student Affairs receives a summary of the students for whom the robot has been working and what the outcome is.”

He continues: “The process is basically not that complex. It happens mainly in Eduarte, where the checks take place that we called the four-eye principle in the manual process. But at peak times, when between ten and twelve thousand diplomas are awarded annually, this can sometimes be overlooked. After all, a diploma consists of more than one document, there are many extra steps ánd it has to be signed.”

Robots ensure error-free processing and reduced workload

The robot’s help contributes to error-free operations. “With his help, we know that what we issue is correct. The robot will not suddenly select a different result list. Everything is set up right the first time and we can trust the accuracy of the process.”

Erik Schreuders | Deputy Director of Student Affairs

Using robots for student disenrollment as next step

More tasks are scheduled to be robotized. “After graduation the student has to be deregistered and Student Affairs has to send an e-mail and a letter. These are tasks that we want to integrate into the tasks of the graduation robot in the future, but that still requires some coordination with education.”

Schreuders and his colleagues welcome help from their digital colleagues. “The organization definitely notices it. When I look at the applications, we see that Student Affairs is constantly up-to-date. They are processed the same day, or have already been processed. In the system, the inbox is empty. This means that all registrations made just last night have already been picked up overnight. In addition, the diplomas are error-free, which is greatly appreciated by the education system.”

Want to know more about RPA in education?

With help from Tacstone Technology, the RPA has since been introduced at many educational institutions. Among others within the departments of HR, ICT, Student Administration and Finance, the number of software robots steadily growing. Curious about the possibilities with RPA in your educational institution? Then send a message to Ebert Knol | Tacstone and we will contact you a.s.a.p.!