Technical College System of Georgia Implements SunGard Higher Education DegreeWorks at 26 Colleges to Help Students and Advisors Manage Degree Requirements

MALVERN, Pa, June 22, 2010 — The Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) is implementing SunGard Higher Education DegreeWorks at all 26 of its two-year technical colleges to help students complete their desired degree programs quicker and more efficiently; and to proactively address a possible enrollment decline when TCSG transitions from quarters to semesters. 

DegreeWorks provides a comprehensive set of Web-based academic advising, degree audit, and transfer articulation tools to help students spend less time deciphering degree requirements and more time pursuing their academic goals.  Real-time counseling capabilities help advisors provide consistent and meaningful direction to students.  The solution is planned to be live at all schools in April 2011.

TCSG is in the process of changing from quarters to semesters while also meeting the demands of a 27 percent increase in fall enrollment.    

“Typically, you lose enrollment when you change from quarters to semesters,” explained Bill Gray, chief information officer for TCSG.  “We believe the advising tools within DegreeWorks will help students better see and chart their educational paths and stay on track at TCSG, helping us to maintain our enrollment numbers while providing better advisement for our students.”

“This will be a valuable tool for students and advisors to use for years to come,” added Nichole Kennedy, executive director for student affairs at TCSG.  “Our students are balancing many different things while going to college.  DegreeWorks will help them get all the information they need about their program of study and time to completion.  It will help them map out their college program, graduate and enter the workforce as quickly as possibly.  And it will give our advisors valuable tools to guide students in their decision-making.”

SunGard Higher Education consultants worked closely with TCSG to develop a cost-effective plan to implement DegreeWorks within a very compressed timeframe.  DegreeWorks will be integrated to the colleges’ existing Banner Student information system but can also be implemented as a stand-alone application.  The full-service model developed by SunGard for this consortia implementation can be adjusted for other systems in other states.

“DegreeWorks will be an important tool for TCSG to help their students achieve their educational goals more quickly and more efficiently,” said Tom Wagner, vice president of product management and strategy for SunGard Higher Education’s retention and student success offerings.  “By helping students through the system more efficiently, TCSG can free up valuable resources and keep pace with its growing enrollment.  This is an example of how our Open Digital Campus vision helps customers address pressing issues.”

About Technical College System of Georgia

The Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) oversees the state's technical colleges, adult literacy programs, and a host of economic and workforce development programs.

TCSG through the Technical College System of Georgia provides a unified system of technical education, adult education , and customized business and industry training through programs that use the best available technology and offer easy access to lifelong education and training for all adult Georgians and corporate citizens.  For more information, visit www.tcsg.edu 

About SunGard Higher Education

SunGard Higher Education serves colleges, universities and foundations in 40 countries worldwide.  Through its Open Digital Campus strategy, SunGard collaborates with the higher education community and provides software and services to help institutions find better ways to teach, learn, manage and connect.  To learn more, please visit www.sungardhe.com.

About SunGard

SunGard is one of the world’s leading software and technology services companies.  SunGard has more than 20,000 employees and serves 25,000 customers in 70 countries.  SunGard provides software and processing solutions for financial services, higher education and the public sector.  SunGard also provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software.  With annual revenue exceeding $5 billion, SunGard is ranked 380 on the Fortune 500 and is the largest privately held business software and IT services company.

Trademark information: SunGard, the SunGard logo, Banner, DegreeWorks and Open Digital Campus are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. All other trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.