OAU’s Transcript Processing Really Got Better
When
OAU’s transcript processing was terrible in delivery timeline, customer
relations and what have you, we wouldn’t stop shouting on the school and its
management everywhere online and offline. OAU’s transcript processing got even
worse around 2019 and 2020, the fastest delivery then would be around three
months, and it could go as worse as you waiting forever for your transcript to
get delivered but never getting delivered. The worst part was no one would
contact you to let you know what’s wrong and what you needed to do. Everything
about expecting OAU to deliver your transcript after paying for such service
was terrible. More like dozens of transcript applications were entering per day
but only a handful of finished transcripts get delivered per day, thereby
causing a backlog of applications. PEC as a business in education and solutions
solved a good number of problems delaying these transcripts then, and we made
some good revenues from helping alumni solve these problems as a third-party
between them and the university. But in the last few months, OAU’s transcript processing
has been at its best and it is necessary we sing their praises the same way we
criticised them when they were terrible at it. The Transcript Unit is so up and
doing now that alumni who graduated in the last five years or so might even be
able to get their transcripts delivered in days without having to settle
anybody or contact anybody to start running around for them on their transcript
processing. People who graduated around ten years ago might however need to
expect their own delivery in weeks (say three or four weeks); compared to
before, this is good. OAU becoming better in management and adoption of modern
technologies, I am sure if the Transcript Unit keeps this pace, sooner,
same-day delivery of transcript would be achieved.
The
only aspects the university is still having issues in relations to transcript processing
are:
1. Transcripts of alumni of Health
Sciences and Pharmacy, because their results are not really programmed on any
electronic spreadsheet yet, which makes collation and processing take between
several months and never getting attended to because no staff wants to
voluntarily take up such stress;
2. Transcripts of alumni whose
matric number look like this 851592 and those whose matric number look like
this SCI/99/001 (compared to the new matric numbering system that looks like
this SCI/2000/001), the implications attached to the old matric numbers are
that you graduated like two or three decades ago, or even more, and also, your
results are only on papers (which may have totally or partly been lost or
damaged by rodents, water or room temperature). Also, whether your results are
somewhere close or not wouldn’t matter much, the fact that you have a scary
matric number scares staff away from touching your transcript application; so
such applications are usually abandoned until someone shows up for you or on
your behalf to start running around for you in processing your transcript; and
3. Transcripts of alumni who transferred
between departments when they were in school and those who had a lot of extra
years. I think this problem occurs because the software engineers who built the
current results and transcripts software the school uses (called TPS) did not
consider the fact that some people are not able to run their programme without transferring,
taking a leave of absence, having extra year and all; they built the software
to only understand that you started your programme when you should start it and
you ended it when you should end it. This means if you transferred between
departments or you had any interruption, the software would only be able to
read the part of your programme before the transfer or interruption happened.
So the rest of your results and other information would have to be processed
manually (from your department)
The
only alumni having problems with getting their transcripts easily and fast or
getting it at all are people who fall on any one of the three circumstances
discussed above. I believe if OAU knows this and they intend to solve the
problem so these alumni can enjoy the new advancement in the OAU transcript
processing, they can do it. While we head towards achieving same-day delivery
of transcripts, we should make it general and not that it’s only possible for
some set of alumni. Again, kudos to the school management and the Transcript
Unit for the advancement they have achieved so far, it’s impressive.
People who read this also have interest in reading this: Solutions to Date of Birth Discrepancies on Your OAU or UI Transcript