TCSI August Newsletter 2024

Post date

Thursday, August 22, 2024 - 10:18

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

Updating student management systems

Support is available for providers intending to implement major updates to their student management system.

Providers are encouraged to contact TCSI Support when they are intending to implement a major change to their TCSI reporting solution. TCSI Support is available to provide insights and support during these periods, including but not limited to:

Highlighting potential risks and areas of concern
Assisting in monitoring TCSI data
Enabling safeguards within TCSI to reduce potential impact to students, loans and data already reported to TCSI.

Each update or transition will be unique for each provider. Providers are therefore encouraged to include a summary of the intended action, key dates, and questions when contacting TCSIsupport@education.gov.au.

Upcoming Webinar

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 August Provider Webinar	2 pm [AEST]	28 August 2024	Register Here.
TCSI Support drop-in session	2 pm [AEST]	11 September 2024	Register Here.
TCSI September Provider Webinar	2pm [AEST]	25 September 2024	Register Here.
TCSI Support drop-in session	2pm [AEDT]	9 October 2024	Register Here.
TCSI October Provider Webinar	2pm [AEDT]	30 October 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 Providers

2023 Student data collection finalised for Higher Education Providers (HESA-approved)

The 2023 Student data collection for HESA-approved higher education providers has been finalised by the department.

The verification of 2023 Student data for HESA-approved higher education providers was due on 3 May 2024.

The finalised 2023 student dataset, verified by providers, is expected to be made publicly available from early October 2024.

The department appreciates the time and commitment from HESA-approved higher education providers in completing the annual student data collection for 2023.

For more information about data publication, please contact the Higher Education Analysis team via email to University-Statistics@education.gov.au.

Data quality assurance: 2024 Staff data for university providers

The department will shortly begin quality assurance of the 2024 staff data for universities providers.

The 2024 staff data submission and verification was due on 28 June 2024 for Providers who deliver higher education.

The Higher Education Analysis team will be conducting an assurance check of university staff data in preparation for the department’s annual staff data publication. The team will contact universities via email if there are any concerns regarding staff data.

For all other higher education providers, verified 2024 staff data will be analysed by Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency.

Country code for Australia

Providers should ensure they are reporting the correct country code.

The department has found a substantial number of students reported with a country code of ‘1603 - Australian Antarctic territory’ for the following elements in TCSI:

Providers should ensure that all students are reported to TCSI with the correct country code. Australian students should be reported with a country code of ‘1101 – Australia’ where appropriate. For more information, please refer to Appendix C via TCSI appendices, codes and tables.

TCSI Renewal program update

The TCSI Renewal team is sharing an update on their project up to July 2024.

At the 31 July 2024 provider webinar, the Department provided an update on the TCSI Renewal outcomes, showcasing several key improvements delivered under the program for higher education providers.

Providers can now benefit from the TCSI student concordance functionality, which merges duplicate student records into a single active profile. This enhancement addresses a longstanding data reporting issue, significantly reducing student conflicts that could delay loan transfers to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

The program has also introduced several new loan monitoring reports for tracking and remediating loans affected by missing or incorrect Tax File Numbers (TFN). Additionally, improved TCSI loan processing rules have been implemented, including the removal of CHESSN as a provider reportable value, supporting the transition towards the Unique Student Identifier (USI).

Further, the program has addressed numerous historical defects in real-time validations (RTV) and introduced new RTVs to monitor seriously late-reported loans. These efforts are aimed at preventing late reporting or revision of loans that could inadvertently impact student well-being. Check out the progress here: TCSI Releases and upcoming development.

Additionally, in response to your engagement and valuable feedback as part of the TCSI Renewal provider engagement process, we are reviewing scheduled validation and notification issues and undertaking an uplift of the TCSI Analytics portal, enhancing its usability and accessibility for all providers.

Looking ahead, the program is set to release new dashboards in TCSI Analytics in the coming weeks, starting with the Critical Loan Errors dashboard. This dashboard will focus on rectifying critical data errors that affect student loan transfers to the ATO.

For more information on the above enhancements, providers can view the recording of the 31 July provider webinar.

If you have any additional feedback on TCSI enhancements, please do not hesitate to share it with us at TCSIsupport@education.gov.au.