Conceptual domain analysis for the HE-Business Domain
Content:

Higher Education business domain: CORE ENTITIES

Taxonomy for the core entity PERSON

Taxonomy for the core entity ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT

Taxonomy for the core entity (field of) STUDY

Structure of STUDY: grade and time aspect
o Bachelor-Master (BAMA)-strcuture (2 year’s master)
o BAMA-structure (1 year’s master)
o Candidate-Licentiate (2-2 years)

Structure of STUDY: content aspect (for a given study year)

Organizational structure of a university.

Structure of an exam
NOTE: specific aspects for the Mozambican situation marked in yellow
Higher Education business domain: CORE ENTITIES
The core entities of the higher education business domain are:
 Persons, to be divided into 2 main categories: students and staff.
 Organizational units: central (university level) and decentral (faculty, department, …).
 Studies (or curricula): the fields of study which can be followed at a given university, with their structure (e.g.
bachelor-masters structure).
 Courses: the separate building blocks of studies.
Schematically this can be sketched as follows:
For each of these core entities, a taxonomy can be worked out, meaning a tree-like classification of (sub)entities and
aspects (attributes) which are of relevance (play a role) regarding the core entity in question, from the point of view of an
ARIS.
The taxonomies consist of a diagram, which gives a graphical overview of the total picture, and a description, which
explains the diagram.
The taxonomies are based on the generic analysis of the business domain supplemented with specific aspects for the
Mozambican situation (as resulting from the requirements workshop).
The function of the taxonomies is:
 To facilitate (for stakeholders) the introduction to or explanation of the HE-business domain.
 To be a reference point for discussion and further clearance of the business domain; notably the question: are
still aspects missing and are all aspects situated on the correct level (entity)?
 To be a guideline and point of departure for further formal modelling, e.g. a class diagram of the domain.
Taxonomy for the core entity PERSON
Description
 The core entity “PERSON” has two major sub-entities, notably: STUDENT and STAFFMEMBER, indicated by
the attribute “ROLE”.
 The subentity STAFFMEMBER in its turn can be divided into: ACADEMIC staff and ADMINISTRATOR staff.
 Each of the (sub)entities has a number of attributes related to it, which play a role on that specific level: e.g.
“gender” is an aspect which is related to the “PERSON” level, meaning that the distinction male/female from the
ARIS point of view is relevant for all categories of persons involved in the system, be it students, administrators
or academic staff.
 Relevant aspects (attributes) (on the level) of the entity PERSON:
o Gender
o Civil status
o Nationality
 Citizen (e.g. native inhabitant of the country in question)
 Region of origin (district, province)
 Foreigner (from abroad)
 Country of origin
o Housing: whether the person resides on campus or not
 Relevant aspects (on the level of) the subentity STAFFMEMBER
o Time scope: whether the staffmember in question has a full-time or part-time appointment.
o Function level: whether the administrator holds a management function or is a “normal” employee.
o Function: the specific task of the administrator (Director, Professor, Registrar, Secretary, etc…)
 Relevant aspects for the subentity (level) ADMINISTRATOR:
o Organizational level: whether the administrator in question is appointed to the central or decentral level
o Area: the work area or section the administrator is working (ICT, External relations, supportive
administration, board, etc…).

Relevant aspects for the subentity (level) ACADEMIC (staff)
o (academic) Task. The academic work involves two types of activity:
 Research on the one hand (not further of relevance for the ARIS)


Education on the other. Within the education role, the aspect
 Type of function is of relevance for ARIS (e.g. Category “A” professor, Category “B”
professor, Assistant professor, Lecturer, etc…).
o Type of appointment: whether the academic staff member has a “tenured” appointment, meaning: an
appointment at the university in question or has an “associated” appointment, meaning a primary
appointment elsewhere (at another university) and “hired” by the university in question.
Relevant aspects for the subentity (level) STUDENT:
o Type of student: regular, meaning following courses on campus, or distant learner.
o Time of study: whether the student follows courses during office hours or in the evening (daytime
student vs. evening student).
o Level of study: indicates the current phase or level of study the student is in
 Undergraduate: currently studying at Bachelor level (or former undergraduate classification
(e.g. candidate)).
 Graduate: currently studying at Masters level or Licentiate (old system in Mozambique)
 Post-graduate: Ph.D. (in most cases) or other specific post-grad. Study.
o Subsidy: whether the student receives a scholarship of any kind:
 Bursary: student receives a scholarship
 Type of financier (government, NGO, Company).
 Non-bursary: student receives no financial subsidy.
Taxonomy for the core entity ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT
Description
 Every organizational unit within the university has an (hierarchical) organizational level and is of a certain
organizational type. In many cases the level may be defined by the type, but this is not always the case. For
instance: normally the faculty is on the second hierarchical level within the university (the university as such,
embodied by the central administration is on level 1), with departments on the 3rd level under faculties. But this
is not always the case: it can be that a department in a given field is present within the university, but that the
field in question is not “big” enough to create a faculty. In this case, that department may be situated on the
second (faculty) level and be treated as such.
 An organizational unit may be an academic or an administrative unit.
 An academic organizational unit belongs to a given academic field.
Taxonomy for the core entity (field of) STUDY
Description
A study is the actual curricula in a given field, leading to an academic diploma. A study is divided into time slots - study
years and semesters – and phases or grades (e.g. bachelor, masters).
 Form: a study can have a regular form, meaning the traditional “on campus” version of the study, or can be
offered in a distant learning version.
 Time: it can happen, especially in countries in developing regions with not so many universities present, that a
study has a daytime and an evening variant (in order to be able to cater for all the students).
 Field: studies, of course, concern a given academic or scientific field (e.g. Business Administration, Biology,
Computer Sc., Chemistry, Medicine, Law, Psychology, Natural Sciences, Sociology, etc..).
 Duration: studies can be classified according to their duration or length in time: 1 year’s studies, 2 year’s, etc...
In most cases a university study will take either 4 or 5 years, with a few years longer (e.g. 7) for Medicine.
 Type of grade: studies can be classified according to the grade they offer: bachelor studies, master studies,
Ph.D. studies,…. Most “full-grown” university studies these days are master studies, with the bachelor grade
being a part of the total study.
In Mozambique in the “old system”, still in use, a more traditional European distinction is made: candidate for
the first 2 or 3 years of the study and licentiate (licenciado) for the end grade (last 2 years).
 Language: with the growing importance of internationalization and the process of globalization, the trend has
emerged to offer studies – apart from only in the native language – also in an international language (mostly
English).
 Target group: it might occur that special studies or versions of studies are offered for foreign students.
 (number of) Exam periods: studies may have fixed exam periods at the end of an academic year as a finishing
overall test of the students of the given study year (to see whether they can pass to the next year). “Retry” exam
periods may exist (usually 1 retry period, a few months later, before the start of the next academic year).
 Time unit: studies are broken down in comprehensive time units, study years, of which the instances
correspond to the academic year. The study year itself is mostly broken down into 2 semesters. (! Point of
attention: trimester structure may (still) exist!).
 Turma: a specific Mozambican feature. For a given instance of a study, students are grouped into turma’s the
first year of their study. These turma’s continue to exist during all the subsequent years of the study. So a
student is always member of one (his) specific turma for his whole “study career”.
Taxonomy for the core entity COURSE
Description
A course is a separate building block or unit of a study.
 Grade of freedom to choose: courses can be compulsory or not (i.e. free to choose). Most courses of a study,
especially in the first years, will be compulsory. Concerning compulsory courses, two variants can be
distinguished: courses which are compulsory as such or to pick from a fixed list of courses of which a given
number (according to a BR of the study) is compulsory to choose. For example, a business rule within the study
Biology could be that any 2 courses out of the following list are compulsory: Biology of plants, Biology of
mammals, Biology of reptiles, Biology of insects…..
 Form: a course can be given on campus or in a distant learning version.
 Time: a course can be given during office hours or in the evening.
 Type: the way a course is given: in the form of a lecture, a seminar, workshop etc… A combination of types for
a course is possible, e.g. a course can consist of a lecture part and a seminar part; or a workshop part and a
paper part, etc…
 Field: courses can be classified according to the academic field they belong to (biology courses, sociology
courses, ICT courses, etc…).
 Type of grade: courses can be distinguished according to their place in the curricula: bachelor courses, master
courses, Ph.D. courses etc…
 Language: courses may be given in various languages.
 Target group: there may be specific courses for specific groups of students, e.g. international students.
 Type of examination: a course may be examined in different ways or a combination of ways (oral, written,
multiple choice, etc…).
 Type of exam: an exam is the final overall test concerning (the mastering of the content of) a course. This
overall test may be one event (e.g. an oral exam with the professor) or may be a combination or sum of various
(sub)tests (e.g. for a given course weekly tests may exist, which – together with a test at the end of the course –
constitute the exam for the course). In the case of multiple tests, the aspect of the weight of each individual test
should be taken into account (e.g. a business rule within a given study may be that the test at the end of the
course counts for 50% and each weekly test for 50/n % - in which “n” represents the number of weekly tests).

Study phase: normally courses belong to a given study year and within a year to a given semester. It, however,
can occur that courses span 2 semesters or even 2 study years.
Structure of STUDY: grade and time aspect
Structure of STUDY: content aspect (for a given study year)
Description:
 A study year, generically speaking, may consist of three blocks of courses, indicating so to speak the “level of
freedom” for a student to follow or not follow the courses in question. Three types of course blocks within a
study year can be distinguished:
o Compulsory courses: for everyone to follow, without exception.
o Compulsory courses from list: a certain number or amount of courses to be picked by a student from
a pre-defined list, according to a business rule of the institution or study. So not all courses from the list
have to be followed.
o Free to choose: a block indicating an amount of ´free space´ which can be filled by the student with
courses of his own choice.
 It should be clear that all three blocks are not always present within a study year. In a lot of cases for instance
all courses of a study year are compulsory, in which case only block 1 is present.
 COURSE BLOCK is a secondary entity to be distinguished within the ARIS.
Organizational structure of a university
Description:
 A university can have several organizational levels. We assume here a maximum “level depth” of 4 layers, which – we
think – should cover all situations.
 The university as such is always considered to be the top-level (level 1)
 The model for level 2 up to level 4 can vary, e.g.
o Faculties may be on the 2nd level, with Departments, Insitutes and Laboratories on the 3rd.
o But also Departments, Institutes or Laboratories might be situated (directly) on the 2 nd level.
o Etc…
Structure of an exam
An exam is a concluding test to see whether the student masters the content of a course.
An exam may be consisting of:
 a single event (final test at the end of a course)
 a multiple event, which in its turn can be divided in:
o number of partial tests at certain time intervals (e.g. monthly) during the period the course is given,
without a separate final test.
o number of partial tests but with a separate final test.