University Management for Research Universities
Run doctoral admissions, grant-funded budgets, lab inventory, and 300+ program catalogs on one open-source platform. Built for R1 and R2 research universities that need Carnegie-classified reporting, ORCID sync, and per-project cost accounting without six-figure Ellucian license fees.
University management for research universities is software that unifies doctoral student tracking, research grant accounting, lab inventory, publication metrics, and faculty workload across schools and colleges. OpenEduCat handles committee-driven PhD progressions, F&A cost recovery on sponsored projects, ORCID and Crossref sync, and IPEDS-ready reporting on a single LGPLv3 codebase.
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Doctoral & Graduate Program Tracking
Model PhD, MPhil, and research masters programs with committee structures, qualifying exams, thesis proposals, and defense workflows. Track candidacy status, comprehensive exam results, IRB approvals, and dissertation milestones from admission through award of degree.
Sponsored Research & Grant Accounting
Attach NIH, NSF, ERC, Horizon Europe, and industry grants to project accounts. Configure indirect cost (F&A) rates per sponsor, track cost sharing, and produce PI-level burn-rate reports. Ledger integrates with Odoo Accounting for audit-ready fund segregation.
Faculty Workload & Effort Reporting
Assign faculty across teaching, research, and service with configurable percent-effort rules. Generate effort certification reports required for federally funded projects under Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200. Export to Cayuse, Kuali, or CSV for legacy pre-award systems.
Lab & Research Facility Inventory
Track lab equipment, reagents, and consumables using the openeducat_inventory module with per-lab locations, PI ownership, and grant funding source. Barcode-scan chemical stock for OSHA hazard communication compliance and schedule preventive maintenance on shared instruments.
Publications, ORCID & Impact Metrics
Sync faculty publications from ORCID, Crossref, and PubMed. Store h-index, citation counts, and journal impact factors on faculty profiles. Feed the data into promotion and tenure dossiers and IPEDS Human Resources Component reporting.
Multi-College Program Catalog
Manage 300+ degree programs across colleges of arts and sciences, engineering, medicine, and law from one catalog. Cross-list courses, model concentrations, and set college-specific graduation requirements without cloning the site for each school.
Carnegie & IPEDS Reporting
Prebuilt exports for IPEDS Fall Enrollment, Completions, Graduation Rates, and Human Resources components. Track the R&D expenditure and doctorate award counts that feed Carnegie Classification thresholds ($50M+ R&D and 70+ research doctorates for R1).
Student Research Assistantships
Post graduate assistantships, teaching assistantships, and postdoc positions from the same system used for course scheduling. Route stipend payments through payroll with tuition remission rules and F-1 or J-1 visa work-hour caps for international students.
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Does OpenEduCat support Carnegie R1 and R2 reporting requirements?
Yes. OpenEduCat tracks the two Carnegie research activity metrics: annual R&D expenditure (the $50M threshold for R1) and research doctorate awards (70+ per year for R1, 20-69 for R2). Grant module exports total sponsored R&D by fiscal year and doctoral registrar exports research doctorate counts by CIP code. Both feed directly into the NSF Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey and the IPEDS Completions component that the Carnegie Foundation uses to classify institutions.
Can OpenEduCat handle NIH and NSF grant accounting under Uniform Guidance?
Yes. Sponsored project accounts support the 2 CFR 200 Uniform Guidance requirements: separate award accounts, F&A rate agreements, cost sharing tracking, effort certification, and closeout reporting. You can model modular NIH budgets, NSF standard grants, and cooperative agreements. Ledger entries feed the Federal Financial Report (FFR) SF-425 and Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) financial sections.
How does OpenEduCat integrate with ORCID and research information systems?
Faculty profiles can be linked to ORCID identifiers via OAuth. The publication sync module pulls works from ORCID, Crossref DOIs, and PubMed on a scheduled job. For institutions running a Current Research Information System (CRIS) like Elements, Pure, or Converis, OpenEduCat exposes REST APIs to push faculty appointment, department, and grant data upstream so publication mining tools have accurate researcher metadata.
What does the doctoral committee workflow look like?
Each PhD student has a program of study record with an advisor, committee members, and milestone dates. Milestones include coursework completion, qualifying or comprehensive exams, dissertation proposal, IRB or IACUC approval, and defense. Committee members receive notifications, vote on milestone passage, and sign off electronically. Missed milestones trigger academic progress alerts to graduate school administrators for holistic review.
Can we migrate from Ellucian Banner or Workday Student without downtime?
Migration typically runs in parallel: OpenEduCat is stood up for one college or cohort first while Banner or Workday continues serving the rest of campus. Data migration scripts map Banner PIDMs and Workday Student IDs to OpenEduCat student records, and course history is loaded as historical transcript data. Full institution cutover is usually staged across one to two academic years to preserve degree audit continuity.
Does OpenEduCat support IRB and research compliance workflows?
Yes. Research protocols (IRB for human subjects, IACUC for animal subjects, IBC for biosafety) are modeled as records with PI, personnel, funding source, and expiration date. Protocol approval status is checked before grant expenditure is allowed on the account. Amendments and continuing reviews follow a configurable approval routing. For institutions using IRBNet or Kuali Protocols, OpenEduCat exposes REST hooks to sync protocol status.
How does lab inventory work for wet labs and shared instruments?
The inventory module tracks reagents, chemicals, and consumables by lab location and PI. Chemical stock is tagged with GHS hazard codes for OSHA Hazard Communication Standard 29 CFR 1910.1200 compliance. Shared instruments (mass specs, confocal microscopes, HPCs) can be booked through the calendar module with per-hour recharge rates that post to the requesting PI grant account.
Can research universities self-host on their own infrastructure?
Yes. OpenEduCat Community Edition is LGPLv3 and can be deployed on university-owned Linux servers, private cloud, or campus Kubernetes. Institutions with data sovereignty requirements or FISMA Moderate controls typically self-host. OpenEduCat SaaS is available for institutions that prefer a managed environment. Both options support the same feature set and can be migrated between deployment models.
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