This technical upgrade to many of our in-house software tools is a big leap forward for our capabilities. Anthology will help us eliminate many of our inefficiencies and workarounds that have built up here over the years. It will bring BU up to current industry standard for post-secondary education, meeting the expectations of today’s students, faculty and staff, and will ensure that our systems remain current for years into the future.

The package selected by Brandon University after extensive campus consultation includes three components: a Student component for registration management, an Engage component for communications, and a Finance component for payment processing and payroll.

Currently, faculty most often interact with the system in relation to student registration and the assignment of grades. Anthology will help faculty improve the student experience:

• The online student registration process will be more streamlined with fewer electronic registration requests being held up for manual processing. This will allow faculty to have access to more accurate “live” course enrolment data.
• There will be more flexible options to manage course prerequisites, registration, and enrolment. For example, programs with highly structured curricula will be able to “batch register” students in courses to ensure cohorts stay on track.
• Approving registration will be more efficient.
• There will be much more accessible and integrated student record information, including unofficial student transcripts available online.
• There will be opportunity to offer non-traditional and/or emerging academic programming such as stackable credentials, certificates that can be attached to traditional degree credentials, etc.

Staff in different areas will see different changes depending on how you currently use the system. Anthology will allow many staff to focus on the core responsibilities of the student experience and supporting the institution. Many manual processes will be automated and we will be able to take advantage of new opportunities.

• Staff will be able to use the system to send students automatic and timely communication at critical points of their experience beginning as a prospective student and continuing on even as alumni.
• The system will log important communications that can be accessed by multiple departments to see what was communicated when and by whom.
• There will be analysis that is more robust and reporting of data, including student and financial related information, which will allow for new insights and historical tracking.

Faculty and staff will also see improvements to some financial and administration tasks:

• Travel and expense claims will be modernized and include online approval capability. This means you will be able to check the status of your claim.
• There will be more information available in the financial system to give you greater ability to manage your research accounts.