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West Lothian College is a further and higher education institution in Scotland offering a wide range of courses to over 9,000 students. Its vision is to develop a highly skilled, enterprising, and resilient workforce. As a medium-sized college, it attracts nearly 75% of its students from the local area, delivering programmes across early years, health and social care, business, art, cyber studies, construction, automotive, and engineering. The college also delivers a large volume of work-based vocational qualifications.
With a strong commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion, the college strives to put students at the heart of everything it does. These values underpin the work of the MIS team, led by Tom Thomson, Information Systems Manager, who has spearheaded a digital transformation of student processes since joining in 2018.
When Tom arrived at the college, more than 8,000 enrolments were processed on paper each year. MIS tasks were either manually keyed from forms or uploaded via Excel spreadsheets. The team faced a clear challenge: how to digitise the student journey in a way that was technically viable, financially sustainable, and impactful for both staff and students.
“Slowly but surely, our team has been working to improve and, where possible, digitise our processes. This involves prioritising what our biggest challenges and pain points are and seeing what can be done quickly and cost effectively to remedy them.”
— Tom Thomson, Information Systems Manager
The team began with small, high-impact changes—starting with business intelligence and reporting. A suggestion from UNIT-e’s Head of Customer Success, Francis McLaughlan, led to the integration of Power BI with UNIT-e, enabling real-time visualisations of college data at no additional cost.
In January 2019, the college began improving the student enrolment process using UNIT-e’s Online Services module. After testing, a two-part enrolment system went live that summer, with 35% of enrolments completed online. Part-time courses were still paper-based, but the team moved quickly to digitise these ahead of the Covid pandemic.
“Our 2020–21 applications process was not that much affected as prospective students could apply and enrol online.”
— Tom Thomson, Information Systems Manager
During the early months of the pandemic, the team invested in further consultancy with UNIT-e to enhance the Staff Advantage module. They also worked closely with UNIT-e’s Professional Services team to refine the application and enrolment process—asking students for more data upfront and enabling a single-pass experience.
“Students go through the process in one pass. While we had some initial hurdles… all in all, the process has made such a difference.”
— Tom Thomson, Information Systems Manager
Since December 2022, refinements have included a ‘Save Progress’ button and improved mobile interactions. The system now allows the college to track where students drop off the application journey, supporting marketing engagement and coordination with local feeder schools.
“It also underpins our work with local feeder schools as we can see who is applying and coordinate with the school on supporting their application.”
— Tom Thomson, Information Systems Manager
Applications are now accepted from January to August, and up to 70% of enrolments are completed online, giving staff more time to support applicants and offering students a smoother, single-step experience.
Staff efficiency: Tasks like password resets are now resolved quickly through digital processes, reducing administrative burden.
Student experience: A streamlined application and enrolment journey improves engagement and supports conversion.
Operational resilience: Digitisation ahead of the pandemic ensured continuity and adaptability during disruption.
Strategic insight: Real-time data visualisation through Power BI supports planning and performance monitoring.
Cross-team collaboration: Marketing, MIS, and curriculum teams benefit from shared visibility and coordinated workflows.
As a medium-sized college with fewer staff than larger institutions, we are always looking at how to do things differently and better for our students and staff.
— Tom Thomson, Information Systems Manager
West Lothian College continues to work closely with UNIT-e on tailored projects to extend its digital transformation. Current initiatives include improving the management of SVQ enquiries, enrolments and payments to push digital validation above 90%, and developing new workflows to simplify withdrawals, transfers and offer management.
“We have a never-ending list of tasks to make things better for students and staff and are always keen to explore the next step towards digital transformation.”
— Tom Thomson, Information Systems Manager
Tom credits UNIT-e’s Professional Services team with deep sector knowledge and a collaborative approach.
“Working with the Professional Services team is like working with colleagues rather than suppliers… there is a real culture and camaraderie working with them.”
— Tom Thomson, Information Systems Manager
Run your post-16 education institution on a single MIS — from enquiry to alumni — so leaders get information in real time, teams cut admin, and students stay on track.
