DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ONLINE ADMISSIONS SCREENING FOR UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES

1.1 Introduction

Student admissions are a vital part of any Academic Institution’s running because students are what keep the institutions alive. The student admission is one of the most important activities within a university as one cannot survive without students. A poor admissions system can mean fewer students being admitted into a university because of mistakes or an overly slow response time. The process begins with a potential student completing an application form through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, the first step for students is to apply directly to the university through a custom online form. The next step is for the Admissions service center has to review the application and ensure that all of the required information has been provided, from the form itself to the supplementary documentation, such as language and degree certificates. If any of the required information is missing, it is the secretary for the department to which the application concerns that contacts the potential student and arranges for the delivery of the outstanding data. The application in its entirety is then forwarded, complete with a recommendation, to the respective department’s Admissions Tutor, who has the final say as to whether each potential student is accepted or rejected. Before making a decision, the Admissions Tutor reviews the application and the additional documentation, comparing the academic credentials to a list of university rankings and previous, similar applications.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of the Study

Online Admission screening system is aimed at developing an online admission application for a college. This system is an online system that can be accessed throughout the organization and outside as well with proper login provided. Our system has two type of accessing modes, administrator and user. Student management system is managed by an administrator. It is the job of the administrator to admit and monitor the whole process. When a user log in to the system. He would only view details of the student. He can't perform any changes .The system has two modules. They are:

• User
• Administrator

Students logging is to apply for the course by filling an application form provided by online. College principal/administrator logging in may also access/search information put up by the students.

The focus of this project work is to develop an automated admission screening system that shall bring about this paradigm shift, in other to proffer solution to the challenges inherent in the existing system implemented by Lagos state polytechnic. The proposed system: Automated admission processing System shall be developed using HTML, CSS and PHP as the frontend, and MY SQL database management system as the backend (Desile, 2009)

1.2.1 Theoretical Background

The national focus on student outcomes has placed an additional burden on our nation’s schools, school districts, and state education agencies, for they must monitor the achievement of individual students, as well as groups of students, and show that all students are meeting high standards for learning. An education organization’s ability to meet this challenge is affected by the organization’s access to complete, accurate, and timely information about its students. Many schools, school districts, and state education agencies already collect and use data effectively. However, the proliferation of new reporting requirements and dramatic changes in technology has had a profound effect on the need for student data and the education community’s ability to manage student records. Purchase of more powerful computer hardware and software and the reconfiguration of information systems have become essential components in efforts to meet the needs of all students. There is probably no single best information system solution that can meet the needs of all 90,000+ public schools, 16,000+ school districts, 27,000 private schools, and 57 education agencies in states and outlying areas. However, there are certain steps that could help all education organizations to determine the best solution for their particular situations. This booklet can lead education organization decision-makers through the process of making the best and most cost-effective decisions about information management systems devoted to individual student records.

1.3 Statement of Problem

Many institutions do not have an automated system to manage the admission screening of prospective students. The consequence of this is that the time spent in processing admission becomes too long. In addition, the manual system in place makes it very difficult for the admission officers to record and retrieve needed information pertaining to admission. Errors are numerous in the manual screening. There is therefore need for an automated system to handle the admission screening process so as to improve admission screening, reduce errors and save time. More importantly, the record of admission status of the students should be easily stored and retrieved.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to develop an Admission Screening for Tertiary Institutions. The following are the specific objectives:

1. To develop an automated system that will aid in the screening of students based on admission requirements
2. To develop a system that will allow the easy updating of admission information
3. To develop a system that will enable easy storage and retrieval of admission information.
4. To implement a system that can hold a database of admission records such that it can be queried to get report.

1.5 Scope of the Study

This study covers admission screening for tertiary institutions, using Akwa Ibom state polytechnic as a case study.

1.6 Significance of the Study

The significance of the study is that it will provide a possible solution to the problem of admission screening. It will aid admission officers of Akwa Ibom state polytechnic to carry out their duties effectively. The study will also benefit the students and management as it will reduce the time spent in processing admission. The study will also serve as a useful reference material to other researchers seeking information on the subject.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials.

1.8 Definition of Terms

1. Automation: The replacement of human workers by technology; A system in which a workplace or process has been converted to one that replaced or ministries human labour with electronic or mechanical equipment.
2. Admission: The process of accepting students for study at an institution.
3. Processing: To deal with somebody or something according to an established procedure.
4. System: Set of computer components which are an assembly of computer Hardware, Software and peripherals functioning together.
5. Computerized: Convert to computer - based system to install or start using a computer system to organize, control, or automate something.
6. Online: Connected via computer attached to or available via a central computer or computer network.
7. Offline: Disconnected from computer Network; Describes a computer terminal or peripheral device that is disconnected or is functioning separately from associated computer or computer network.
8. Web: A complex structure, or design www: computer-based network of information resources that combines text and multimedia. The information on the www can be accessing and search through the internet, a global computer network.
9. Database: Any collection of data organized for storage in a computer memory and designed for easy access by authorized users.
10. Database Update: This simply means applying and maintaining changes on a database after data must have been added, removed or modified
11. System Administrator: This is a person responsible for maintaining and operating a computer system.
12. Password: This is a secret code that a user must type into a computer to enable him access it or its applications. This is made up of numbers; letters, special characters or a contribution of any of the above categories.

1.9 Organization of the Research

This research work is organized into five chapters.

• Chapter one is concerned with the introduction of the research study and it presents the preliminaries, theoretical background, statement of the problem, aim and objectives of the study, significance of the study, scope of the study, organization of the research and definition of terms.
• Chapter two focuses on the literature review, the contributions of other scholars on the subject matter is discussed.
• Chapter three is concerned with the system analysis and design. It analyzes the present system to identify the problems and provides information on the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed system. The system design is also presented in this chapter.
• Chapter four presents the system implementation and documentation. The choice of programming language, analysis of modules, choice of programming language and system requirements for implementation.
• Chapter five focuses on the summary, conclusion and recommendations are provided in this chapter based on the study carried out.