The challenge

Since the start in 1834, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of students and programs they offer. For the 2021-2022 academic year, more than 39,000 students enrolled. In addition to this growth, new challenges have appeared: major changes in the regulations regarding higher education, customised programs on the individual level, shortage of rooms, maintenance needs, needs for decision-making in different estate management scenarios, public health challenges and more.

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Context and expectations

The growth and challenges created new realities for the university to consider. They highlighted the importance of timetabling and space management to run the university properly: to maintain high standards and offer the students and staff quality services, but also have the capability to make informed decisions.

In this context, attention was focused on some key points:

• Involvement of all timetablers (some 80 people) and all the resources of 13 faculties in one single environment
• Unifying the timetabling and room allocation procedures on every campus
• Consideration of the specific faculty and campus constraints, but also adaptation to a single centralised process
• Set up of procedures to maximise the use of the rooms (which are managed centrally) in a very tight context for space management
• Identifying the needs regarding the teaching spaces in a long-term perspective
• Providing all the students and lecturers an easy way of accessing their timetables and get individual schedules and flexible solution

Given this situation, the ULB needed to be ready and better equipped for its current and future needs. Furthermore, as the energy devoted to timetabling (creation, changes) and room allocation increased every year, a user-friendly and effective resource management, scheduling and publishing solution was essential for the ULB as she could not depend on on-premises undersized solutions anymore. A call for tender was launched in 2020 to get an overview of the existing timetabling solutions with different aims in mind, and more importantly:

1. Reliability: users needed a solution with more control on data, enabling easy and quick checks, making it possible to rely on data to ensure better decision-making

2. Accessibility: it had to be available everywhere and any time with minimal service disruption (especially for the publishing solution)

3. Quality and effectiveness: it was necessary to accelerate the processes (e.g., to react quickly in case of last-minute changes, to visualise room timetables) and make schedules more flexible

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The Implementation

We had a talk  with Amélie Théry, Head of the Timetabling Coordination and Teaching Spaces Team at ULB, about the implementation and the first few months with TimeEdit. She talks about the tender and implementation process:

“The results of the tender procedure were very clear: TimeEdit was the best fit for ULB. When the implementation started in February 2021 we had a very specific and aspirational goal: getting the timetabling and publishing solutions ready to welcome all the reservations for the academic year 2021-2022. This basically meant that TE Core, the timetabling system, had to be fully configured before April 2021 to launch the training sessions of all the timetablers and room managers.”

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Key results‍

Considering the high stakes and the size of the change for the university, failure or delay were definitely not options for the launch. The project was considered a huge success as all the deadlines were observed and the feedback made the project management team and the ULB’s authorities optimistic about the launch and the now regular use of TimeEdit. Amélie explains:

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It now becomes clear that the system can be more than just a place to record our reservations, but a whole new way of approaching our scheduling and space management issues. And that’s major.”

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"The timetablers were able to handle the system easily and managed the change efficiently. Many users highlighted the user-friendliness of TE Core and how reassuring it was to get some changes done and displayed in a few clicks. The reliability of the system and the flexibility of the implementation to fulfil our needs were also huge assets that enable us to consider the full potential of timetabling. It now becomes clear that the system can be more than just a place to record our reservations, but a whole new way of approaching our scheduling and space management issues. And that’s major.”

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A multi-year search for a cutting edge scheduling system came to an end when Condé Nast was introduced to TimeEdit
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With only 3000 students, Condé Nast College is undoubtedly one of the smallest TimeEdit customer, however that is in no way equal to low ambitions. In contrast, creating unique personalised schedules in a complex education setting requires intricate planning, flexibility and resource control.

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Where Only the Best is Good Enough

When Condé Nast opened the doors to its College of Fashion and Design in 2013, they did it with an ambition to provide an unparalleled student experience similar to what everyone has grown accustomed to with the group’s publications. Setting the bar high, Condé Nast were adamant about exclusively using state-of-the-art technology solutions across their entire EdTech software stack, to ensure they could deliver on the ambition.
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A Century Of Media Leadership

The story of Condé Nast dates back to 1909, when Condé Montrose Nast, a New York City-born publisher, acquired Vogue - first created back in 1892 as a New York weekly journal of society and fashion news.

Considered the inventor of “class publications”, a magazine type focusing on a particular social group or interest rather than trying to attract the largest possible readership, Condé Nast has successfully expanded its portfolio of publications and digital assets over the decades and are today the undisputed leaders in the segment they once created.
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Perfecting College Education

With a century of built-up brand equity as a result of perfecting the art of magazine publishing, there’s a lot at stake when you venture into a new market. Well aware of this, Nicholas Coleridge, Managing Director of Condé Nast Britain and founder of Condé Nast College of Fashion and Design, made it clear from the beginning that the College wouldn’t settle for anything but state-of-the-art solutions to ensure they could provide an unrivalled student experience.
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Choosing TimeEdit for Resource Management and Timetabling

Having scoured the UK market for adequate timetabling solutions with little to no success, TimeEdit’s 2017 expansion to Britain couldn’t have been timelier for the College. CTO of Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design Sepehr Malek recalls.

Despite numerous attempts and demos from providers we couldn’t find a solution that really did all the things we wanted and provided the type of student experience we were looking for – that is, until we came in contact with TimeEdit*

The Center of Attention

“We use TimeEdit to create unique schedules for all of our students” Sepehr continues, “and that’s a feature no other provider could give us”. On top of that, the College embeds TimeEdit into their Canvas installation to provide students with a seamless bridge between the two core products governing the daily life of the students.  “When you come into our building you typically see a large group of students gathered around our TVs displaying our TimeEdit schedule – it’s become the de-facto center of attention when you’re not attending a session” Sepehr says.

All is Well That Ends Well

TimeEdit provides each of its customers with a dedicated Customer Success Manager to help with implementation, training and whatever questions that may arise along the way.. Sepehr appreciates this intimate approach and concludes the interview:

We’ve all been incredibly happy with how our CSM has been working with us. Proactive and solution-oriented, he really made the transition to TimeEdit a breeze. I would definitely recommend every CTO out there to try TimeEdit

Key Achievements

• Institution-wide resource management & timetabling
  
• Study room bookings for students & simple scheduling of guest lecturers
  
• Individualized student schedule
  
• Built-in event management for internal and external use

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