Online study grants â€“ digitale aanvraag studietoelagen

Acronym of the case:

DAF

Web address of the case:

https://daf.vlaanderen.be

Country of the case:

Belgium

City/region:

Flanders region

Posting Date:

12 January 2008

Last Edited Date:

12 February 2008

Author:

Lieven Raes (Ministry of the Flanders Region)

education | e-government | eID

Type of initiative

Project or service

Case Abstract

Up till now the Study Grants Division of the Education and Training policy area dealt with 150,000 study grant applications per year. That is why the ministry of education opted in favour of online applications.

When citizens log on using their tokens or e-identity cards, the system collects their personal data (including the family composition) from the MAGDA platform, which is linked to the unique registration via the State Register Number. The module gradually guides users through all the questions.
Fiscal information, such as income data and land registry information, is also retrieved.
Thanks to this procedure users have to fill in as little as possible.

Citizens can save time and money in two ways. They no longer need to send any application forms. What most people like even better, however, is that applicants no longer have to leave their office chair to collect an application form.
And the cherry on the pie? There is a big chance that the effect will be visible sooner on their bank account.

There are also serveral advantages for the Administration.
Everything is processed digitally and completely automated. Every evening the software makes a collection file which forwards the requests for information about the taxable income to the Ministry of Finance. Two days later these are in line for digital processing
At the same time a request is also sent to the dwellings database to collect information about the properties in Flanders.
A large number of data are collected from existing databases, others are entered only once. As a result, errors can only be made once. In addition, it saves considerably on logistics.
Questions about study grants are answered by the Vlaamse Infolijn (Flemish Info Line) at the free number (1700).

Description of the case

Domain

eGovernment

Topic

Services for Citizens

Start date - End date

September 2005 (Ongoing)

Date operational

August 2006

Target Users

Citizen

Target Users Description

- Parents of students
- Students
- Schools and social services (may fill in study grants for third parties)

Status

Not applicable/not available

Language(s)

Dutch

Policy Context and Legal Framework

Project Size and Implementation

Type of initiative

Not applicable/not available

Overall Implementation approach

Public administration

Technology choice

Proprietary technology | Standards-based technology | Mainly (or only) open standards

Funding source

Public funding regional

Project size

Implementation: Not applicable/not available

Impact, innovation and results

Impact

In the summer of 2006 a study grant for higher education could for the first time be applied for online. Since mid-August 2007, this is also possible for secondary education. In the summer of 2008 new target groups for study grants will be added: parents of children in nursery and primary education. As a result, the number of electronic family records (394,000 individual records) may grow from 152,000 to 317,000.
In 2007 (the first year in which a campaign was launched about the electronic application) more than 1 out of three applications were submitted electronically.

Lessons learnt

Tip 1: Take your time.
The first stage of this MAGDA project in 2006-2007 took six months to complete. It started with an analysis by a working group in which CORVE (Flemish e-Government Coordination Unit) experts also participated intensively. The project managers reserved two months to thoroughly test it. Consequently, there were hardly any problems when the application entered into production.

Tip 2: Make an in-depth analysis.
Problems must be thoroughly analysed. Think everything through and consider all the functional scenarios in detail (especially when authentic sources need to be consulted and integrated into both the front (application form) and back offices. Write trial scenarios already during the design phase, because when under pressure you are inclined to forget this.

Tip 3: Carry out user trials.
Especially when developing an application for citizens, you have to call on specialists to perform tests among the end users. The hired usability specialists observed people at home and asked them questions while they were going through the application procedure. This resulted in a number of adjustments being made, such as the numbering of the input screens and a progress bar. Do certainly not forget to perform trials among people with a visual disability, for instance. The tips they give you are most of the time useful for other users as well. It is thus very important for you as a government not to exclude any target groups.

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practice Online study grants â€“ digitale aanvraag studietoelagen