TCSI June Newsletter 2024

For VSL and Higher Education Providers

Student concordance is now live in production!

Student Concordance allows providers to permanently move data packets from a ‘concording’ student record to a ‘master’ student record without impacting loans on the student’s ATO statement. The concorded student record will then be deleted from the TCSI database.

Once a record has been concorded, providers must ensure their future reporting (either via their Student Management System (SMS) or via the TCSI Data Entry portal) is aligned with the concordance outcome to avoid issues such as deleting, updating or re-creating records unintentionally.

Providers who report data via the TCSI Data Entry portal will action concordance via file upload. Providers who report via an SMS should reach out to their vendor on how concordance can be actioned using your system.

More information on Student concordance, including how to concord a student record, can be found in the TCSI Student Concordance Factsheet.

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 Support drop-in session	2 pm [AEST]	10 July 2024	Register Here.
TCSI Monthly Webinar	2 pm [AEST]	31 July 2024	Register Here.
TCSI Support drop-in session	2 pm [AEST]	14 August 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 VSL Providers only

Reporting Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in TCSI

As identified in September 2023, Real-time Validation (RTV) 10303 is continuing to misfire and is blocking VSL providers from reporting RPL units to TCSI.

Providers are currently triggering RTV 10303 – ‘The EFTSL (E339) is either too long or has too many decimal places. It should have a maximum of 9 decimal places and a maximum value of 9.999999999’ when attempting to report an EFTSL (E339) of ‘0.000000001’.

TCSI Support is currently investigating and working with our technical teams to resolve the issue. Providers should refer to the Outstanding Issues in Production tracker #454109 for any updates relating to the issue.

As an interim solution, providers can report the RPL unit using the following workaround:

Step One - Report the unit enrolment

To report the unit enrolment, providers should report the following:

E355 of '4',
E577 of 'Blank/NULL', and an
E339 of '0.01'

Step Two - Update (PATCH) the unit enrolment to include RPL

Once successfully reported, providers can then update/patch the RPL unit to the following:

E355 of '5',
The appropriate E577,
EFTSL (E339) of '0.000000001'

The interim solution allows VSL providers to meet their reporting requirements for RPL unit enrolments whilst the issue is being investigated.

For Higher Education only

Reminder: 2024 Staff data verification due 28 June 2024

TCSI providers who deliver higher education courses must submit and verify their 2024 staff data by Friday 28 June 2024.

For Universities, staff data submission and verification are part of providers’ reporting requirements under the Higher Education Support Act 2023 (HESA).

For all other higher education providers, it is part of providers’ reporting requirements under the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (TEQSA Act).

The majority of providers have completed their 2024 Staff data verification and we appreciate your time and effort.

For providers who have yet to complete their 2024 Staff data verification, two targeted webinars have been developed by the TCSI Support team to help providers with completion of the 2024 Staff data collection.

The webinars provide detailed demonstrations, information on reporting scope, and useful tips for reporting and verifying staff data in TCSI. Providers are recommended to register and view recordings via the webinar links above.

Providers are also encouraged to access the Data Verification webpage for comprehensive information and instructions regarding staff data submission and verification. Please use the table on the Data Verification page to select the information that matches your organisation’s provider type.

SSAF Allocation Report 2023

Providers who charge a Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF) must publish their SSAF Allocation Report for 2023 by 30 June 2024.

The Higher Education Support (Student Services, Amenities, Representation and Advocacy) Guidelines 2022 requires providers who charge a SSAF to provide a publicly available report on SSAF allocations in the form approved by the Minister, and report on their actual expenditure for the year as part of their annual reporting. The approved SSAF Allocation Report form is available on the department’s website. This Report was developed to allow for greater transparency and consistency in reporting on SSAF allocations and expenditure.

The Report must be made publicly available by providers within six months of the end of their financial reporting period (by 30 June or 31 December).

If you have any questions about the SSAF Allocation Report, please contact the Department of Education via SSAF@education.gov.au.

SLEMS Enhancements

Upcoming enhancements to the Student Learning Entitlement Management System (SLEMS) include two SLE specific TCSI Analytics Reports and the population of the vertical double degree table with live course information.

SLE Specific TCSI Analytics Reports

To help providers manage the Student Learning Entitlement (SLE) policy, the Department is developing the following two SLE specific TCSI Analytics Reports, each of which contain three pages.

Student Learning Entitlement Overview Live Data Report

Summary Student SLE Distribution – Number of students enrolled at a provider by groupings of Usable SLE
Student SLE Allocation – SLE details of students enrolled at a provides
Student Unit Level Enrolment – Details of units a student is enrolled in at a provider

Student Learning Entitlement Course Coverage Live Data Report

Summary Student SLE Coverage of Course Load – Number of students enrolled at a provider by groupings of SLE Coverage of Course Load
Student SLE Coverage of Course Load - SLE details of students enrolled at a provider that are close to consuming their available SLE
Student Course Level Enrolment – Details of courses a student is enrolled in at a provider

Vertical Double Degrees (VDD’s)

The Department has finalised the design to process VDDs in SLEMS and correctly award Additional SLE (ASLE). This has resulted in the creation of a new SLE table containing all VDDs offered by providers who report them as a single course in TCSI and includes the EFTSL value of the postgraduate component.

The table has been populated with input received from providers and reflected in SLEMS from June 2024. This has resulted in existing student records being reprocessed to ensure they have the correct amount of ASLE awarded where they were enrolled in a listed course on or after 1 January 2022.

Courses listed in the table will be periodically reviewed by the Department. If any details for courses you offer change, you offer new vertical double degrees, or have any other questions regarding SLEMS Enhancements please contact studentlearningentitlement@education.gov.au.