Education can benefit dramatically from advanced analytics and business intelligence (BI) tools, which will provide them with better student data management as well as predictive modelling for understanding future educational demands.
This is the view of Kevin Kemp, head of sales for the commercial division at SAS Institute South Africa, who highlighted the benefits of implementing a BI platform in a tertiary education environment, while speaking at the recent ITS Conference, in Johannesburg.
The conference, hosted by ITS at Emperors` Palace, brought together users, administrators and financial managers from the education sector and focused on the use of software solutions and technology in the future of education. ITS is a software company with a legacy of more than 20 years` experience in administration software development for the education sector.
"Implementing a BI solution in an academic environment needs to start with a strong base infrastructure, laying the foundation with data integration and then building intelligent storage and business intelligence on top of that platform," says Kemp.
"Business intelligence in tertiary education can bring benefits embedded in student data management, HR and fee management, optimising the capacity of universities, trimming costs to make more money available for upgrades, increasing profits, improved marketing approaches and student retention, and could improve student support systems as well as online learning facilities.
"Universities handle incredible amounts of data, and being able to access that data in real-time, analyse reports, discover patterns and provide student support where it is needed, would increase student retention and smooth the running of the university."
SAS Institute has already made a significant contribution towards education institutions, with a number of local success stories, including Walter Sisulu University, North West University and Unisa.
"Education is experiencing massive transformation, and holds the key to the future, to resolving the skills shortage and driving economic growth in South Africa. Technology and education need to be intertwined to take South African learners and education institutions into the future.
"In 2006, the education minister of Singapore used the slogan: `Thinking schools, learning nation` in his annual address to the country. This is an approach that South Africa could seriously benefit from should it be adopted by our education system. By having technologically advanced places of learning, that run optimally like `thinking schools`, students will benefit from improved learning, educators can teach better and a nation can grow," ends Kemp.
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