The HATÁR Student Support System

December 12, 2008

The HATÁR Student Support System was developed to help Hungarian Institutions of Higher Learning manage the scholarships and aid that can be granted to their students. The system manages the entire student aid process from the registration of normative support by source to the determination of payments for individual students. 

In the interest of reliability, scalability and security, our developers selected a three tier architecture for the application including a Windows client and Browser-based interface linked to the database. 

The HATÁR system can be integrated with other legacy systems that are prevalent at Hungarian Institutions of Higher Learning. The system manages personal, social and course data collected from various sources including other legacy applications and the evaluated paper-based petitions of students. 

Using the system, students can use the browser-based user interface to complete and submit what were previously paper-based petitions for aid online. Students can also obtain information on the results of their petition usng the same online interface. The browser-based user interface can easily be integrated into existing University portal systems. In the case of a mid-sized university, the HATÁR system typically manages several hundred million Hungarian Forints of student aid every semester, providing complete documentation and tracking of every Forint distributed. 

Although the system was developed initially for the István Széchényi University, owing to its successful implmentation, the designers are currently making arrangements for its adoption in other Universities and Institutions across Hungary. 

The HATÁR system’s main functions include:

• Management of student petitions for aid:
  • Completion of the social support form via the browser-based user interface
  • Automated import of personal and coursework data for the petitions from an Institution’s other legacy applications
  • Constant feedback for students completing petitions (e.g., including lists of documents that must be attached)
  • Petitions can be saved and revised and finalized at a later time
  • Review and approval of petitions by authorized personnel
  • Immediate alerts to students on decisions regarding their petitions
  • Messaging function between students and petition evaluators
• Determination of regular support
  • Comprehensive management of student records (synchronized with other systems of the Institution)
  • Management of support sources (normative support and support for internships)
  • Determination of support types and distribution of sources among those
  • Distribution of scholarships (via an algorithm determined by the Institution)
  • Determination of regular social support (based on the rules of the Institution and students’ petitions for social support)
  • Management of other regular scholarships
  • Transfer of determined payments to the course system
• Management of irregular support
  • Management of funds by Institution, Department, Center or Course
  • Registration of extraordinary social support and other irregular support
• Management of revisions
• Management of administrative errors and departing students
• Preparation of reports
• Management of rights by group, user management
• Logging of user actions and review
• Management of legal and institutional regulations
• Customization

Pál Molnár, Synthesis-Net PM