Reference no: EM131427591

Calculate the cycle time, cycle time efficiency and cost of the university admission process described in Exercise 1.1, assuming that:

• The process starts when an online application is submitted.

• It takes on average 2 weeks (after the online application is submitted) for the documents to arrive to the students service by post.

• The check for completeness of documents takes about 10 minutes. In 20% of cases, the completeness check that some documents are missing. In this cases an e-mail is sent to the student automatically by the University admission management system based on the input provided by the international students officer during the completeness check.

• A student services officer spends on average 10 minutes to put the degrees and transcripts in an envelope and send them to the academic recognition agency. The time it takes to send the degrees/transcripts to the academic recognition agency and to receive back a response is 2 weeks on average.

• About 10% of applications are rejected after the academic recognition assessment.

• The university pays a fee of € 5 each time it requests the academic recognition agency to accept an application.

• Checking the English language test results takes 1 day on average, but in reality the officer who performs the check only spends 10 minutes on average per check. This language test check free.

• About 10% of applications are rejected after the English language test.

• It takes on average 2 weeks between the time students service sends the copy of an application to the committee members and the moment the committee makes a decision (accept or reject). On average, the committee spends 1 hour examining each application.

• It takes on average 2 days (after the decision is made by the academic committee) for the students service to record the academic committee’s decision in the University admission management system. Recording a decision takes on average 2 minutes. Once a decision is recorded, a notification is automatically sent to the student.

• The hourly cost of the officers at the international students office is € 50.

• The hourly cost of the academic committee (as a whole) is € 200.

( Exercise 1.1: In order to apply for admission, students first fill in an online form. Online applications are recorded in an information system to which all staff members involved in the admissions process have access to. After a student has submitted the online form, a PDF document is generated and the student is requested to download it, sign it, and send it by post together with the required documents, which include:

• Certified copies of previous degree and academic transcripts.

• Results of English language test.

• Curriculum vitae.

When these documents are received by the admissions office, an officer checks the completeness of the documents. If any document is missing, an e-mail is sent to the student. The student has to send the missing documents by post. Assuming the application is complete, the admissions office sends the certified copies of the degrees to an academic recognition agency, which checks the degrees and gives an assessment of their validity and equivalence in terms of local education standards. This agency requires that all documents be sent to it by post, and all documents must be certified copies of the originals. The agency sends back its assessment to the university by post as well. Assuming the degree verification is successful, the English language test results are then checked online by an officer at the admissions office. If the validity of the English language test results cannot be verified, the application is rejected (such notifications of rejection are sent by e-mail). Once all documents of a given student have been validated, the admission office forwards these documents by internal mail to the corresponding academic committee responsible for deciding whether to offer admission or not. The committee makes its decision based on the academic transcripts and the CV. The committee meets once every 2 to 3 weeks and examines all applications that are ready for academic assessment at the time of the meeting. At the end of the committee meeting, the chair of the committee notifies the admissions office of the selection outcomes. This notification includes a list of admitted and rejected candidates. A few days later, the admission office notifies the outcome to each candidate via e-mail. Additionally, successful candidates are sent a confirmation letter by post.)