Question

Question 6

Consider the university admission process described in Question 1.

Use the list provided in Question 5. Record each issue in Table 2 and classify each issue using the PICK chart four quadrants, described below.

Possible (low payoff, easy to do): issues that can be addressed if there are sufficient resources for doing so.

Implement (high payoff, easy to do): issues that should definitely be implemented as a matter of priority.

Challenge (high payoff, hard to do): issues that should be addressed but require significant amount of effort. In general one would pick one of these challenges and focus on it rather than addressing all or multiple challenges at once.

Kill (low payoff, hard to do): issues that are probably not worth addressing or at least not to their full extent.

Table 2

Admissions Complaint		Quadrant	Payoff	Difficulty
1
2
3
4

The whole process is as follows:

Consider the following process for the admission of graduate students at a university.

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.

Question 5

Complete Table 1 below using the complaints listed. List the most frequent admission problems first. Prepare a Pareto chart using Chart 1 based on the information in Table 1, alternatively use MS Excel to prepare the Pareto chart.

Online application system is slow – 100 complaints

Confirmation letter not received – 20 complaints

Degree verification takes too long – 120 complaints

Admissions office does not follow through as promised – 40 complaints

Answer 1

S.No.	Complaint	Quadrant	payoff	Difficulty
1	Degree verification takes too long	Challenge	High	High
2	Online application system is slow	Implement	High	Low
3	Admissions office does not follow through as promised	Possible	Low	Low
4	Confirmation letter not received	Kill	Low	High

Clarifications to the points

1. Degree verification takes too long due to requirements of the agency. The issue is difficult to handle because it involves making the systems efficient at their level. It has high payoff as it will improve the customer service processes highly at the university level.

2. Change in Online system of application is both easy to implement and has high payoff as it is owned by the university and directly relates to the efficiency of the process.

3. The statement is needs more inspection. The measure is to improve the communication stratgey of the admissions office

4. This statement is vague, as the information is sent both through letter and email. If someone receives mail, it will do, and there is no need for a letter. Maybe some of theses complaints are raised by the unsuccssful candidates.