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About the University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a world-leading centre of learning, teaching and research and the oldest university in the English-speaking world. The University has more than 26,000 students and contributes around £15.7 billion to the UK economy1. For more information about the university, please visit: https://www.ox.ac.uk/about.
Challenge
The University of Oxford Disability Advisory Service (DAS) is responsible for providing support to the student population. This covers sensory or mobility impairments, long-term health conditions, specific learning difficulties, autistic spectrum conditions, mental health difficulties, and other conditions. For the past decade, the number of students requiring support is increasing, primarily due to mental health issues 2. In 2023, 26% of the student population is supported by the DAS team, a quarter of whom receive non-medical support, as detailed in the text below.
The DAS team assess student need, match students to practitioners/support workers, monitor the support sessions that are taking place and being confirmed, invoice the Student Loans Company (SLC) and other bodies, and reimburse the practitioners/support workers. There's a lot to manage and process there! There's sensitive personal information, timesheets being emailed, extensive use of spreadsheets, and a lack of insight into the state of play at any particular time.
Solution
We worked with the DAS team to really understand their processes and their requirements. Then we set about designing a data model that could handle the complexity of serving students, practitioners/support workers, and the DAS administration team. Oracle Service Cloud/B2C Service was the selected CX solution chosen and implemented, with Oracle Intelligent Advisor powering online portals where sessions could be scheduled and confirmed by students and practitioners/support workers.
Outcome
Students can access an online portal to see what sessions have been scheduled in, and can confirm that sessions have taken place. Therefore, a neat digital solution for coordinating and confirming session attendance is now operational.
Practitioners/support workers can access their own online portal to see the students they are assigned to, the number of hours of support, and to schedule sessions. A simple, centralised dashboard is used to easily track what is going on with each student.
The DAS team can monitor activity from a centralised administration system, with simple to understand reports and workspaces that are configured to their requirements, invoice the SLC (and other bodies) and reimburse the practitioners/support workers in a timely manner - no more spreadsheet pivoting or data inaccuracies.
The administrative savings during the first year mean that a 24% ROI was achieved.
What do practitioners/support workers say about their portal
Feedback from a specific learning difficulty (SpLD) tutor: Thank you SO much for this. I really cannot express what a difference the new portal makes and how grateful I am.
Feedback from a Specialist Mentor: This system is the simplest I have used. I currently provide support via two other providers and neither of their timesheet systems are as easy to use as this one.
What do the DAS team say about the new system and their partnership with Magia
Katherine Noren, Interim Director of Student Welfare and Support Services: "Magia have been great to work with and we’re really pleased with our new Oracle CX timesheet system. The Team have been responsive and helpful, patiently helping us think through our needs in a holistic and comprehensive way. Our new ‘product’ will have huge benefits for streamlining and rationalising core business processes, and we’re already seeing the potential for further exciting developments that can emerge from this project."
To learn more about the support that the DAS team offer, go here: https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/welfare/disability
1 https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-figures
2 https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8716/
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