[SUNScholar] Thesis Management functionality going live - Monday, 05 August 2024

Sun Aug 4 12:28:38 SAST 2024

Dear Colleagues

The new Thesis Management on SUNStudent Academia will go live on 5th August.  This is another milestone in the university's journey to move all the critical student administration functionality on one software solution.

The SUNStudent project team worked with the university representative, Paulette Talliard (Product Owner) to prepare this functionality for the relevant users.

The Thesis Management functionality has replaced the Staff portal, Thesis/Dissertation Nomination, Thesis Submission, as well as the SUNeTD system.  As with any system, there is always room for improvement, however, these two separate systems now work as one, and with simplified functionalities.  As with the previous system, Thesis Management is a functional platform for Masters and Doctoral students eligible for graduation

What to expect?

Role:  Supervisors/Promotors, postgraduate staff
The Thesis Management function allows users to see ALL nominations s/he, they have completed within their default faculty, and need be, other faculties.  As with the previous systems, the Three Step Process of: 1) the Nomination of a student; 2) the Submission of a document(s); and 3) the Approve/Reject processes, will remain the same.

Accessibility
Due to the sensitive nature of security around the upload of documents, it is pertinent that the University formally track access and authorities of staff members involved in this process.  Only SU Staff will be able to use this functionality and only within their default faculty.  Should a user need to perform this function in another faculty, they can request access for the other faculty.  External users and students will therefore not be given access to the system.

Requesting Access to SUNStudent
Access will only be granted to SU staff and with the approval of their line manager.

Your access can be provisioned by following these steps:

  1.  Please access the SUNStudent Service Desk here<https://servicedesk.sun.ac.za/jira/plugins/servlet/theme/portal/29>
  2.  The tile marked "user access management" is the section that allows users to complete their user role access request

Any user requesting access must get their line manager's approval for the request to be processed.
It is advisable to discuss the role with Paulette Talliard to make the role request clear for the service team.

Changes in the process

  *   The Thesis Management function will remain open through the year.
  *   It is compulsory that all master's and doctoral students complete this process to graduation.
  *   Students will not be uploading any documents; this will be the responsibility of the nominator.
  *   The process of nomination, submission and approval/rejection will take place on the same screen/programme.
  *   The manual input of the student number will give a dropdown box of ALL postgraduate students within the faculty, ensure you 'pick' the correct student from the dropdown box.
  *   The manual input of the supervisor/promotor staff number will give a dropdown box of ALL supervisors/promotors within the faculty, ensure you 'pick' the correct supervisor/promotor from the dropdown box.
  *   Incorrect uploading of document(s) cannot be replaced after the submission process, so the process of nomination needs to be cancelled.
  *   Only a cumulative maximum of 250 MB can be uploaded per student.  Exceeding this threshold requires the user to send an email to scholar at sun.ac.za<mailto:scholar at sun.ac.za>
  *   Uploaded documents will remail visible to the staff member who did the nomination.
  *   The discretion and security of uploaded documents remain with the department.
  *   Thesis management will be 'wiped' clean after each graduation period.
  *   The embargo period only goes up to three years.  For extensions or moving from embargo to open access and vise verse, an email must be sent to scholar at sun.ac.za<mailto:scholar at sun.ac.za>  for manual changes.  These changes will not reflect on Thesis Management.

What remains
The recommendations and look-and-feel of the thesis document remain the same.  Such as the new SU title page, declaration page(s), abstract(s) and type setting.  See the library help page, Thesis/Dissertation submission<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flibrary.sun.ac.za%2Fen-za%2FHelp%2FPages%2Fonline-thesis-submission.aspx&data=05%7C02%7C%7C020229a63a134a56766408dcb470347f%7Ca6fa3b030a3c42588433a120dffcd348%7C0%7C0%7C638583641208423811%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Vy8Pd3D8jg7vnDZVUeFKmGh%2FroX13ek8nV2oC8k7izc%3D&reserved=0> for templates.

Training manuals

The training manuals are available in the [cid:image002.png at 01DAE500.FD0EB090]  in production.

When you access SUNStudent main page after login you will see the 'SUNStudent Learning Library' on the bottom bar.
[A screen shot of a computer  Description automatically generated]
Click on the 'SUNStudent Learning Library' then expand the user guides per capabilities and select the 'Thesis Management - Admin user guide'.
[cid:image004.png at 01DAE500.FD0EB090]

Post-go-live support

Thesis management enters a Post Go live (PGL) Phase for 30 days after the scheduled Go Live or deployment to production

What happens during the 30-day Post Go live (PGL) Period?

  *   Two stand up PGL meetings is held every week for Product Owners (PO's) and involved project team members for capabilities which have just gone live
  *   A specialised dashboard summarises the key issues experienced and the progress to resolve these
  *   The project works with the product owners to resolve defects that were carried over from the project-phase.
  *   We assist with escalation of urgent issues to Serosoft.

Contact
For any assistance or queries please contact scholar at sun.ac.za<mailto:scholar at sun.ac.za>

Kind regards

The SUNStudent Project Team

The integrity and confidentiality of this email are governed by these terms. Disclaimer<https://www.sun.ac.za/emaildisclaimer/default.aspx>
Die integriteit en vertroulikheid van hierdie e-pos word deur die volgende bepalings bere?l. Vrywaringsklousule<https://www.sun.ac.za/emaildisclaimer/default.aspx>
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