CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

This project focuses on the development of a web based Complaint Management System which

automates the activities, management and operations performed in the various departmental arms of

the academic institution.

In May 2001, the then Secretary for Education and Manpower commissioned the University Grants

Committee (UGC) to launch a comprehensive review of higher education in Hong Kong, and the

review report was published in March 2002. The Government accepted most of UGC's

recommendations, and announced in November 2002 the blueprint for further development of

higher education in Hong Kong (Queensland Ombudsman Journal, 2006).

Under the blueprint, the UGC-funded institutions were required to review their governance and

management structures including the grievances and complaints mechanisms. The governing

bodies of the UGC-funded institutions completed their internal reviews on governance and

management structure in 2008 (Queensland Ombudsman Journal, 2006).

During the period of review conducted by the UGC-funded institutions, the Panel on Education

held a number of meetings to discuss and receive views from deputations on matters relating to the

governance structure and grievances and complaints mechanisms of the institutions. Some staff

associations of the institutions opined that the existing mechanisms for handling complaints lodged

by staff against their respective institutions were ineffective. As such, they proposed the

establishment of an independent inter-institutional redress mechanism and the exploration of the

feasibility of extending the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman to cover the UGC-funded institutions.

1
This proposal was backed by some members of the Panel. However, the Government, UGC and the

Heads of Universities Committee did not support the proposal, stating that the implementation of

the proposal would undermine individual institutions' autonomy in handling staff matters and

complaints having regard to their own policies, practices and individual circumstances (Queensland

Ombudsman Journal, 2006).

At the meeting of the Panel on 9 February 2009, members agreed that the Research and Library

Services Division (RLSD) be requested to conduct a research on the external complaint handling

mechanism for the higher education sector in overseas places. After a preliminary research on the

United Kingdom (UK), the State of Queensland of Australia (Queensland), Taiwan, the United

States, Canada and Singapore, RLSD proposed to study the mechanism in the UK, Queensland and

Taiwan as these places had either legislation or independent public bodies or both in place to deal

with complaints arising from staff of the higher education sector (Queensland Ombudsman Journal,

2006).

Both the UK and Queensland have legislation protecting the rights of the general public, including

staff at higher education institutions, from disclosing information relating to official misconduct

and maladministration that adversely affects a person's interest. The UK also has specific

guidelines on handling whistleblowing, complaint and grievance procedures in the higher education

sector. In Taiwan, there are legislation stipulating channels for making complaints and appeals in

the higher education sector as well as the establishment of a dedicated committee in individual

higher education institutions to handle teachers' complaints and grievances on dismissal,

suspension and other detrimental decisions. An interim comparison table summarizing the

preliminary findings of the subject was published for members' deliberation at the meeting held on

6 July 2009 (Queensland Ombudsman Journal, 2011).

2
1.1 PROBLEM DEFINITION/MOTIVATION

The way students complaints are handled in institutions is of great concern. Nowadays, there are

different problems about manual systems such as misplacement of important files, files eaten up by

rodents or rats, reduced ability to reliable updates etc. It is therefore necessary to develop a system

that can effectively manage, monitor and maintain optimal complaints from the students.

Below are some of the problems associated with the existing system of Crawford University as its

complaints procedure is solely a manual system.

1) Storage and Access:

Due to the large number of students, it becomes a tedious task to access students'

complaints. The complaints are arranged serially with the receiving dates in ascending

order, but sometime, you find another complaint in place of other. Example exists where

you have to access a complaint having the date as 26/03/2013, you end up seeing another

complaint in that space, and access to that particular complaint becomes stressful because

the officer has to scan through thousands of files to get to where it is located.

2) Delay Response to Enquiries:

A lot of time is wasted in trying to answer enquiries concerning students. This is due to the

speed of getting access to a complaint or record of student in the manual system.

Sometimes, it might take days or weeks to find a student's complaint, especially if the

student has graduated.

3) Delay in Receiving Incoming Data:

There is time wasting in getting data. For instance, the complaints of students and records

from the department are not sent earlier to the complainant office.

3
 Prior to maintenance of certain office equipment also contributes to the problems. Power

failure may render their calculating machines non-functional.

4) Report acquisition problems

It is pretty difficult to generate report from an existing manual system. The effort associated

with finding meaningful data and statistics in the system is enormous. Summarizing data

and writing of report takes a lot of time, thereby reducing time to achieve tangible result

during working hours.

5) Data duplication or repetitions

The same data gets repeated over and over since the workers find it difficult to keep track of

the complaint or documents or information about the entity involved. This occurs majorly

during processing.

1.2 AIMS/OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The aim of this project is to develop a web based application that will help to effectively

administer, monitor and maintain complaint activities and operations of complainant unit of

Crawford University. Specific objectives of the project include:

i. To efficiently gather student complaints through a fully automated system that does

not only saves lot of time but also gives fast results.

ii. To avoid the use of pens, biros, papers, and other materials used in manual data

acquisition (i.e. wasting resources).

4
 iii. To automate a system that can be audited when there is need in order to enhance

system and operational security.

iv. To create a database containing student details concerning their various complaint and

possible solutions which are listed in the document produced by the complainant and

to be processed by the institutions management.

v. To design and develop a system to record complaint made by staff, students and

visitors of Crawford University

1.3 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF STUDY

This project is restricted to the students and staff complaints arm of Crawford University.

However, there are a lot of difficulties or limitations encountered during the process of its

development and these are stated below:

a. Power

The issue of power or light is one of the major problems of Crawford University.

PHCN (Power Holding Corporation of Nigeria) hardly bring light so that student can

carry out research work. Therefore, the University management has to depend solely

on generating set which cost a lot of money because diesel is very expensive to buy

and maintenance cost of the plants is very high. This in turn is a disadvantage on the

part of the student as the generating set is powered on between 7-10PM in the night

which is not enough time for resourceful research work to be done with that time

duration.

5
 b. Time Frame

The time frame for the project delivery is pretty small. Based on this, we had to rush

up with the project so that we can meet up with submission date.

c. Internet(Browsing facilities)

The internet access provided by the school does not extend to the hostel area and even

when you try to use mobile phone network provider MODEM as an alternative, the

access delivery (in terms of bandwidth speed) is very appalling due to the

geographical location of the hostel.

1.4 DEFINITION OF TERMS

1. Management:

Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together

to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and

effectively (Kiwix Offline Wikipedia, 2012)

2. System:

A set of detailed methods, procedures, and routines established or formulated to carry out a

specific activity, perform a duty, or solve a problem (Kiwix Offline Wikipedia, 2012)

3. Manual System:

Manual system is a system controlled or manipulated by a human operator (Kiwix Offline

Wikipedia, 2012)

4. Existing System:

Existing system is the system that the users were making do with before the management

decided to upgrade. It is can also be called Legacy System (Kiwix Offline Wikipedia, 2012)

6
5. Database:

Database is a systematically organized or structured repository of indexed information

(usually as a group of linked data files) is designed to offer an organized mechanism for

storing, managing and retrieving information (Kiwix Offline Wikipedia, 2012)

6. Web Based Application:

A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an

intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-

supported language (such as JavaScript, combined with a browser-rendered markup language

like HTML) and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable

(Kiwix Offline Wikipedia, 2012)

7. Online:

Controlled by or connected to a computer or to the internet (Kiwix Offline Wikipedia, 2012)

8. Complaint:

In general usage, Complaint is an expression of displeasure (Kiwix Offline Wikipedia, 2012)

9. Implementation:

Implementation is the realization of an application, or execution of a plan, idea, model,

design, specification, standard, algorithm, or policy (Kiwix Offline Wikipedia, 2012)

10. Management System:

Management system is the framework of processes and procedures used to ensure that an

organization can fulfil all tasks required to achieve its objectives (Kiwix Offline Wikipedia,

2012)

7
11. Complaint Management System:

Complaint Management System is one of latest productivity enhancement tools used widely

by all organisations wherever there is a need of booking of complaints via operators and

analysis of complaints which are made or are pending (Kiwix Offline Wikipedia, 2012)

Lack of paper movements provides complaint management operations a speed which was

never envisaged in manual mode at all. Software allows a booking operator to book and lodge

complaints and automatically schedules and prompts operators to source complaint to

concerned departments (Kiwix Offline Wikipedia, 2012)

12. Complainant:

This is the person making the complaint. This may include: a member of the public,

customer, employee, offenders family or friend, stakeholder, or advocacy group (if the

complaint does not relate to alternative processes outlined in existing legislation or

procedure) or an employee of an engaged service provider (Kiwix Offline Wikipedia, 2012)

13. Determining Officer:

The person nominated by the relevant divisional head, which is then responsible for

authorising the outcome of a complaint, the determining officer is responsible for

assessing, recording, monitoring and tracking complaints concerning their area of

8
 co-ordinating and conducting reviews of Level 1 and Level 2 complaints
which were investigated and determined by an assigned officer (Vargo, S.L. and
Lusch, R.F. (2008)

14. Receiving Officer:

This is the officer who initially receives a complaint. If possible, front-line officers receiving

verbal complaints should attempt to resolve a verbal complaint at this point (Vargo, S.L. and

Lusch, R.F. (2008)

15. Reviewing officer:

The officer assigned by a divisional head, or delegate, to conduct a review of a complaint

outcome, if the outcome has been appealed by the complainant. The reviewing officer should

not be the same officer involved in the initial investigation of the complaint (Vargo, S.L. and

Lusch, R.F. (2008)

16. Information Rights Adviser, Complaints Management:

A position within the Information Rights Unit responsible for ensuring the Departments

Complaints Management System meets statutory requirements. This position also co-

ordinates the reporting elements of complaints management for the department and monitors

adherence to time frames (Vargo, S.L. and Lusch, R.F. (2008)

Queries regarding any aspect of complaints management or individual complaints can be

referred to the Information Rights Adviser.

17. Senior Officer:

The Senior Officer is the person(s) nominated by the divisional head to co-ordinate and

conduct reviews of Level 3 complaints, which fall within their respective area of

responsibility, provided that the complaint does not concern their own decision or action, in

9
which case the matter must be determined by the relevant divisional head (Vargo, S.L. and

Lusch, R.F. (2008)

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE PROJECT

Chapter One discusses the Introduction, Background of the Study, Problem

Definition/Motivation, Aims and Objectives, Scope of the Study, Definition of terms and

Organization of the project itself.

Chapter Two discusses the literature review of the project with evolution/ history of the

project topic and related work.

Chapter Three is the design methodology. It covers the materials and methods used, table

design, database design, algorithm design, design model used and system architecture.

Chapter Four focuses on the design implementation with the systems hardware

requirements, software requirements, documentation and sample implementation.

Chapter Five covers the summary, conclusion and recommendation of the project.

10