Study Abroad Advisor

The Case for a Database

Better Advising, Program Support, Academic Recognition

By Julie Trimpe

While maintaining good student records may seem dull and bureaucratic, having an efficient and accurate record-keeping system is an important part of supporting students, advising them well, and making sure that the overseas experience is recognized as a legitimate part of degree studies at your institution.

Many education abroad offices are now converting from a hard copy filing system to a computerized information processing and database system. When our office recently decided to make this a change we learned on our own and from others (via a SECUSS-L survey) how to think through and set up a system adequate to our needs. Our experience should help others who are beginning this process.

But before rushing out to buy software, consider your goals carefully and decide whether a database can really help you achieve them. We identified our main aims as: 1) saving time in maintaining student records and 2) improving our ability to classify information for various quantitative purposes, such as keeping better statistical information and promotional mailings. These aims may or may not be identical with yours.

Increased Effectiveness

The responses we received from both large and small program operations as well as educational program providers indicated that, overall, converting to a good database system can increase the effectiveness of office procedures. The one caveat is that the new system may ultimately involve more staff time for upkeep (computerization inevitably grows and evolves).

Can a balance then be achieved between increasing available information and accuracy and avoiding added work? Based on results from our inquiries, the answer seemed to be yes. Initial time invested in the design of a system saves more time in the long run. The ultimate result is more efficient communications and procedures.

The decision to make the change involves a re-evaluation of existing office procedures and how the change will affect them. It is important to consider the following questions:

• How can information be used with a database?

• What categories of information (fields) should be included?

• How will data be entered, kept up to date, and accessed?

• Which software package is the best option?

With the help of others, here is what we learned:

Use of Information

Respondents agreed that a database system led to many positive results in processing information and creating reports. These include:

• greater accuracy and centralization of data;

• the ability to sort and break down information;

• the ability to quickly generate mass mailings to recruit and to inform students;

• the ability to quickly process statistical data for analytical reports requested by administrators, such as justification for resources;

• the ability to generate student invoices;

• the ability to locate a target audience by multiple variables--major, country, etc.;

• enhanced information processing for strategic marketing research.

A database can simply be one file, such as Student Inquiries, with records on individual students who have inquired about a study abroad program. But if set up carefully one file can be expanded into several. For example, Emory Univ. has a database file for students inquiring about information and another for students who have applied. Syracuse Univ. has an additional database of other schools that work with their study abroad programs. A similar file might be created for international exchange relationships. Using software with relational capabilities, information can be joined between files.

Categories of Information

Office needs and program size determine the number of information categories (“fields”) to include in your database system. In our survey the number of fields ranged from three to nearly 60. Examples of typical fields include: Name, telephone, address (campus and permanent), e-mail address, social security number, ethnic group, graduation year, parents' address for mailing, city and country of interest, major semester of participation, language(s) studied, overseas address, first and second study abroad site, action taken, follow up action, status code (outgoing, applicant, inquiry, etc.), space for advising notes, travel dates, transportation arrangement, dates (receipt of application, departure, payments, etc.).

Entering Data

Several offices surveyed hired a part-time data entry clerk to enter and update information. The alternative is to have this laborious but crucial job done by an office assistant, work-study peer advisors, or administrative staff. It is a good idea to have the same person who entered the data update it so the system is as accurate as possible. Most campuses record data from student questionnaires or applications and maintain hard copies on file.

Our office is investigating the possibility of having students themselves enter information into the database, using the computer in our advising center. A hard copy could then be printed from the computer record to use for written advising comments.

Technical Considerations

Strategies for creating a database depend on the hardware and software capabilities available. For technical decisions, we suggest consultation with campus or organizational computer staff. Having someone who can manipulate and maintain the database will help in achieving office efficiency in the end. From the wide range of software packages now being used across the country, Microsoft Access and Claris Filemaker Pro were programs most frequently mentioned.

The questions that arise with database development bring up the much broader issues of technological advancement and keeping your education abroad office up to date. James Buschman, Associate Director of Syracuse Univ. Abroad, believes having someone in the office who has real computer expertise and savvy (as part of the job description) is very important. Syracuse has moved to the next step in database development with the ability to download information from the world wide web.

Liberty City Promotions, Inc. offers a service known as www.studyabroad.com, a clearinghouse resource for international education information and provider of web services to several of its sponsor web sites. After students enter information on an electronic form at the Syracuse Univ. website, the information is collected on the studyabroad.com webserver and forwarded back to Syracuse Univ. Abroad, where it is downloaded into its campus database system. Having students complete the forms themselves should result in greater accuracy and less data entry time.

Such a system requires three components: a common gateway interface (cgi) which allows a website to transfer information to another program such as a database, a server to administer the cgi, and a database package. Our technical assistant, Michael Pulley, says it’s important to determine if adequate processing power and space on your server are available to run a cgi. Universities typically require that several offices share the same server space; this competition for space may limit processing power for the cgi.

In the end, making a decision to convert to a computerized database system is much less a technical decision than it is a systems analysis and design process. Remember, above all, that the new system is ultimately there to serve not just the needs of your office for accurate and readily accessible records but the broadest educational aspirations of your institution and of its students.

JULIE TRIMPE is Advisor for International Exchange Programs at Virginia Tech Univ. She is completing a master’s degree in the SIT Program in Intercultural Management.