In the future, KIT will offer its students a campus management system for support during their education. It will supply individual information on the progress and course of the studies. As a result, the administrative expenditure associated with the planning of studies will be reduced considerably. The Campus Management System (KIM-CM) is another module of the Karlsruhe integrated information management concept of KIT.
Students can use the campus management system for application and enrolment, planning of studies and the semester, and for examination and final thesis. The student is given current individual information on the progress of his/her studies at any time and he/she can make use of the courses offered according to his/her particular situation. Planning of semesters will be optimized. Furthermore, individual consulting concepts can be developed for the students, as every step of the student life cycle is covered. The campus management system will be made available to the students in the form of a web-based interface. In addition, KIM-CM will facilitate interaction of lecturers and students. KIM project head Axel Maurer: “Information can be accessed by authorized persons only. We can define exactly who may see which information at what time. We do not want to create the transparent student.”
The software also helps faculties to plan their semester events. “It is important to analyze teaching administration processes and to adapt the software optimally to them”, underlines Maurer. Lecturers are given an overview of their audience and the composition of the groups. Processes of teaching administration, such as the occupation of rooms and organization of examinations, can be improved for the benefit of the students.
”The new campus management system is a major component in the implementation of the Bologna process and reflects the high relevance KIT attaches to teaching”, says Vice-president and CIO Professor Norbert Henze, who is responsible for the project.
Within the framework of a Europe-wide invitation to tender, CAS Software, an enterprise at Karlsruhe, was selected to be the project partner. The project to introduce the management system has a duration of two years and a total volume of about EUR 2.5 million.
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is a public corporation and state institution of Baden-Württemberg that fulfills the tasks of both a university (former Universität Karlsruhe (TH)) and a research institution of the Helmholtz Association (former Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe). KIT is an institution of internationally excellent research and teaching in natural and engineering sciences with 8000 employees and 18500 students. Its annual budget amounts to 700 million Euros. KIT focuses on the knowledge triangle of research – teaching – innovation.