Instituto San Ignacio de Loyola
A Carefully Developed Timetable Decreases Student Dropout
With more than 12,000 students and four campuses across Peru, Instituto San Ignacio de Loyola offers 22 programs. It is the only institution in the country with backing from the Accreditation Commission for Programs in Hospitality Administration (ACPHA), and it is also a member of the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP).
With the aim of enhancing academic offerings and services, the Institute began a thorough organizational transformation in the first semester of 2015. This allowed significant flexibility and personalization for students to put together their schedules and spread their academic load. It was intended to increase engagement and reduce the dropout rate.
The average number of courses per student increased by improving scheduling and classroom allocation. Compact student sections allowed for optimized instructional resource allotment.
CHALLENGES
“We have seen that a poorly prepared schedule increases student dropout, so it was essential to allocate resources to improve the scheduling options we were offering our students,” explains Francisco Tafur, academic manager at Instituto San Ignacio de Loyola.
Aware of the importance of keeping its students engaged and motivated, the institution took specific steps to ensure they could complete their course degrees on time. The cornerstone of this process was the uPlanning academic planning solution.
“Although we were at normal dropout levels for Peruvian education, we wanted to improve them. But we discovered that when students can’t perform at the pace they feel is right, or according to their ability, they become potential dropouts,” Tafur shared. So, the institution decided to carry out an exhaustive review of scheduling methods. This led to the implementation of uPlanning in 2018 after an exhaustive review of the academic scheduling aspects the solution could support.
Instituto San Ignacio de Loyola decided to offer more scheduling options to help students advance in their careers uninterrupted.
SOLUTION
Based on the number of potential students per course, course-taking behavior in previous periods, and instructional resource availability, uPlanning algorithms reduced the total number of groups per course and increased their average size. This led to resource optimization and a reduction in instructional costs.
In addition, by offering more compact and non-interfering schedules, students could use time efficiently, which improved their overall educational experience and, consequently, student retention. uPlanning also reduced the average time lost moving between buildings.
uPlanning reduced the number of groups per course and increased their average size, which increased operational efficiency through instructional resource optimization.
RESULTS
The Institute began to see results after just one month of introducing uPlanning, developing course timetables that matched student needs more adequately.
“Not only are we using space more efficiently, but we can see those results reflected in student service. The average number of courses per student has increased from 6.1 to 6.3. Obviously, students take more classes because schedules fit their needs better. That is very important to us,” explains Tafur.
Along with an increase in courses per student, the number of students per section increased by 6%, from 30.5 in the second semester of 2017 to 32.3 in the same period of 2018. All this translated into an increase in full academic load students from 82.8% to 93.3%, a growth of 12%.
The total number of students per classroom grew by 19%, increasing tuition income by 12%.
Fransisco Tafur
“We are very pleased with the results obtained using the algorithms of the uPlanning platform. In addition, the service experience has been outstanding. All the effort required around data transformation from our systems can now be seen in the results of operation optimization”.
Head of academic management Instituto San Ignacio de Loyola
Juan Pablo Mena
“The results are very impressive. In less than a month – a record time for uPlanner in the region – the Institute already had great optimization results. It is an excellent example of what we call a High-Performance Institution: clarity in the results to be achieved, leadership, good use of technology, and a lot of agility to improve processes”.
CEO uPlanner