Automated business process discovery and analysis for the international higher education industry

Abstract

The international education sector in Australia expects a rise in demand for higher education programs in the future. This increase drives universities to monitor and continuously improve their business processes. Automated Business Process Discovery or Process Mining helps organisations create a business process graphical representation or process model, leveraging data from their information systems. The lack of a business process model and inefficiency in harnessing process data deters fact-based process improvement decision-making, impacting a company’s operations. Within the international education context, Process Mining can help discover, analyze, manage and improve processes efficiently and deal with increasing market demand of international student enrolments. Here we have used the Process Mining Methodology Framework for Discovery Analysis focusing on Control-flow and Case Data perspectives. We highlight challenges encountered in process data extraction and preparation as well as performance analysis to identify potential bottlenecks.