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SCAN SURVEY
PART B: PRIORITY AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT
Developing
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services for institutes
of higher education and research.
QUESTIONNAIRE
January 2000
General Information
Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua. (UNAN-M)
1. Responsibility
for strategic management
1.1 Which group
(office, directorate, department, committee, council others) is
the main responsible body of the university for strategic planning
and decision making concerning university wide developments:
1.Consejo
Universitario
2.Consejos
Facultativos
3.Consejos
Técnicos
1.2 What is
the composition (who are members) of the groups mentioned in the
answer of 1.1:
1. Consejo
Universitario:
a. Rector
b. Vicerrector
General
c. Secretario
General
d. Decanos(4)
e. Representates
del Sindicato Docente(2)
f. Representantes
del Sindicato Administrativo(1)
g. Representante
de la Asociación de Estudiantes(5)
2. Consejos
facultativos:
a. Decano
b. Vicedecano
c. Secretario
Académico
d. Profesores
Titulares(2)
h. Representates
del Sindicato Docente(2)
i. Representantes
del Sindicato Administrativo(1)
e. Representante
de la Asociación de Estudiantes(2)
3. Consejos
Técnicos:
a. Jefe
del Departamento Docente
b. Representates
del Sindicato Docente(1)
c. Representante
de la Asociación de Estudiantes(1)
d. Coordinador
de cada carrera
1.3 Does the
university have a recently updated and well-documented strategic
plan? If the answer is yes, can a copy be made available to the
consultants?
NO
1.4 Does the
university have a group (office, directorate, department, committee,
other) directly responsible for the development of ICT based university
wide applications? If the answer is yes, what is the name of this
group and who are members:
Officially
it does not exist, but in practice operates of the following form:
1. Vicerrector
Administrativo
2. Director
de Centro de Cómputo
3. Responsables
de los Departamentos de Informáticas de las Facultades.
4. Responsables
de adminsitración de Nodos.
1.5 Does the
university have a computer centre (or other ICT oriented entity)
what provides ICT services to the administrative and academic sector?
If the answer is yes, name the main services the centre is providing
to internal clientele:
a)Yes, main
services provided are:
- Hardware
maintenance (PC’s)
- Development
and maintenance of administrative systems
- Basic
ICT training
- Installation
of PC´s
b) The academics
departments that offer courses on training and maintenance of
PC´s
1.6 Does the
computer centre provide services to external clientele? If the answer
is yes, which services does it provide?
NO
2. Priority
areas for development
2.1 What are
the main areas for development identified in the strategic plan
or (if such a plan is not available) defined by the university management?
- Qualification
of the Academic Record System
- Strengthening
of the Regional Centers
- Installation
of INTERNET systems for all the campus
- Rehabilitation
of the administrative system
- Establishment
of a System in distance education
2.2 Please define
priorities for the following (possible) areas for development by
ranking the areas with a number in the range of 0 to 10. The number
0 will indicate “no priority/need at all” and the number
10 will indicate the highest (top) priority. Please try to avoid
to give same numbers to different areas
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Possible area for development
|
Priority
0 = no priority
|
|
Setting up (or upgrading) of university wide Internet/e-mail
facilities
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10
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Setting
up (or upgrading) of university wide telephone system
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2
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Implement (or rehabilitate) a computerized financial
information system
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8
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Implement (or rehabilitate) a computerized library
information system
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7
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Implement (or rehabilitate) a computerized human
resource management information system
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6
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Implement (or rehabilitate) a computerized academic
register information system
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9
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Implement (or rehabilitate) a computerized public
and external relations information system
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3
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Implement (or rehabilitate) specific, ICT based,
applications for education and research such as GIS and CAD
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4
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Implement (or rehabilitate) ICT based (distant) learning
programs
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5
|
|
Other
1 (please specify)
|
|
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Other
2 (please specify)
|
|
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Other
3 (please specify)
|
|
2.3 In case
setting up university wide Internet/e-mail is ranked as one of the
5 top priority areas for development, what impact (or benefits)
can be expected of making access to the Internet available to management,
administration and service support:
-Improved
communication with external organisations
-Enhanced
public relations through publishing on the web
-Improved
internal communications
-Access to
data bases through the World Wide Web (WWW)
-Be part
of the academic liaison at international level
-Facilitates
the exchange between the university authorities
-Strengthens
the leadership to what is internal of the country and at level
internacional
2.4 In case
setting up university wide Internet/e-mail is ranked as one of the
5 top priority areas for development, what impact (or benefits)
can be expected of making access to the Internet available to education
and research.
-Staff and
students will be exposed to ICT;
-Internet/e-mail
will allow cost efficient communication with lectures and researchers
in other parts of the country;
-The students
and staff will get access to external data bases and electronic
information resources.
-Greater
access to the scientific information
-Strengthening
of the academic exchange
-Divulge
the academic and investigative actions of the university
-Development
education to other campus using this facility
2.5 Describe
in brief on the following pages for the five areas for development
having the highest ranking, the problems the application of ICT
may address and the benefits you expect to gain from successful
application of ICT in these areas. If the setting up of university
wide Internet/e-mail belongs to the top five areas, refer to the
question given in 2.4
2.5.1 First
priority area for development:
Description:
Setting up
university wide Internet/e-mail |
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Problems to be addressed:
- Lack
of knowledge from part of staff and students of the International
Net.
- Outdated
scientific Information.
- Weakness
in the academic and research training.
- Slowness
in the access to data base of national and international
institutions.
- Lack
of publication of research projects elaborated by professors
and researchers.
|
|
Benefits expected:
- Knowledge of the facilities of using INTERNET
- Improvement the communication with national and
international universities.
- Publication of research results.
- Greater information to students and educational.
- Improves the quality of professional training.
- Facilitates the academic exchange.
- Reduces
international cost communication .
|
2.5.2 Second
priority area for development:
Description:
Setting up
a computerised academic register information system. |
|
Problems to be addressed:
- Unification
of codes for each subject matter.
- List
of a National System of subject matter codes used by all
universities of Nicaragua..
- Instability
of the National Career System.
- Difficulty
to know the information of the academic results.
- Qualification
Reports with mistakes.
- Duplicity
of information systems.
- Mistakes
on the process of adding courses.
- Mistakes
with the enrollment of the students.
- Poor
access of the information students on time.
|
|
Benefits expected:
- A system of transference for students into the National System of
Higher Education.
- A better control of programs and student transference.
- Improves the processes of the enrollments.
- Modernization of the record system.
- Improves the generation of the academic reports.
- Support to the university crediting process at
international level.
- Unification of the record systems.
- Reliability in the information for the takes
of decisiones.
|
2.5.3 Third
priority area for development:
Description:
Setting up
financial information system |
|
Problems to be addressed:
- At
present the financial system of the university is mainly
characterised by:
- Largely manual operations and hence long processing cycles.
- Duplication of same information in various registers and also sections.
- High possibility of human errors and consequent additional manpower
efforts, time and costs.
- Up to date and reliable information not readily available.
- Situation of backlogs of works with an increasing trend each year.
- Process
of the late financial information.
- Limitation
on the decision making in time and form.
- Current
Processes do not facilitate a financial analysis of long
term.
- The
current system does not permit to improve the information
neither.
- Accomplishes
a consolidated financial of all university.
|
|
Benefits expected:
- Shortened processing cycles.
- Direct availability of up to date and reliable financial data for
decision making.
- Budget
holders within the faculties will have direct access to
the central financial database for budget queries.
- Processing of the financial information in time.
- Consolidation of financial information.
- Takes decisions in time for the authorities.
- Reliable Information
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2.5.4 Fourth
priority area for development:
Description:
Setting up
a computerised Library information system |
|
Problems to be addressed:
- Need
to increase the number of modern books.
- Is
not counted on agile information of the bibliographical.
- Link
with Libraries and documentation of other library centers
in the country and at international level.
- Difficulty
in the managing of the books inventory.
- Limits
the professional students training.
|
|
Benefits
expected:
- Increase quality of education.
- Update and to systematize the data bases of the
bibliography.
- Facilitates the exchange between Libraries and
Documentation
Centers.
- Permits diversify the new bibliography required
by the different careers.
- Improves the professional qualification level
of the students.
|
2.5.5 Fifth
priority area for development:
Description:
Setting up
a computerised human resource management information system |
|
Problems
to be addressed:
- By
and large, the university has no control on services that
faculty could be able to offer to society.
- There
is a tendency to see educational process only as teaching
learning and therefore, there is ignorance on the capabilities
of research and services.
- Lack
of experience on services other than social extension.
- The
need to organize a Center for Institutional Development
able to control faculty skills and society needs in order
to reshape the relationship university-society-state.
- Largely
manual operations and hence long processing cycles.
- Information
limited.
- No
continuity on the training process for lack of information
on time.
- Up
to date and reliable information not readily available.
- High
possibility of human errors and consequent additional manpower
efforts, time costs.
|
|
Benefits
expected:
- Better control on faculty activity.
- Consolidation of faculty prestige.
- A better relationship University-society-State.
- Definition of a coherent training system to serve university faculty
and society.
- Shortened processing cycles.
- Updated data bases of information on human resources.
- Direct
availability of up to date an reliable information for the
definition of politics of training and development of the
human resources.
|
2.5 In case
an comprehensive project on ICT will be started for your university,
who will be assigned the role of project supervisor (or director)
with the responsibility to supervise and monitor the whole implementation:
Name project
supervisor: CESAR RODRIGUEZ LARA
Present function:
VICERRECTOR ADMINISTRATIVO
Telephone
number: (+505) 278 – 6772
Fax number:
(+505) 278 - 2990
E-mail address
: unanread@tmx.com.ni
2.6 In case
such an ICT project will span five areas for development with the
highest ranking, mention the names of the persons who possible will
be assigned the responsibility as sub-project managers for project
management of the respective areas of development?
First priority area for development:
Name
sub-project manager: In revision
Present function:
Telephone number:
Fax number:
E-mail address:
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Second priority area for development:
Name
sub-project manager: In revision
Present function:
Telephone number:
Fax number:
E-mail address:
|
Third priority area for development:
Name
sub-project manager: In revision
Present function:
Telephone number:
Fax number:
E-mail address:
|
Fourth priority area for development:
Name
sub-project manager: In revision
Present function:
Telephone number:
Fax number:
E-mail address:
|
Fifth priority area for development:
Name
sub-project manager: In revision
Present function:
Telephone number:
Fax number:
E-mail address:
|
3. Recurrent
cost for operation and maintenance of ICT services
3.1 Please give
an estimate of the annual cost for (national and international)
communication in the past year
Cost for international
communication (telephone calls, fax, other) in 1999 US$ 15,000.00
Cost for national
communication (telephone calls, fax, other) in 1999: US$ 30,000.00
3.2 For many
counterpart universities in development the main bottleneck for
operating Internet services are the recurrent cost for bandwidth.
For a modest facility (for instance: an Internet channel with a
bandwidth of 128 Kbps out, 512 Kbps) serving the whole university,
the recurrent costs may vary in the range of US$ 5.000- 7.000/month.
In case financial
support can be attracted from an external donor organisation for
setting up a comprehensive data communication network and advanced
Internet facilities, but no external financial support can be expected
covering the recurrent costs, what would be possible scenario’s
for the university to solve this problem of high recurrent cost.
The university
intends to provide ICT services to students and external clientele
with the aim to generate income which will be used for covering
part of the recurrent costs, and considering the strategic importance
of Internet for education and research, our university will make
budget reservations to complete the total recurrent cost.
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