Reconciling spreadsheets is not running a university
When the institutional record, staff, and timetable live in different systems, the rectorate does not have an operation: it has reconciliations. The term is argued; it is not closed.
AcademicOK ·
In many institutions the term is not operated: it is reconstructed. Admissions has one list, human resources another, and the timetable lives in a sheet someone updates on Sunday. On Monday, the secretariat reconciles. On Tuesday, a section appears twice. On Wednesday, an instructor asks which room they have.
That is not a problem of more software. It is the symptom of a split operation. The rectorate does not see the state of the term; it sees exports. Each area defends its file. Real capacity — what fits in the room and in the instructor’s load — arrives late, or not at all.
One operation, one record
The institutional record, campuses, staff, and the term’s offering have to live in the same place. Not to “digitize paperwork”, but so a room or instructor change does not trigger a chain of emails. Whoever admits, enrolls, and builds the timetable looks at the same datum.
When the role limits who sees and who changes each process, exceptions stop being the method. The term can be discussed with numbers, not with versions of a file. That is operating. The rest is reconciling.