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Q. How do the new jobs account for the fact that similar roles around the Collegiate University can involve very different tasks?

Users have been grouped together and given the same CamSIS job if they perform similar administrative roles within similar organisations across the Collegiate University. This takes into account the fact that an Admissions user in a College will do different tasks to an Admissions user in a department, as an example. The Project Board members were heavily involved in the validating the standardised jobs, and the members include representatives from the central offices, departments and Colleges.

A summary of the jobs and the access they permit can be found in the matrices here:

https://www.camsis.cam.ac.uk/administrators/camsis-accounts (Raven protected)

Q. I have access to multiple organisations’ student data and need this to perform my role. What do the standardised jobs mean for me?

Your access to an organisations’ data is at the discretion of that organisation’s Approvers. However; it will still be possible to access multiple organisations’ data. Each organisation’s approvers will assess your access to their organisations’ data individually.

Q. I’m an academic affiliated with a department and I used to work at a College. Has the implementation of standardised jobs meant I've lost access to data about my current students affiliated with my former College?

The Approver at your former College will review your access and remove access to current students with whom you do not work with.

This project is not changing the way that current students and their advisors are linked. This will continue to be managed by the Degree Committee, or Colleges' tutorial offices. The Approver for each College should work with the tutorial office to ensure the appropriate people have access to the organisation’s data and the appropriate current students.

Q. I’m a Fellow at a College. Has the implementation of standardised jobs meant I have lost access to data relating to current students at that College?

This will be at the discretion of the College’s Approvers.

Q. How do I find out who the Approvers are in my organisation?

The list of Approvers around the Collegiate University are available on the CamSIS support website.

Q. Now the new jobs are in place, have l lost access to any pages on CamSIS?

All users' accounts were thoroughly tested to ensure that they would not lose any access due to the implementation of the standardised jobs in August 2017. Before the standardisation in August 2017 users were setup with personalised accounts, which led to differing levels of access. As part of the standardisation process, we combined access for users performing similar roles in similar organisations. In most cases this resulted in no obvious difference for users, but in some cases; some users had a slight increase in access.

If you notice you have lost access, this will have been at the request of your Approver.

Q. Why have Approvers been formally identified in Departments, Faculties, Colleges and other parts of the Collegiate University? Previously, any line manager could approve CamSIS access.

An internal audit reported that the current user access request process is inefficient. It is very important for information security and statutory purposes that the Collegiate University effectively manages users’ access to student information on CamSIS, and that user access is accurately audited on a regular basis - and this would most effectively be done locally. The CamSIS support team are not best placed to know when users request access whether they are asking for a level of access that is appropriate for their role. This is because:

  • UIS does not know who has left departments unless the department notifies the CamSIS support team, which is not always the case.
  • Methods such as using lookup or central HR information are not possible because the former source is not kept up-to-date by all users and the latter is not accessible
  • It would not be thorough to compare the CamSIS user lists with the list of people with Raven access because 40% of people who leave the University and no longer need access to CamSIS then have Raven4Life. For example, lots of academics have Cambridge degrees and are therefore alumni as well as staff.

We acknowledge that this change results in additional responsibilities being given to some of those who have been formally identified as Approvers. Regrettably this is unavoidable if the Collegiate University is to improve how it manages user access on CamSIS and if control over user access is to be transferred to departments, faculties, Colleges and the University’s partner institutions.

Approvers will benefit from this change in a couple of ways:

  • they can be confident that their users have the correct level of access to do their job accurately.
  • there will be a shorter waiting time when a newstarter joins and needs access to CamSIS
  • they will be provided with a tool to help them audit users who have access to their organisation's student data.

The User Roles and Approvals project team will provide training to all Approvers to ensure that it is clear what their role is and what it will involve, and are on hand to answer any questions that Approvers or users have about what is changing as part of the project.

 

Q. I am listed as an Approver on the CamSIS support website but I do not yet have access to CamSIS. Is this a problem?

Approvers do not require access to CamSIS to approve requests for access (steps required to approve a user's access are on the CamSIS support website).

Approvers will need access to CamSIS from March 2018 in order to use the tool that will support Approvers in auditing their local users, which will be introduced with training as part of phase two of the project.

If you are an Approver and do not currently have access to CamSIS, please request access following the steps outlined on the CamSIS Support website.

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