Tempus Phare Joint European Project Annex IV/1 for 1 year contract or

Annex V/1 for 2 years contract

Institutional Impact Report

The following document was accepted by the University Accreditation Commission, the Supervisory Board of the TEMPUS "NEW EDUCATIONA TOOLS" PROJECT, at the meeting on Friday and Saturday, 15-16 December 2000 and on Tuesday, 9 January 2001 as the joint INSTITUTIONAL IMPACT REPORT FOR PARTNER COUNTRY CONSORTIUM MEMBERS for the following institutions: Adam Mickiewicz University, Catholic University of Lublin, University of Gdańsk, Jagiellonian University, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Nicholas Copernicus University, Pontifical Academy of Theology, University of Silesia, University Accreditation Commission, University of Białystok, University of Opole, University of Szczecin, University of Wroclaw and Warsaw University

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1. OVERALL PROJECT OUTPUTS

1. What did you expect to achieve at your institution? Has the project developed according to your expectations?

1.2. Please identify the links between this project and the overall strategy of your institution.

The discussion and commercial and academic presentations at the Seminar on Models of Student Management Information Systems for Polish Universities organised in FEB 25-29, 2000 showed that:

• Appropriate management structures supported by effective management information systems are needed. The partners in this project have already proceeded with major administration reforms. Most of them undertook different reforms in the area of management structures and introduction of IT tools for information management. Most Polish universities have computerised databases for student registration and performance, but only at the faculty level. Therefore, each university most immediate need is to integrate these systems into one university-wide date base. Another challenge faced by Polish universities is the introduction of a new admission procedure. Traditionally, a student is admitted to a faculty, which has its own admission procedure, usually lengthy and inefficient, and this makes a subsequent flow of students between the faculties very difficult.

• No Polish software company is able to provide the consortium with the software needed for the national level university-wide date base with functionality requested for Student Management Information System, Virtual Educational Information Network and Centralised Student Admission.

After the seminar, Steering Group, supported by the expertise provided by the international guests of the seminar, decided that software needed would be designed and developed by the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Mechanics at Warsaw University with extensive help and expertise from other consortium members.

2. SPECIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS

2.1. Restructuring/creation of unit/institution

2.1.1. Describe any structural changes that have been made to your institution, including any name given to a new unit, centre, department or faculty.

2.1.2. What is the status of the new structure within your institution?

3. How will the new structure be financed and staffed in the future?

Two target groups were formed at Warsaw University. One for the University Study Management (preparing IT tools for the Student Management System including Interdisciplinary Study and for the Virtual Educational Network) and one for the Centralised Student Admission. The groups consist of programmers (gifted students of the Faculty) and their professors (designing, co-ordinating and supervising students' job). Professor Janina Mincer-Daszkiewicz, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Mechanics leads both groups. In order to speed up designing and developing the software and to get other consortium members more involved in the project four seminars on creating University Study Management System and University Joint Programming Effort were organised.

The decisions and actions described above resulted in creating first version of Oracle based software called in Polish "Uniwersytecki System Obsługi Studiów" (University Study Management System). The system provides integrated IT tools for Student Management including Interdisciplinary Study and for the Virtual Educational Network). The system was presented in June, 2000 before the audience of Uniwersyteckie Porozumienie Informatyczne (a meeting of the University Information Technology Union which is a collective body operating on national level consisting of Rectors and/or Vice-Rectors of Polish comprehensive universities). As a result of this presentation, the University Information Technology Union decided to recommend the system for implementation at each university.

2.2. Equipment

1. What kind of equipment has been purchased for your institution? How does it support the project? Does it match your expectations?

An open structure purchase and delivery agreement for ORACLE database software has been negotiated and approved by the contractor. In 2000 the software provider "Oracle Polska Sp. z o.o." delivered 192 named-user licences for Oracle 8iSE and Oracle Application Server and 11, 1, 1, 3, 6 named-user licences for the tools Web DB, Designer, Jdeveloper, Reports and Forms, respectively. The licences are initially distributed among the partners as indicated in the table

1. Where has the equipment been installed?

It is not completely decided.

1. Has appropriate training and insurance been provided?

2.2.4. Have adequate maintenance procedures been provided for ?

2.2.5. What are your future plans for the use of the equipment, including details of authorised users.

Pilot implementations of the University Study Management System are scheduled for the second year of the project. The system is being extensively tested at Warsaw University and Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University.

2.3. Curriculum and Training Course Development

1. Please give details of the curricular or training course developments that have taken place at your institution. Do these developments match your expectations in terms of quality and scope?

2.3.2. Have the new/restructured courses or modules been recognised, and if so at which level (e.g.

faculty, institution Ministry)? Was the extent of the academic and institutional support

satisfactory?

1. Whom are you targeting by these developments, and how many students and/or trainees do you expect to attract?

4. Will the new courses etc. be delivered in EU languages? Are they all compulsory?

5. Within Institution Building projects, who within the target institution(s) has been involved in the development of the training course? Who within the university partner has been involved in the delivery of the training course?

2.3.6. How far are the training capacities of the university partner developed to meet the training needs of the target institutions?

3. Didactic materials

2.4.1. What types of teaching or training material have been introduced at your institution, and were

they translated, adapted or developed jointly with EU partners? How many copies of this material will be made available?

2. Has the standard of these materials met your expectations?

An extensive general level description of the software for the University Study Management System can be downloaded from the project WEB page www.mimuw.edu.pl/NET.

3. Staff and/or trainees training

2.5.1. Please indicate whether this training was coherent with your institutional human resource

development plan.

2.5.2. To what extent did the quality of training provided meet your expectations?

2.5.3. How will the benefits derived from staff training be disseminated to other Colleagues within the faculty or institution, and in other institutions?

3. Student Mobility (if applicable)

2.6.1. Have any agreements been concluded between your university and host universities with regard to

the recognition of study periods? If so, please give details. If not, what was the basis for the

recognition of the students' achievements?

3. UNIVERSITY/INDUSTRY/PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION LINKS

3.1. Which types of enterprise/public administration are you targeting, and how are the requirements of

these target groups addressed by the educational programmes you will provide?

3.2. How have contacts with (local) industry/public administration been established through this project?

3.3. Are representatives of these industries/public administration participating in course development

activities?

3.4. Besides (re)training, what other services do you plan to provide?

3.5. How has the university-industry/public administration co-operation been institutionalised?

4. IMPACT

4.1. Please assess the success of this project to date within your institution, including any steps taken to

embed the results in the structure of the institution. Explain any shortcomings or disappointments.

4.2. Please comment on the any benefits derived from your involvement in the project, particularly in terms

of project management and networking with other organisations in your country and the EU.

The software for University Study Management System is being constantly developed, and the newest version is available to all consortium members through INTERNET and together with an extensive general level description can be downloaded from the project WEB page. The system is being tested and implemented at

- the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Mechanics at Warsaw University

- Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Łodź

- and, by recommendation of the University Accreditation Commission, at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw (all departments).

Software and registration procedure for the Centralised Student Admission System have been also developed by the second target group at the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Mechanics. They were successfully implemented at the university level in Warsaw University during the summer admission. Over 10 000 candidates were served by the System. The registration and some application of the software were presented to the participants of the University Information Technology Union Meeting on Friday June 9, 2000 getting high acclamation.

5. YOUR INVOLVEMENT ON THE PROJECT

1. Have you received a copy of the JEP -contract relating to this project?

The Office of the University Accreditation Commission has distributed the contracts and other crucial printed materials among the consortium members.

1. How many of the staff (academic and administrative, as trainers or trainees) at your institution are directly involved in the activities of the project?

The partners worked together in:

• the Seminar on Interdisciplinary Study Systems at Polish Universities, FEB 18, 2000

• the Seminar on Models of Student Management Information Systems for Polish Universities, FEB 25-29, 2000

• four seminars on creating University Study Management System, APR 1-2, 2000, APR 19, 2000, MAY 15, 2000, MAY 22, 2000

• the University Joint Programming Effort JUL 3-12, 2000.

The numbers of people involved is given in the table below.

1. Does the role of your institution in the project, and of your team within the institution, allow you sufficient input into the decision-making process ?

The University Information Technology Union, which is a collective body operating on national level consisting of Rectors and/or Vice-Rectors of Polish comprehensive universities, serves as the Steering Committee of the project. The day-to-day management of the project is provided by the Steering group consisting of

• Prof. Marek Kręglewski from Adam Mickiewicz University (the chair);

• Prof. Marek Wąsowicz , Vice-Rector of Warsaw University;

• Prof. Stefan Jackowski , Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Mechanics at Warsaw University;

• Prof. Marek Kowalski, Co-ordinator of the Project,

• Dr. Ewa Magiera from the University of Silesia, Rectors Deputy,

• Prof. Janusz Mrozek from Jagiellonian University, Rectors Deputy.

In addition the University Accreditation Commission serves as a supervisory board for the Project.

1. Please comment on co-operation with the different actors, such as co-ordinator, contractor, EU or local partners, etc.

The communication between the consortium members is co-ordinated and sustained through e-mail and the WEB page of the project www.mimuw.edu.pl/NET.

6. CONTINUITY & DISSEMINATION

6.1. How do you plan to capitalise on the achievements of the project in the future?

6.2. Do you have any plans for the future financing?

6.3. Do you envisage any future co-operation with your project partners?

6.4. How do you intend to disseminate the results of the project beyond the immediate target group.

There is a well-founded hope that in a due course a new consortium will be established for developing and maintaining the University Study Management System software on national level.

7. SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEMPUS

PROGRAMME

7.1. Please provide any suggestions you might have for the improved efficiency of the Tempus scheme.