TCSI April Newsletter 2024

Post date

Thursday, April 18, 2024 - 12:26

The TCSI Newsletter helps to keep our Higher Education and VET Student Loans providers up to date with the TCSI news.

Click on the headings below to find out more:

For VSL and Higher Education Providers

How unit of study outcome date affects student loans

The correct reporting of Unit of Study Outcome Date (E601) in TCSI is critical for accurate loan data transfer, maintaining student payments, and data verification statistics.

Providers are required to update the existing unit enrolment record within 7 days of the student withdrawing, completing, or failing a unit of study. The Unit of study outcome date (E601) data element specification provides guidance on selecting the correct date for withdrawals, completions, and failed units.

Higher education loans
TCSI will not create a loan for a unit enrolment that has been reported with a Unit of Study Outcome Date (E601) on or before the Unit of Study Census Date (E489). Any unit enrolment that already has a loan in TCSI, will have that loan deleted or reversed if the Unit of Study Outcome Date (E601) is updated by the provider to be on or before the Unit of Study Census Date (E489). Unit of Study Status Code (E355) does not affect the application of this rule for higher education loans.

VET Student Loans
TCSI will not create a loan for a unit enrolment that has been reported with a Unit of Study Outcome Date (E601) on or before the Unit of Study Census Date (E489), where the unit is reported as withdrawn i.e. Unit of Study Status Code (E355) is reported with a ‘1’ or ‘6’ value. Units reported as completed or failed before the census date may create a loan in TCSI (if other elements indicate a loan is required).

Any unit enrolment that already has a loan in TCSI, will have that loan deleted or reversed if the Unit of Study Outcome Date (E601) is updated by the provider to be on or before the Unit of Study Census Date (E489) and the Unit of Study Status Code (E355) is reported with a ‘1’ or ‘6’ value.

More information
More information on reporting withdrawals in TCSI can be found on the Reporting withdrawals and remissions in TCSI user guide.

TCSI Data Entry portal file uploads

Providers reporting data to TCSI via the TCSI Data Entry portal are reminded to take care when updating records via file uploads.

Uploading files to the TCSI Data Entry portal allows providers to create, modify, and delete multiple records at once.

File uploads for VET, HEP and PIR student collections
It is important for providers to remember that you must include all information types for an existing record. Leaving out an information type row in a “Student”, “Course”, “Course Admission”, or “Unit Enrolment (AOU)” file will cause that information to be deleted from the TCSI database.

For example, a student may have three rows of citizenship history and two rows of disability information stored in TCSI. A user attempting to upload a file to update the student’s address, must also include the extra rows of citizenship and disability information even though nothing has changed for those rows. Failing to submit those rows will trigger the deletion of the student’s disability and citizenship information.

This file upload behaviour is detailed in the file template user guide available at the top of the file templates webpage for each provider type:

A worked example was also provided at the ‘Updating Records in TCSI Data Entry’ segment of the TCSI March 2024 Provider Webinar.

File uploads for the higher education and PIR staff collection
The higher education full time staff files do not require the full history of work classifications to be reported each time the file is uploaded. Instead, provide full information in the file for the staff and time period included in your file.

For example, a staff member working two roles each year will require three rows in the file upload each year. The “full-time staff” information type (row one) and “work classification” information type (rows two and three). One row for each role they perform. The following year, the staff member will also have three rows in the file, with the “full-time staff” information type (row one) and “work classification” information type (rows two and three). One row for each role they perform, but with a later Reporting Year (E415) value for the following year.

Bulk USI Verification

USI bulk verification has been re-triggered.

USI bulk verification was re-triggered on Tuesday, 19 March 2024, for all students with an unverified USI in TCSI (where the student has active unit enrolments on or after 1 January 2021). The bulk verification will initiate a further 42-day period for USI checks.

The next re-triggering of bulk USI verification is scheduled for Tuesday, 30 April 2024.

A small number of student records contained within the recent USI bulk verification were only triggered for one day of verification. Our IT team is currently investigating solutions to re-trigger affected records as a priority.

Upcoming Webinars

All providers are invited to attend upcoming webinars and drop-in sessions, and we encourage you to register your attendance using the links below.

These sessions are an excellent opportunity to get up-to-date information and to ask any questions you might have about TCSI.

Webinar	Time	Date	To attend
TCSI Monthly Webinar	2 pm [AEST]	24 April 2024	Register Here.
TCSI Support drop-in session	2 pm [AEST]	15 May 2024	Register Here.

Recordings of previous webinars can be found at the following locations:

For Monthly provider webinars, please go to the Webinars page.
For drop-in sessions, please go to the TCSI Support drop-in sessions page.

For Higher Education only

2023 student data verification for Higher Education Providers (HESA-approved)

Verification of 2023 Higher Education Provider Student data is due on 3 May 2024.

The verification of Higher education Student data is a requirement under the Higher Education Support Act 2023 (HESA) and must be completed by the due date.

Providers are encouraged to access the Data Verification website for comprehensive information and instructions on how to complete verification.

The TCSI March 2024 Provider Webinar is a recommended resource for providers to refresh their knowledge and learn useful tips to assist when verifying your data.

SLEMS Enhancements

The Department would like to provide a progress update on enhancements being made to the Student Learning Entitlement Management System (SLEMS) as reported in previous editions of the TCSI Newsletter.

Vertical Double Degrees
The Department is finalising the design to process vertical double degrees in SLEMS and correctly award Additional SLE (ASLE). The proposed approach is to create a reference table of all vertical double degrees offered by providers, which will include the EFTSL value of the postgraduate component of each course.

When a provider reports a course admission for an eligible student that matches the fields in the reference table, SLEMS will award the student with an amount of ASLE equal to the EFTSL value of the postgraduate component of the course minus any ASLE they have previously consumed.

To assist with the construction of the reference table, the Department will be contacting providers in to request information for each vertical double degree they offer, including:

Provider Code (E306)
Course Code (E307)
Course Name (E308)
- Note – the above elements will be prefilled where existing double degrees are identified in TCSI.
EFTSL (E339) Value of Postgraduate component of the course

The following information will be sought for any courses populated in the table after it is deployed into production:

Effective from Date (E609)

TCSI Analytics
Work is continuing on SLE specific TCSI Analytics reports, which will consist of:

A Live Data Report – a report to outline student SLE amounts and unit enrolment information in bulk.
A Course Coverage Live Data Report – a report to outline how the student’s enrolments compare to their SLE amounts in relation to the Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP) course load they are enrolled in.

Further updates on these reports will be made in future TCSI Newsletters and Monthly Webinars.

If there are any queries, issues or interest in the SLEMS enhancements, please contact us at studentlearningentitlement@education.gov.au.

Reporting OS-HELP Loans for students receiving credit

Providers can report the minimum 1 EFTSL within a course of study for an OS-HELP loan using either unit enrolments, the course prior credit packet or a combination of the two.

Real-time validation (RTV) 10561 is triggered by providers when attempting to report an OS-HELP loan for a student who has not completed units of study totalling 1 EFTSL towards their course of study. As this is a fatal RTV, providers will be prevented from reporting the OS-HELP loan when it triggers.

A Student is only eligible to access OS-HELP assistance if they have already completed units of study totalling 1 EFTSL, that count towards the course requirements for their course of study, as a Commonwealth supported student.

When a student is reported with a course admission, providers are required to report credit to be applied towards the requirements of the course for the student. Where credit was not reported as part of the course admission packet, providers are required to report a course prior credit packet when credit is received from more than one source of credit (Credit basis code (E561) or Credit provider code (E566)).

When a student transitions from one course admission to another, under the same course of study, providers must report the course prior credit to avoid triggering RTV 10561.

Reporting eligible students under the Nuclear Powered Submarine Student Pathways program

To track the uptake of the Nuclear-Powered Submarine (NPS) Student Pathways program, a new allowable value was added to the Maximum student contribution code (E392).

The department’s preference is that providers report Commonwealth supported students, commencing in approved courses, with the new E392 value of ‘S’ up to the limit of their allocation in EFTSL terms.

The purpose of the new E392 value of ‘S’ is to allow the department to monitor uptake in relevant courses. Funding for this measure is not directly tied to students flagged with this code and, as it is dependent on universities first exhausting their higher education course funding under their Maximum Basic Grant Amount, funding will be determined as part of standard reconciliation processes.

As previously communicated to the sector, there is no expectation or obligation that students flagged with this code will engage with the Australian Submarine Agency (ASA) regarding employment. It is also expected that any future programs supported by the ASA will not be limited to students flagged with this code.

Please contact NPSpathways@education.gov.au with any queries.