Question 6

Consider the universityadmission process described in Question 1.

Use the list provided in Question5. Record each issue in Table 2 and classify each issue using thePICK chart four quadrants, described below.

Possible (low payoff, easy to do): issues thatcan be addressed if there are sufficient resources for doingso.

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

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

Kill (low payoff, hard to do): issues that areprobably not worth addressing or at least not to their fullextent.

Table 2

Admissions Complaint		Quadrant	Payoff	Difficulty
1
2
3
4

The whole process is asfollows:

Consider the followingprocess for the admission of graduate students at auniversity.

In order to apply for admission,students first fill in an online form. Online applications arerecorded in an information system to which all staff membersinvolved in the admissions process have access to. After a studenthas submitted the online form, a PDF document is generated and thestudent is requested to download it, sign it, and send it by posttogether with the required documents, which include:

Certified copies of previous degree and academictranscripts.

Results of English language test.

Curriculum vitae.

When these documents are receivedby the admissions office, an officer checks the completeness of thedocuments. If any document is missing, an e-mail is sent to thestudent. The student has to send the missing documents by post.Assuming the application is complete, the admissions office sendsthe certified copies of the degrees to an academic recognitionagency, which checks the degrees and gives an assessment of theirvalidity and equivalence in terms of local education standards.This agency requires that all documents be sent to it by post, andall documents must be certified copies of the originals. The agencysends back its assessment to the university by post as well.Assuming the degree verification is successful, the Englishlanguage test results are then checked online by an officer at theadmissions office. If the validity of the English language testresults cannot be verified, the application is rejected (suchnotifications of rejection are sent by e-mail). Once all documentsof a given student have been validated, the admission officeforwards these documents by internal mail to the correspondingacademic committee responsible for deciding whether to offeradmission or not. The committee makes its decision based on theacademic transcripts and the CV. The committee meets once every 2to 3 weeks and examines all applications that are ready foracademic assessment at the time of the meeting. At the end of thecommittee meeting, the chair of the committee notifies theadmissions office of the selection outcomes. This notificationincludes a list of admitted and rejected candidates. A few dayslater, the admission office notifies the outcome to each candidatevia e-mail. Additionally, successful candidates are sent aconfirmation letter by post.

Question 5

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

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 – 40complaints