At SUMS we understand that current sector-wide financial pressures and the sustainability agenda are driving reductions in capital investment. So you have to be more efficient in the way that you utilise space.
We also know this combines with other challenges: to diversify portfolios, to change how curriculum is delivered and to cope with fluctuating student numbers. As well as the need to support diverse student and staff communities.
So there is more pressure than ever on the timetabling process to deliver an effective and efficient timetable.
At SUMS we work in partnership with you to understand your specific drivers for improvement in timetabling and teaching space management. Our timetabling reviews are holistic: we want to understand how your timetabling works and also the related planning processes for student numbers, space, academic workload and curriculum.
That’s because our experience shows us that a proportion of the issues that arise in timetabling are outside the remit of timetablers. So we also look at the academic operations processes that provide information into your timetabling process.
We use a tried and tested maturity model to evaluate all aspects of your timetabling: from process to policy, and systems to publication. This provides you with a roadmap so you can make incremental improvements with clarity in expected costs and benefits.
The earlier we start work together, the better. We have seen time and again how important it is to consider curriculum delivery early in any large-scale curriculum transformation project.
Our timetabling experts bring a wide range of skills and experiences: from specific systems knowledge to more general timetabling expertise; from procurement to policy; from interim timetabling resources to expert advice on the intersection of academic operations and scheduling. The support we provide to your university is tailored to your specific needs.
With our help, the University understood the barriers to improvements in timetabling and teaching space utilisation and how it could address these challenges. As a result, they initiated two projects: the first focusing on timetabling, the second on the integration of academic operations planning.
SUMS provided implementation advice to the long-term project to transform undergraduate education at the Irish University. This involved implementing a partial block structure, supporting the implementation of flexible pathways and a truly interdisciplinary curriculum.
SUMS supported the University with medium term teaching space planning. Using our own demand model, based on forecast student numbers and timetabling data, we provided valuable insight into teaching space needs which has informed their strategic plan for space.
Whether you need an in-depth analysis and recommendations for significant transformation, or a more high-level review from a critical friend, we have the expertise to support you at every stage. In designing our support, we bring together higher education-specific insight from our comparative research and benchmarking, and world-leading effective practice from other sectors and internationally.
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