Standard Database Model for Academic Management

[jarojas94]

I am the database administrator of my university, so I have to build up the database from scratch. I am just wondering if there exists already some predefined database model for academic management which focuses on entities such as students, grades, courses, teachers and faculty buildings.

 

[jedishrfu]

Try searching google images with "school database schemas" and see if the diagrams lead you to one or give you ideas on how to implement one.

You might also check with the local university to see what they use.

 

[jim mcnamara]

Short answer: there is no defacto standard.

@jedishrfu gave you the best possible answer. This is because there are lots of things these systems track and those datasets are usually country-specific.
In the US you have awfulness like: work study, Financial Aid, HIPAA, ADA, housing, fines, academic status, alumni, registrar data and so on. Differences are normally legislatively mandated stuff.

Contact another uni and ask for a schema. You will be aghast at the size and complexity of it. The banner system, when I saw it 16 years ago, had over 800 tables, and thousands of other objects like indexes, views, triggers, and stored procedures.

 

[jedishrfu]

Database schemas are often considered golden intellectual property. One time i went a class learn about an IBM developed banking and insurance schema.

The design was quite intricate but they had a fantastic summary which thought they would give as is usual in most classes.

Not this time, the instructor collected them and said if we wanted one we'd have tob the schema at $100k per copy.

Yikes and we worked for the same company and were building a product based on the schema design for the banking industry.