Program Beacon was established in mid-2018 as a group of interdisciplinary projects under the DVC-Academic, to engage and work with teams across the University to support the implementation work for Macquarie’s Curriculum Transformation.

Curriculum Transformation tasked us as a university to take the first steps towards modernising our business processes, systems, and practices around curriculum.  The undertaking at its core was about supporting our students’ success.

Beyond Curriculum Transformation, Program Beacon has continued the strong working partnerships it developed with faculties, administration teams and IT teams, which has allowed the project teams to support streams of work for both DVC-Academic and IT.

Projects and initiatives completed in 2020:

• Curriculum Management System (CMS) and Double Degree Advisor
• Student Curriculum Implementation Project – Student Migration (migrating students to the new version of the curriculum, providing students with a personalised study plan)
• Student Curriculum Implementation Project – Technical (credit transfer register build, system readiness for student migration, GPA to WAM, transcript migration)
• My Simple Enquiries (self-service reports) analysis and de-scoping the low usage AMIS reports, analysis of design and build examples for new curriculum structures)
• AMIS-8 rapid enhancement initiatives – Domestic Scholarships, Leave of Absence,
• AMIS staff One ID and eStudent Single Sign-on
• My Academic
• HDR Rewards and Scholarships transitioned into AMIS
• HDR eforms
• Transition of ALAW to AMIS cloud
• Implementation of 2021 Curriculum Viability and Efficiency work
• MQ Essentials unit – new onboarding unit for 2021 commencing students

Projects still in progress in 2021:

• Tertiary Collection of Student Information (TCSI) – government compliance reporting
• AMIS- 9 Business Transformation Project: new applicant portal and enhanced admissions; enhanced enrolment and student portal (replacing eStudent)
• Studylink integration with AMIS
• Syllabus+ timetabling integration with AMIS
• Coursefinder replacement

The unique structure of Program Beacon, with project teams across business and technology streams of work, has provided a model that has been agile and responsive to change, a team to explore new technology opportunities, and to support the organisation to make changes rapidly.  Most recently we have supported the rollout of the MQ Essentials onboarding unit for new students, and the implementation of the changes from the 2021 Curriculum Viability and Efficiency project.

The transformative undertaking over the past two and a half years has fostered the development of new organisational capabilities, and the confidence for Macquarie to be adaptive and proactive in the changing and challenging Higher Education landscape.

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Through the Operating Plan 2020-2024, the University will continue to design and deliver improvements in the student experience, innovations in learning and teaching, and a coursework suite centred on employability.