TCSI higher education update - August 2022

Verification commenced on 4 August in TCSI Analytics. To assist you with verifying your reports please utilise the coding notes and User Guide available from the TCSI Analytics webpage on TCSI support under the heading of Higher Education Data Verification.



Verification is important because it is the final opportunity to confirm to the department that your organisation’s data and all underlying records for 2021 year are complete, accurate and ready for publication and funding reconciliation. Your verified data is used to:

• reconcile your higher education funding
• publish information on your organisation
• develop policy and manage programs.

The verification deadline of 3 September 2022 must be met by all providers to ensure the critical uses of verified data are not delayed.

 

What to look for when verifying data

When reviewing your reports, it’s essential that the following items are checked to ensure students records are complete and correct:

• Check discipline code on unit enrolments. An update to the discipline code on one unit enrolment will update all students in the same unit of study (that is, units where Unit of Study Code (E354) and Unit of Study Census Date (E489) are the same)
• Scheduled Validations relating to 2021 incomplete or inconsistent records are addressed
• Check that your report cells don’t contain blank values, the words “no information” or “not provided”
• Where there is a comparison between 2021 and 2020 check the variation difference.

TCSI Data Entry portal will be upgraded to receive production staff data files on 20 August 2022. Due to the delay in file upload functionality, all higher education providers now have until 16 September to complete their submission of the Full-time staff, Casual staff actuals and Casual staff estimates data.



For more information on reporting of higher education staff data please consult the TCSI Support website at:

• Staff reporting requirements for universities
• Provider Information Request 2022 – including staff data for non-universities
• Using TCSI Data Entry portal guide – includes file templates
• Webinar: Staff Collection - file upload training – register to watch the recording

Thank you to the many providers who have been active in testing their files with TCSI Support. Those providers have told us that the testing was helpful to identify issues early and to familiarise their teams with the submission and response file formats. To test your TCSI Data Entry files with TCSI Support please follow the steps on the TCSI – Testing for providers page.



The solution for verification of 2021/2022 staff data will be announced after the 2021 student data verification is finalised.

The department is now providing more helpful information to students viewing SA-HELP loans on their Australian Taxation Office (ATO) record. Students accessing a SA-HELP loan will now see their loan description as 'New loan for HELP for SA-HELP at [provider name]'. This will reduce confusion for students undertaking multiple courses or transferring between courses.



This change only applies to new loans. SA-HELP loans that were committed at the ATO before 8 July 2022 will retain their description including a course code that matches a course admission for the student.