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Newcastle University has been able to devote more staff time to student support services after implementing the SAP Campus Management module.

The university is the first in the UK to use the system, which automates admissions, registration, accounting and course enrolment for all students, allowing records to be created in seconds.

Professor John Goddard, deputy vice chancellor at the university, told vnunet.com that reducing the administrative burden on staff and providing increased support and a better service to students was a key priority.

"Having a single view of who the students are is key to all our teaching and learning processes as well as getting money in quickly," he said.

"It means that all the issues surrounding student administration can be determined instantaneously."

The new system also allows the university to send itemised bills to fee payers. "It makes the parents happier," added Goddard.

The university registered more than 13,600 students in September using the system, four per cent more than the previous year.

The module links to SAP finance and human resources applications which have been in use by the university since 1999. Its implementation is the latest part of a project, started in 1996, to replace legacy systems developed for use across UK universities.

"We're not capturing more information, but we're making a better job of it and improving the quality of management information," said Goddard.

"In time we're hoping this will become a self-service application to allow students to do some of this themselves."

But Goddard admitted that the support implications and the need for a larger user base in the UK were a concern.

Newcastle University is only the second site to go live with SAP Campus Management, after Mississippi in the US.