Since 2005, the MSL System® by MSL (Membership Solutions Limited) has been the go-to student membership management system, supporting student organisations in the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UAE. The MSL System connects your data, members, groups, and departments in one place.
The MSL System is modular and comprises the Core membership management module, complemented by optional modules as described below (see MSL System Modules).
Access real-time data insights with the MSL System through the customisable dashboards, APIs, and the Report Server, which includes over 150 standard reports. The system integrates with other systems in your ecosystem, working with specialists in payments, events, messaging, finance, sports management, and more.
In addition to its fantastic features, the MSL System comes with outstanding customer care. MSL's dedicated support team assists with day-to-day operations, design, data management, reporting, training, custom developments, and integration issues and questions. Speak directly with our customer services team, whether you prefer telephone, email, or live chat support. You also have access to the resources here, our comprehensive knowledge base and customer portal.
If you're interested in any of the MSL System's modules and aren't yet licenced, please ask your Contractual System Admin to contact us for a quote and to discuss implementation options.
For further information, see MSL System Structure.
MSL System Modules
The MSL System is modular, meaning you can customise and enhance it by adding additional modules. Below, you'll find a diagram and descriptions of each available module to help you understand how they can benefit you and your organisation.
Core
The Core module is the complete Membership Management System at the heart of the MSL System. It provides you with extensive access to your member and group data, making it easy to perform advanced segmentation, detailed reporting, and efficient user account management. It also offers a fully branded, accessible, and mobile-responsive website, allowing your members to access services from desktops, tablets, and mobile devices. You can design, build, and update your website, use our design and build services, or work with a third-party designer to create and update your skin and templates. You can also create microsites within your MSL website for venues, events, elections, and more.
The CMS includes a user-friendly WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor for managing website content, with personalisation tools like news and events widgets. Data integration ensures member records are updated with their university information, such as course changes and year of study. Integration with Single Sign-On (SSO) lets members log in using their university credentials.
Provide your student groups with dedicated templated pages with consistent branding, ensuring your committee members don’t need web design skills to have informative pages that attract new members and update current members about their group. These pages can display group details, descriptions, videos, social media links, news, events, products, and resources, automatically pulling through content using widgets. Committee members can be assigned granular permissions to empower them to organise and manage their groups.
The Core module offers comprehensive features for creating and managing events, selling tickets, customising event pages, and aggregating event content into a central list and calendar, filterable by event type and date.
Additional features include:
- Student Voice tools such as Surveys, Polls, Ideas, and Forums;
- Communication tools for Email, SMS, News, and Blogs;
- eCommerce for selling merchandise through an online POS system with payment gateway integration;
- The StudentLink app to drive year-round participation.
Comprehensive reporting tools and customisable Dashboards generate real-time data on all aspects of your organisation, track KPIs, benchmark performance, and provide demographic breakdowns of your groups.
Door Entry & Venues
The MSL Door Entry & Venues module offers a comprehensive door entry and event management system for multiple venues, tailored for student organisations. It enhances marketing, venue management, door entry speed, customer analysis, interaction, transaction costs, and post-event reporting.
Key features include multi-venue management, support for both ticketed and ticketless entry, guest lists, wristbands, season passes, seating plans, and attendance reporting. The system can flag under-18s and banned guests, quickly search for student identification if IDs are lost or forgotten, and facilitate ticket commerce.
For further information, see Door Entry Overview.
Attendance
MSL Attendance makes it easy to maintain records of students, staff and visitors to your premises, faculty buildings, meeting rooms, conference facilities and event venues. It is a component of MSL Door Entry & Venues but is available for use as a separate facility. MSL Attendance can be used to safely and securely record individual's attendance using either your existing MSL System database or a standalone data set.
For further information, see Attendance Overview.
Elections & Referenda
The MSL Elections & Referenda module has been specifically designed for student organisations and complies with modern electoral and democratic norms. Whether you wish to elect full time officers, association councillors, course representatives or run referenda, MSL Elections & Referenda works efficiently and accurately, supporting full audit features for your Returning Officer. A touchscreen voting application is also included to help promote elections and referenda, and provide your members with a quick and convenient method of voting at key public locations at polling stations around campus.
For further information, see Elections Overview and Referenda Overview.
Feedback
MSL’s Feedback module provides a streamlined process for opening communication channels with students, so they can proactively submit concerns, compliments, questions, or ideas about their student experience privately when it suits them. This module allows for real-time feedback, eliminating the need for prompting through surveys or emails. Students can directly send their submissions to student representatives and track the status of their feedback, seeing when it has been acknowledged and what actions have been taken, closing the feedback loop.
Student representatives, such as course reps or union officers, can manage feedback from their peers using their own customised dashboard. This feature allows them to organise, prioritise, and communicate with students and staff, ensuring that the most pressing issues are addressed and solutions are found collaboratively.
Student Group Finances
MSL Student Group Finances supports the online management of student group accounts by eliminating the need for paper forms and manual processing. This module provides digital versions of essential expense forms and processes, supported by purchase or general ledgers, to capture all necessary information for financial requests.
Key benefits include enhanced access for committee members to manage their finances, improved account accuracy, reduced reliance on staff resources, and the delivery of a modern, professional finance management service. The module can integrate with various financial management systems or function independently. It features a structured approval workflow and allows setting permissions for raising, editing, and approving requests, ensuring efficient financial management of student groups.
Grant Applications
MSL’s Grant Applications module complements MSL Student Group Finances by supporting student groups with online funding applications and fund distribution. This module features a configurable workflow that guides club and society committees through the application submission process entirely online, eliminating the need for paper forms.
Student Case Manager
MSL has partnered with case management experts IIZUKA Software to develop Student Case Manager, a powerful and flexible academic case management platform with the capacity to integrate with MSL student data. This secure module can be used as a standalone facility or as part of a complete MSL solution for managing all student interactions with your advice and advocacy services. Student Case Manager enhances student support services by promoting multi-channel communication with your advice centre, allowing for quick addition of bespoke data fields, and enabling easy modification of form layouts.
The MSL Look Up function uses your university's stored student data to ensure accuracy at case creation. Record detailed case information and define custom fields to control how case types are logged. Link new cases to ongoing work or other client cases, and reduce errors with reminders for actions or prompts for team input. Efficiently match and de-duplicate client records, saving time and boosting your team's productivity.
Track time per case action, whether booking appointments, adding notes, or setting reminders. Record time spent on each case or general activities like appointments, tasks, phone calls, and visits. Student Case Manager includes standard dashboards for individuals, teams, and managers to quickly review cases and activities, streamlining the management process and enhancing service quality.
For further information, see Student Case Manager Overview.
StudentLink+ App
StudentLink+ is a fully branded mobile app that enhances year-round engagement with your student members. Integrated with your MSL website, it provides a cohesive digital communication strategy. Available in the Apple and Google Play stores, it reinforces your identity across all channels for easy access to authorised content.
Features include personalised digital membership cards, easy voting for elections and referenda, dedicated spaces for student groups, an app shop for products and tickets, and push notifications for updates on special offers, events, and news.
For further information, see StudentLink and StudentLink+ Overview.
Volunteering & Employability
MSL Volunteering & Employability fully supports managing volunteering and participation opportunities from start to finish. Students can register as volunteers, browse opportunities with search filters, build profiles for relevant notifications, record volunteer hours for awards, and log skills and training to support CV building for employability.
Organisations can advertise volunteering opportunities, manage provider accounts, approve or decline applications, and message target groups to increase engagement. Opportunities offered could include community volunteering, committee membership, course representation, work experience, and internships.
Volunteers can download records of roles, activities, or skills, display a skills review, and work towards multiple awards based on hours, skills, training, and qualifications. The module supports logging paid work and integrates with HEAR for external validation of volunteering and training records. Volunteers can download their skills and progress records and print off award certificates to validate their achievements.
Integrations
For further information, see Integrations Overview (coming soon).