As part of the Education for Life Strategy, Student Launchpad sets out an ambitious vision to enhance how students are supported throughout their academic journey. A key part of this work is the development of a new digital system designed to transform academic advising.
This project focuses on creating a single, consistent, and accessible advising record for every student. By bringing together interactions, goals, and referrals in one place, the system aims to support more connected, transparent, and equitable advising experiences across the student lifecycle. The system is being developed and delivered by the FMS Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) team, in close collaboration with academic and professional services colleagues.
Moving beyond fragmented systems
In many institutions, advising information is spread across multiple platforms, making it difficult to build a complete picture of a student’s experience. This project addresses that challenge by providing a structured space where advising interactions can be recorded and shared appropriately.
The result is a more holistic view of each student’s progress, enabling better conversations, more informed support, and improved continuity over time.
What we’re delivering first
The initial release, a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) launching in September 2026, focuses on the core foundations needed to support effective advising:
- A persistent advising record across academic years
- Role-based access for staff and students
- Simple logging of advising interactions and actions
- Referral workflows to specialist services with status tracking
- A student-facing view to support reflection and engagement
This approach prioritises usability and consistency, ensuring the system is easy to adopt while delivering immediate value.
Designing for real use
A central principle of the project is simplicity. Interfaces are being designed to reduce administrative burden and support intuitive use, while still maintaining robust permissions, audit trails, and data security.
Early design work is exploring how students and advisers can clearly visualise progress, interactions, and support pathways – helping to make advising more meaningful and visible.
Looking ahead
This work represents a shift from transactional advising towards a more connected and data-informed approach. By making advising visible and trackable, the project supports more proactive and personalised support for students.
As the system develops, it will also enable better evaluation of advising activity and impact — helping Newcastle University continuously improve how it supports student success
Figure 1: Prototype interface showing student advising record and interactions
We’ll continue to share updates as the project progresses towards its initial launch in 2026.