UNIVERSITY INFORMATION SYSTEM SUPPORTING E-UNIVERSITY WITHIN EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA

The implementation of the Bologna standards into the higher education of Serbia has faced the Universities with numerous problems brought about by the reforms. One of the most important issues emerging as the consequence of changes is information support to scientific and educational processes. To realize the missions of universities under new study conditions, advancing their internal and external communications is of a crucial importance. The external communication predominantly occurs through the exchange of information and other forms of cooperation with the state authorities, home and foreign Universities and business organisations, while the internal communication flows between the members of Universities.

Developing and implementing integrative services of Universities started in 2007, but it is proceeding slowly. The Ministry for Higher Education does not have an information system or database of any kind, so work of the National Council and Accreditation and Quality Commission is highly complicated. Some of the units of Universities have their own information systems developed just to satisfy their internal needs. These solutions require a serious re-engineering, so as to meet the newly created requirements of Universities. There is no electronic communication between Universities and constituent units.

The existing solutions in Serbia were built to support the pre-reform operations of Faculties. Information systems currently in use are built exclusively from the standpoints of Faculties as business units, where the Universities and their needs were not taken into consideration, so it can be concluded that the present form cannot meet the newly created requirements of universities. The increasing role of Universities has created a new situation founded in the legal frameworks too. The Universities have the task to find, i.e. to ‘force’ the way to get out from the above described situation.

The article presents the modified role of the university information system, and provides a detailed description of common processes to be supported with information at the level of an integrated whole. The process based model at Universities is the key tool in transforming Universities from disintegrated into integrated entities. Particular attention is devoted to describing activities and contents that should be provided through e-University.