Registration chaos for Business School courses

The registration system for optional course modules in Business In Science, Engineering & Technology (BEST) was hit with problems on Monday. The Departmental Student System (DSS) used for registering optional modules in courses across college was swamped with connection requests as students logged on to pick their chosen modules in the morning.

The registration system is handled on a first come first served basis and registration was due to open at 9:00am on Monday morning. Since a substantial number of connection requests were made by students trying to use the system concurrently, it appeared to be down as the connections were slowly handled. One student from the Department of Computing complained that by the time they gained access to view the system at 9:10am, all courses with the exception of two were already full, with one option from the previous year shown in error.

Students complained of the system’s faults especially at such a critical time as registration and many were left without their preferred options. Tony Field, reader in Performance Engineering at the Department of Computing, commented in an email that the system in place was “a new piece of software” and that “we can safely conclude it doesn’t work”, noting the lessons to be learnt regarding testing quality of service, performance and other requirements in forward-facing systems for students and staff alike.

Questions have been raised as to whether the problems ought to have been prevented due to its foreseeable nature and how these issues will be addressed. A number of students have also complained about the timing of the opening of registration. Exams are still ongoing across campus, and a 9:00am opening time may not be optimal. Students also may not know their timetables for the coming year and may end up dropping options they register for due to clashes with compulsory modules. In addition, third year students, notably in the Department of Computing, are on industrial placements and are unable to check the system until a designated break.

The issue of each student having an equal opportunity to take these courses has been raised, and Undergraduate Programmes Manager Edina Hamzic-Maguire commented that the faculty are “aware that the system is not perfect and [they] are reviewing it.” Colin Love, Director of Undergraduate Studies explained to Felix that they “teach some 2200 students a year on BEST courses and demand for places outstrips supply by three times on average.”

Derryck Stewart of the Department of Physics apologised to their undergraduates and explained that “some places on some courses have now been reserved for Physics students”, raising more questions regarding equal opportunities. Hamzic-Maguire went on to mention that “some departments have integrated these modules into their programmes and those have had a chance to pre book spaces.”

Colin Love explained that “the DSS system [they] are using this year is not owned by the Business School so the website capabilities are out of [their] control” and continued to mention that he understands “the first come first served allocation of places is not perfect but in the absence of a better system [they] made no changes this year.”

Regarding reserved places, he said that “departments were contacted in May and invited to hold some places for their students” and that the allocation “is earmarked for particular courses but not for individual students.” He explained “where actual demand from a department exceeds the reserved places their students have to compete for places alongside everyone else.”

Addressing the earlier complaint of the options not all being available in the morning, he said “the system crash caused this also as the production team could not log in to activate all the options”.

“We have done whatever we could in the run up to today to liaise with departments and ensure most students have a fair chance of registering on these extremely popular courses”. By 10:00am on Monday over 60% of the BEST course places had been allocated. The Business School online page linking to DSS noted that the technical difficulties were resolved at 9:40am.

“We are delighted to say that by midday on Monday all 2200 places were allocated and we look forward to welcoming those students to BEST classes from October.”