• Gazelle Local Launch

  06 June 2013

  • We will be unveiling Gazelle Local at Highbury Campus on Thursday 6 June. Businesses and entrepreneurs are invited to attend the launch to find out how they can work with our learning companies and help shape the future of education. It will be an opportunity to learn how they can actively support the college and its entrepreneurial ethos through mentoring, or helping the college to capitalise on its access to the community .

Highbury College is launching iProspectus - an app that will allow anyone in the world to view their entire course selection using a mobile phone.

This is the second mobile application that Highbury College has launched with technology specialist Portal, following the successful roll-out of iHighbury (a mobile gateway for current students to access internal systems).

Like iHighbury, the iProspectus application is available on both the iOS and Android platforms and allows students around the globe to not only browse the prospectus, but also apply for a place at the college.

Paul Rolfe, Head of Technology & Innovation at Highbury College said: "At Highbury we are always looking for new ways to improve access and usability for our current and future students. We are also continuously looking to operate in a more sustainable way. This app will help students find the courses they want to study and save on the financial and environmental costs that come with using paper."

Watch the video to see how it works

The iProspectus app, which is available in both the Apple and Android App Stores, was designed to cater to the ever increasing number of students applying to the college online, with the eventual aim of entirely cutting out paper-based application forms. It also ensures that the college remains at the forefront of technology, as the app talks to the college’s back-end Tribal EBS4 Student Records system via web services.

Selected for both its partner status at IBM and its excellent reputation, Portal was given a brief to create an app that would save Highbury College thousands of pounds in administrative fees, such as those involved in printing, transporting and storing prospectuses as well as sending out application forms to potential students. The college has predicted that over the next five years it will achieve a joint cost saving and increase in student revenues of at least £200,000, delivering an ROI of 667 per cent, thanks to the app.

The new technology will make the application process far more efficient by reducing the number of errors made during the submission stage and plans are afoot to allow students to pay for their courses via the app too.

Paul commented: "In order to maximise efficiency, Portal integrated the mobile app into the college’s MIS system that was already in place. Connecting the app to the Tribal MIS system presented many challenges, but Portal consultants were able to deal with them effectively in order to create an app which in the future will allow us to create an entirely integrated online application and enrolment process."