Information Management and Process Design

The Osnabrück University's  information management department provides a range of standardized and ad hoc reports designed to support decision-making for various internal audiences. These include primarily students, as well as deans of studies, faculty administrations, examination offices, and the university management team.

The reports are primarily based on relational or multidimensionally processed application, enrollment, examination result, library, Stud.IP and financial data, in accordance with the principles of a typical data warehouse. They are provided with a detailed access rights management system.

Access to the information is application-oriented. For example, reports and statistics on examination issues can be found directly in the  HISinOne portal.

Additionally, the reports of the Centralized Reporting (ZBW) and the  University Library (UBIS) have their own website, including on the Osnabrück Universitys intranet.

To provide optimal digital support throughout the student life cycle, it is essential to record and optimize the associated administrative processes at the Osnabrück University. The objective is to ensure the processes within and between the participating institutions are legally secure, as smooth as possible, and time-saving. In this context, the existing technical possibilities in HISinOne are analyzed and requirements for the software manufacturer HIS eG for functional enhancements and improvements are set. We also focus on the processes involved in degree program development, such as changing examination regulations. For specific process issues in the participating institutions, we offer advice on implementation options using the existing HISinOne functions.

Moreover, we provide software-based assistance for   overlap-optimized examination scheduling.

MIS (Management Information System)

To effectively manage and control individual departments and institutes, as well as the entire university, comprehensive and aggregated information is required.

This information is created in different locations. For example, the admissions office records and manages students' enrollment data, the examination offices maintain students' individual examination results, and the university's general administration maintains personnel and financial data.

The difficulty and time-consuming nature of processing and presenting information across separate applications is a significant challenge for individual decision-makers.

The implementation of a centralized  management information system (MIS) enhances the quality of data and decision-making processes at the university and departmental levels.

The MIS contains data at varying levels of historicization. For the university's external reporting, key data points are evaluated on a twice-yearly basis, specifically withdrawal dates on defined days. To ensure the accuracy and timeliness of regular statistics and evaluations, up-to-date data sets are utilized. A comprehensive range of key figures and dimensions are available to support operational decision-making. For instance, students can be analyzed as individuals or grouped according to specific criteria, such as semester, degree, course of study, faculty, nationality, age, gender, and more.

UBIS (University Library Information System)

UBIS stands for University Library Information System. It is the information system of the University Library of Osnabrück that allows all holders of a PICA account to view current information about their literature budgets, expenses, bindings, and the status of their orders. The information is automatically downloaded from the PICA library management system every day and processed. It can be accessed via the  UBIS website by the library subject librarians and the heads of the departments and institutes.

Appointment optimization

Since 2010, virtUOS has offered a service for appointment optimization, i.e., automated appointment and room planning for exams at the Osnabrück University. Examination dates and rooms are coordinated on the basis of online registrations, taking into account non-overlapping and date/room preferences.

The automated date optimization process considers only those exams for which students have registered. In the majority of cases, these are written exams with a significant number of participants, typically with a maximum duration of two hours.

The primary objective in planning the exams included in the procedure is to ensure academic feasibility.

Students in some departments may indicate the latest possible date on which they can take an exam, stating their reasons (e.g., internships or studying abroad). These requests are taken into account in the planning process, but cannot always be guaranteed.

Central scheduling and room planning thus serves to complement the decentralized exam planning conducted by examination offices or examiners. In the past, scheduling conflicts, especially those occurring across departments, could only rarely be taken into account in such decentralized planning.