SANTA BARBARA, June 13, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Innovators of CurricUNET, the award-winning curriculum automation and networking software, Governet announced today that it has been selected to develop California's statewide "ASSIST: Next Generation" software solution. An acronym for Articulation System Stimulating Inter-institutional Student Transfer, ASSIST is the official repository of up-to-date information about course transfers throughout the State of California's public higher education system. The three-tier California system is the largest in the United States and is comprised of the 144 campuses of the University of California, California State University, and the California Community Colleges, serving over 3,000,000 students.
ASSIST began in 1985 as an effort to store, maintain and display information about how courses could be used to transfer between California community colleges and the state's four-year universities.
Under a three-year contract managed jointly by the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, Governet will use Cloud-based technology to customize a version of CurricUNET to automate articulation workflow between all California colleges and universities, streamline creation and approval of intercampus articulation agreements, expand the existing ASSIST database and improve access to transfer information for students and the public.
Since its launch of CurricUNET in 2000, Governet has been guiding development of best practices standards for curriculum databases, workflow and the dissemination of course and program information to a network of 350 colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada, statewide community college systems in Illinois, California, and Iowa, and the nationwide Higher Colleges of Technology system in the United Arab Emirates.
"We are very proud of this selection. We believe that the resulting ASSIST: Next Generation Cloud-based system will become the new standard for statewide articulation systems," said George Tamas, Governet's Chief Executive Officer. Tamas pointed out that in the company's network of CurricUNET institutions, users currently have access to more than 550,000 course outlines (not just course descriptions) and 23,000 programs and degrees in what is becoming a worldwide curriculum network and database. Tamas believes that this type of interconnectivity is the wave of the future for higher education and will accelerate innovation and collaboration in curriculum offerings.
Governet founder and President, Paula Young concurred, and added, "By updating and linking California's higher education institutions, CurricUNET is not only enabling course creators and administrators to share and connect with one another more efficiently, it is also enabling transferring students, as well as their parents and counselors, to make better decisions about their education and future."
"Current accreditation standards compel institutions to innovate and update their curriculum offerings," Tamas said. "CurricUNET will put a world of innovative course and program designs at their fingertips. The extension of CurricUNET to include articulation functions, as represented in the ASSIST: Next Generation project, will have a transformative impact on how higher education will handle the entire spectrum of curriculum functions in the future. For students, faculty, and counselors, it will mean instant access to all curriculum functions all the time."
Governet is a leading provider of innovative Web-based solutions for higher education institutions. These solutions address local campus, statewide system, and international collaborative network issues in curriculum development, management and accreditation. Governet's core application is CurricUNET, the award-winning curriculum automation and management system designed to streamline curriculum processes from planning to articulation by improving workflow efficiency, reporting and approval processes, and institutional connectivity. Via this transformational database, Governet is guiding the development of best practices standards for curriculum and creating what is rapidly becoming the worldwide curriculum network. For more information about Governet and CurricUNET, please visit www.governet.net