Exploring Database Development in Universities: Purposes and Models

The task involves a comprehensive analysis of Database Management Systems (DBMS) in higher education, specifically examining the intricacies involved in developing these systems within universities. It begins with identifying the purpose of such systems, particularly for managing student information and institutional data efficiently. The assignment further delves into the entities and attributes that constitute university databases, emphasizing their importance in structuring data logically and coherently. Business rules are examined as critical components that govern database interactions and ensure data integrity within an educational context. Lastly, the discussion transitions to conceptual and physical models of databases, analyzing how these frameworks facilitate effective data representation and management in higher education settings.

Running head: DATABASE DEVELOPMENT
DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1DATABASE DEVELOPMENT
Answer 1
The purpose of the database
Every organization deals with huge amount of data that are present in written or in the
form of electronic data and stored in databases. These data help the organization to keep track of
each employee or the activities that occurs inside those organizations. College or university is a
type of organization, where the number or data per number of person is higher than any other
organization. One such database developed for the purpose is ‘the Student Information
Database’, which is used by the colleges or universities to keep track of student informations,
course informations and lecturer or professor’s informations (Sil et al., 2012). In this global age
of academics, students from every continents come to study in a college, which has
multidisciplinary group of professors that teaches a diverse group of subjects to those students.
The prime purpose of colleges to use database to store information is storing every students data,
enrolled under regular or distance courses, their campus location, their study materials, their
class lectures and their semester data so that students or teachers can access those data from
every corner of world conveniently (Picciano, 2012).
Answer 2
The entities of the database and the attributes of entity
The Student information database developed for colleges have different entities and
attributes. Entity is a table of one or more objects or person or thing present in the database.
These tables are related to the organization or its process and can have multiple attributes under
them. Attributes are the collected data about the entity, person, object or place, which is stored in

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the database for further application (Ambler, 2012). The entities present in the student
information database are list of the courses, time and location, location of campuses, buildings or
room numbers, the description of course, prerequisites, and the number of semesters. The lecture
or class notes or every week, name of the departments, professors, their titles and salaries,
student information, classes, grades and semester results and finally the list of alumni members
and donations are also included. Student information entity would have attributes like student id,
their name and date of birth, student information (address and phone number), grades, their
previous marks, the courses they are enrolled in and future semesters they will feature on
(Ambler, 2012). The professor’s information entity would have information about the professor,
their professional and personal information, their expertise and the notes they provide in class.
Similarly, course description and location will have information about the courses that are being
taught in the college and what are the eligibility criteria to be enrolled in the course. These are
the entities and attributes the students information database acquires.
Answer 3
Business rules affecting the database
While using a database for storing information about the institution, business rules are
used to define the entities, attributes, relationships and constrains. These are used by
organizations against an explanation policy, procedure or principle and according to such rule,
these data are significant only after business rules are defined and in the absence of those rules,
the data present are records for the organization (Herbst, 2012). In the aspect of the Student
information database, the policies of the university (its policies and procedures) and the database
classes in several ways. The database has a student helpline number for national as well as

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international students and states that a 24X7-call center is available to help the students with
their queries. However, the college has policy to provide its employees with benefits regarding
holidays and leaves so that they can perform their work properly. Therefore, this business rule
can affect the database structure. Furthermore, the database claims to provide 20,000 authentic
book over internet however, in the library entity of the database, only 15,000 attributes or books
are present. s there are few of the business rules that affects the structure of the database.
Answer 4
Conceptual and Physical model of database
The conceptual model of database is a map of different concepts and the relationship of
those concepts with the database. This model provides a complete knowledge of the database
(semantics), and further provides series of assertions of its nature (Hameed, Counsell & Swift,
2012). In case of the college, the conceptual model of database will include the details of the
college and its history. Further, the campus informations and the achievements of the college will
be included.
The physical model of database is the smaller representation of the database. This model
will provide the information about the database, the table structure, column name and will be
different from the logical model of database (Coronel & Morris, 2016). The college database will
include relation between entities and attributes present in the database to achieve the conceptual
model goals. Further, it will include storage allocation details for the developed database system.

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References
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