January 2008

Portal Partnership are pleased to announce that IT Support Staff working within the Faculty of Maths, Computing and Technology at the Open University, have now rolled out their PhD Application System, a new web-based application which allows prospective students around the world to propose topics that they wish to study for their PhD.

The PhD system has been developed entirely in Lotus Domino and incorporates back-end workflow that allows members of staff to review and approve submitted topics as they arrive. The application was developed by a Portal Partnership consultant in just five days.

Blaine Price, Lecturer in Computing at the Open University said "This system has allowed us to move from a paper-based system where each application had to be passed around physically to a number of people for revision or approval.  Now we can assign applications to reviewers instantly, set deadlines, track progress, and allow prospective students and researchers to collaborate and refine their proposals. Not only do we offer a better service to prospective students, but we have reduced the administrative workload as well."
 
About The Open University
The Open University is the UK’s largest university. More than 160,000 people across the country are currently studying with the OU; more than 40,000 people worldwide are also students. One in five of all part-time higher education students in the UK are studying with the Open University. For more information, please visit www.open.ac.uk.