Now, the UCosmic Consortium is building an online data management system, originally created in 2006 at the University of Cincinnati, USA, under the Mitch Leventhal, the then Vice Provost for International Affairs. The University of Cinicinnati will manage the system alongside the State University of New York’s system, at which Mr Leventhal is the Vice Chancellor of Global Affairs.

The first consortium members include the College Board – a US non-profit organisation that helps students prepare for college success and boasts over 5,900 worldwide institutions in its membership organisation. The College Board’s Vice President for Higher Education, James Montoya, says the system will be invaluable. Other members include the USA’s Lehigh University, Australia’s Griffith University, and India-based international-education company Manipal Education.

Membership of the consortium is available across the world to universities, associations, foundation, government agencies and IT consultants. The consortium members will have input into what data should be collected and a forum will be created where programmers can create software that can be transferred to a number of different institutions, which will then be tested. The consortium also intends to sponsor conferences and networking resources.

Having this system will allow institutions to improve their relationships abroad and manage their various contacts, projects and staff around the world. This in turn will help in the recruitment of international students and increase the global activities of the institution.

Described as a ‘mobile information resource for the University of Saskatchewan’, the app will also enable students to read campus news, view campus maps, access lists of classes for the day and even watch live webcams of the campus.

The application named the iUSask app will be launched in August, and should be available for students to use free at the start of the university year in September.

The application is the first of its kind in Canada and currently features twelve buttons for various functions. The University of Saskatchewan will soon be offering iPhone programming courses, which will also be a first for Canada.

For a demonstration of the iUSask app, click here.