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November 14, 2024

Hostel Management Systems: Putting Large Universities on a Winning Streak Against Complex Campus Housing Needs

Table of Contents

Introduction

According to the FICCI-EY Higher Education in India: Vision 2030 report, the college-going population in India is expected to reach 140 million by 2030. These numbers will amplify the complex landscape of student housing management in universities and educational institutions. With large universities planning to accommodate thousands of students every academic year, the intricacy of assigning rooms, maintaining campus safety, and ensuring student well-being turns into an administrative burden. 

The manual and traditional methodologies of administrative operations can no longer address these complex housing needs. These paper-based, repetitive workflows result in misallocated resources, delayed approvals, and student dissatisfaction. While universities brace themselves to accommodate a massive number of students, these operational inefficiencies act as significant roadblocks. 

Hostel Management Sytems

Innovative solutions like a hostel management system can help institutions become future-ready and equip themselves to accommodate the complexities of campus housing. These systems can help streamline the paper-based, manual processes involved in hostel administration. Let’s explore how smart systems like hostel management software can simplify the complexities of student housing on university campuses. 

Consolidated room allocation

Hostel room allocation is the most critical yet decentralized and lengthy process affecting students and administrators equally. During peak admission season, the scattered nature of the room allocation process leaves room for multiple human errors and delays. While students need to drop by multiple departments for approvals, the concerned personnel need to address requests of thousands of students via a paper-based system. 

By integrating these smart systems, authorities can centralize the workflows, minimize errors, and expedite room allocation, ensuring students settle into their hostel lives smoothly. 

Prime focus on students’ wellbeing

The siloed nature of hostel life can result in students remaining isolated after lecture hours. A hostel management system breaks this silo by providing options for students to pick roommates based on shared interests, hobbies, and academic pursuits. It also helps students draft into existing student communities, create new communities, or organize events fostering collaborative learning and a growth mindset. Furthermore, the open channel communication platform in the software offers students access to support services and interact with staff while contributing to their holistic development. 

Unified maintenance resolutions

Utility maintenance requests from students in large universities with multiple hostel blocks typically exceed hundreds. With a consolidated portal for logging maintenance requests, students no longer rely on register-based entries to convey their utility complaints. Hostel administrators can refer to the logged maintenance requests for the day and assign technicians accordingly while updating students on the status of their complaints. 

This proactive approach leads to swifter response times and lesser delays in maintenance resolutions while significantly reducing downtime. Additionally, the data collated from the maintenance logs can help hostel personnel take corrective action for preemptive maintenance that reduces the frequency of equipment failure.  

Maximized resource allocation

Large universities have bigger student bodies that often face issues with bed availabilities, inventory management, and adequate staff deployment.  With real-time data on occupancy rates, peak usage hours, dining requirements, and maintenance needs, administrators are well prepared to take corrective actions to tackle these issues.  Hostel management systems help institutions make data-driven decisions that result in better resource utilization, more efficient processes, cost reductions, and quality improvements. 

Automated payment processing mechanisms

Traditional processes for fee collection often lead to calculation errors, deferred payments, and accounting shortcomings. A hostel management system offers automated fee-collection mechanisms that provide a higher level of transparency and accountability with payment reminders, e-receipts, and real-time updates. These advances also help ensure a smooth auditing process by seamlessly integrating with the university’s financial frameworks, leading to fewer monetary discrepancies and faster collections. 

Greater campus security and compliance adherence

A modern-day university campus spans hundreds of acres with multiple administrative, academic, hostel, and cafeteria facilities. With thousands of students simultaneously checking in and out of these facilities, maintaining campus safety via conventional practices can cause security compromises. A hostel management system eliminates the need for keycard and card-reader-based access systems and replaces them with a cardless digital ID.

With digital IDs, the security personnel are well aware of the visitor and guest presence on campus and can regulate their access control based on requirements. Additionally, authorities can grant and revoke access for all visitors, if necessary, in real-time, which helps enhance authorized access in sensitive areas. These measures improve campus safety for students and help them remain legally compliant with local government authorities' regulatory requirements. 

Conclusion

As universities continue growing, their campus housing requirements become more complex. Transitioning to novel technologies like a hostel management system can help institutions enhance the student living experience while reorganizing and modernizing operations. By leveraging these systems, universities can not only mitigate the present challenges but also develop a future-ready ecosystem with student well-being at its core.  

SpaceBasic’s Hostel Management System is an innovative solution that has placed several prominent universities at the forefront of campus housing simplification. It has helped institutions like Manipal Global Academy of BFSI resolve maintenance issues 50% faster by reducing the resolution time from 10 days to less than 3 days. 

Ready to simplify the complexities of student housing at your university campus? Get started by scheduling a demo.