George Mason University launches the state groundbreaking project: Virginia Academic Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Community of Practice (CoP) for Universities to increase efficiency and promote greater student academic success

ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The RPA Initiative at George Mason University announced today the establishment of the Virginia Academic Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Community of Practice (CoP) to support the commonwealth's colleges and universities improve effectiveness, efficiency, and student experiences through the adoption of software automation.

The VA Academic RPA CoP will help institutions of higher learning become familiar with software automation and provide opportunities to collaborate across the commonwealth to enhance student experiences.

"We are eager to launch this pioneering project and look forward to helping determine how RPA can aid the academic sector through knowledge sharing, webinars, speakers, best practices, and updates on programs which could be automated to reduce tedious and mundane work done today by academic personnel," said David Rehr, co-founder of the RPA Initiative at Mason.

Examples of how RPA can help academia include routine processing of grant activity—accounting, allocation, and auditing of grant funding—and routine processing of vendors, including attributing expenses to correct accounts and making accurate and timely remittances, already in practice at Mason.

The RPA CoP is funded in part by a grant from 4-VA@Mason, a statewide initiative designed to improve efficiencies in higher education and research and promote collaborations among partner schools.

"Bringing innovative thinking to our academic partners across the commonwealth is the hallmark of 4-VA," said Dorin Munteanu, co-founder of the RPA Initiative at Mason. "We believe that the Academic RPA CoP will deliver important resources, not only saving money for participating institutions, but also creating a higher level of quality control and, ultimately, enrich the student experience.

"We are thankful for the early support from leaders of the emerging RPA private sector who want to help improve higher education and contain costs so every Virginian has the ability to attend college," he added.

SOURCE VA Academic RPA Community of Practice (CoP)