The University’s Head of Accommodation has received an award at a national event for developing the use of an accommodation software system to the benefit of students.
Head of Accommodation Lee Rawlinson attended the Annual Kinetics User Forum as a guest speaker talking about the University’s residential strategy over the past 10 years and how Accommodation has changed to meet the needs of our students.
Held at the University of Warwick, over 100 UK universities attend the event, creating an opportunity to share best practice across the sector and recognise success. The Forum focuses on Kinetic Solutions and their system – Kx which includes a range of modules used to manage Student Accommodation, Catering and Conferencing activities.
At the event Lee talked about the role that University Accommodation now plays in helping students settle in to University life, helping them to form a connection with their University through community building. He also spoke about the challenges facing current generations of students and the role that technology now plays behind the scenes – allowing team members in the accommodation team to concentrate on the more human aspects of their service.
Some of the benefits of our recent system development are:
- Students now can apply for their accommodation as soon as they receive their student ID number, this has been really well received by students as most other institutions only open their portal from April each year. This now reduces stress for students who are able to apply well ahead of the UCAS deadline in May.
- Students can book their free meet and greet airport transfer service as part of their accommodation booking, benefiting international students.
- Students use a self-service system to report repairs, request to change rooms, nominate their friendship groups to be housed together and extend their contracts for summer placements, this has really helped to reduce waiting lists and build a positive halls community.
Later that evening, Lee was awarded “Big Deal of the Year” for 2018. This was in recognition of how he has personally developed the Kx system along with the use of technology to the benefit of Liverpool students. Each year, the big deal award recognises examples of excellent practice within the sector and demonstrates a strong commitment to improvement.
Reacting to the award, Lee said: “The University of Liverpool is recognised as one of the leaders in the student accommodation sector and the way we now use technology to improve our student experience makes a large impact to overall student satisfaction”
“Following our successful Residential Strategy, the significant investment we have made to improve the experience of our students living in Accommodation can now be measured in a positive community and strong connection to the University. I am over the moon to receive this award and the recognition for many years of hard work and dedication to improve how students live in their accommodation”
Other Universities have enquired with Lee and his team about visiting the University of Liverpool to see our examples of best practice for utilising technology to improve the Accommodation service for students at the University.