TCSI Newsletter June 2022

Providers are encouraged to continue to work on and resolve scheduled validation errors at their organisations.

Resolving scheduled validations is crucial in ensuring that records reported to TCSI are complete and correct.

You can access details of your scheduled validations in TCSI Analytics from the 'Provider Notification Report'. To understand how scheduled validations work and the rules for each validations, please see Scheduled validations.

Recent system updates have resolved a number of issues affecting scheduled validations and TCSI Analytics to assist providers in resolving their scheduled validations. To see the latest resolved issues in production, remaining issues in production, and recent system updates please see:

• Identified Issues in Production
• TCSI Tracker
• News and Media

Resolving scheduled validations are of particular importance for higher education providers with 2021 student data verification approaching.

The TCSI Tracker now includes new functionality that allows users to more easily track TCSI issues and updates.

The TCSI Tracker provides up-to-date information about current system issues and the implementation status of resolution.

Following feedback from the sector, the issues tracker has been updated to enable viewers to more easily track the status of identified issues. The updates include a 'Published Date' column that identifies when an error has been logged by the TCSI Support Team, as well as the separation of active outstanding issues and resolved issues.

The TCSI Support Team would like to thank providers.

TCSI Support would like to acknowledge the work that providers and vendors have undertaken to meet reporting requirements and legislative obligations during the recent peak in reporting around census dates for the first teaching periods of 2022.

The TCSI Support Team has received over 3200 enquiries from providers and software vendors this year. We are using this information to identify and resolve issues and provide feedback and updates and to identify improvements and system enhancements, as well as create support documents and webinar content to ensure we can continue to provide ongoing support to providers.

We would like to thank providers for reaching out to the TCSI Support Team and for sharing information that allows us to continually improve the TCSI system.

As always, please contact TCSISupport@dese.gov.au with any reporting enquiries.

We're also always happy to meet either in person or virtually if you would like to discuss any reporting issues.

Other contacts available to assist providers and vendors can be found at Contact Us.

The correct reporting of student enrolment withdrawals in TCSI is essential.

As long as the E355: Unit of Study Status Code, E601: Unit of Study Outcome Date and E446: Remission Reason Code are updated correctly, there is nothing more a provider needs to do to have the loans removed for a unit of study.

Correct reporting is important because:

• the TCSI system correctly reverses or remits any loans connected to the unit of study
• can cause issues with provider payments
• likely to encounter real-time and scheduled validations
• the data will be inaccurate as at the census date

The design of TCSI was subject to extensive sector consultations before it was built, and the design is consistent with the widespread view that providers should not have to update amounts on the unit enrolment if a student withdraws before the census date.

For more information on how to report withdrawals, common reporting scenarios, and potential impacts, please see Reporting withdrawals in TCSI.

Identified Issue in Production 161622 – Impacting VSL providers only

An issue has been identified for VSL providers when reporting a E355: Unit of Study Status Code of 2, 3, 4 or 5 where the E601: Unit of Study Outcome Date is before the census date, causes the associated loan to be deleted, when the loan should still be applicable. Providers should action the workaround of defaulting the E601: Unit of Study Outcome Date for these units to census date plus one until the issue has been resolved.

Providers are encouraged to review the ‘Identified issue in production’ page regularly for updates.

Recent updates have been made to the E701: Application status code webpage on the TCSI Support website.

These updates ensure the TCSI Support website accurately reflects the reporting requirements and specifications of E701: Application status code. Notable updates are:

• Width = '2' (previously 1); and,
• Allowable Values = '01' and '02' (previously '1' and '2').

This update was based upon feedback from the sector and investigations conducted by TCSI Support and our Government partners.

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. Due to a reduction in attendees and questions, TCSI drop-in sessions will now occur fortnightly. This is to ensure drop-in sessions remain engaging and relevant. If urgent assistance is required, please email TCSI support to arrange a meeting.

Register now for upcoming Webinars!

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 webinars relating to Provider Information Request (PIR), please see our PIR webinars page.

TCSI Support has recently transitioned to a new mailing system. Please check your subscription preferences to ensure you are receiving all your TCSI communications.

We recommend providers update their existing subscriptions to ensure they are receiving TCSI communications catered to their individual requirements. This can be done by clicking the link 'unsubscribe or update my preferences' located at the bottom of the TCSI Monthly Newsletter and TCSI Web Alerts. Alternatively, the following links can be used to:

• Sign up to receive TCSI communications.
• Manage an existing subscription.

To forward TCSI communication emails to new staff not yet signed up to receive TCSI communications, or to other staff members within your provider, simply click the envelope icon located at the bottom of the email.

Providers can now reply to an enquiry about TCSI communications directly. Simply hit reply on the email and an enquiry can be sent to TCSI Support for a response.

TCSI Support has recently transitioned to a new mailing system. Please check your subscription preferences to ensure you are receiving all your TCSI communications.

The VET Student Loans team has removed the administrative requirement for you to submit a statutory declaration as part of your data reporting requirements.

You are reminded that the data you submit must be complete and accurate and provided in line with the Notice under Subsection 53(1) of the VET Student Loans Act 2016. Civil penalties and offences may apply if you fail to comply with the Notice or provide false or misleading information. The department’s compliance team will review adherence with data reporting requirements through a range of monitoring and compliance activities.

An updated VSL Data Provision Fact Sheet 2022 provides information to assist you to submit complete and accurate monthly data.

For more information on VET Student Loans, news and updates, please visit the VET Student Loans webpage.

New completion dates have been finalised for key reporting and verification deadlines.

Providers will have been made aware through recent TCSI communications that due to unavoidable delays, due dates have been reset for key reporting and verification deadlines. For more information, please see Higher education update - reporting due dates.

A list of student data 2021 verification reports (and their equivalent live data reports) can be found at Higher Education student data verification report list 2021.

Reports will be based upon the verified data sets. Elements not included (NULL) or incorrectly reported cannot be changed after verification has been signed off by the provider. All elements are therefore equally important for verification purposes. We recommend providers aim to resolve all scheduled validations not currently being affect by an Identified Issue in Production resulting in a misfired scheduled validation.

Higher education providers must exit safe mode as soon as possible.

Providers that are in safe mode, or have re-entered safe mode for a system upgrade, should make arrangements with TCSI Support to exit safe mode. This will avoid potential impacts that safe mode can have on students at tax time.

For more information, please see: Understanding 'safe mode' in TCSI.

Please advise TCSI at TCSIsupport@dese.gov.au when you are ready to exit safe mode or if you have any questions or concerns about safe mode.