TCSI Newsletter December 2020

TCSI is now live! We are now working with a small group of providers that have commenced reporting through TCSI this week.

A big thank you to our co-designers and all our providers and vendors for testing with us, identifying issues, and asking so many questions to help make the transition process as smooth as possible.

HEPCAT can continue to be used for reporting your 2020 higher education data and 2020 and 2021 VET Student Loans data over the Christmas period.

You will also be able to verify TFNs in a TFN Lookup File or by using the government eCAF.

VSL extension

To support VSL providers over this period, the VET Student Loans team has approved an extension to the VSL 2020 reporting which is now due 11 January 2021 before 5.00 pm (AEDT).

The TCSI onboarding webinar series is tailored for your provider type and your transition date. We will cover initial onboarding steps, discuss your progress, and will be available to answer your questions.

There are also opportunities to hear the challenges being faced by other providers in your sector and learn from their experiences.

Your organisation is required to have at least one representative attending each webinar, but more attendees are always welcome. Reserve your places now by registering for the webinars targeted to your transition here.

For example, a VSL provider planning to transition to TCSI in March, should register for all four VET Student Loan provider webinars at 1pm on February 10^th, 17^th, 24^th, and March 3^rd.

In August and October we sent out surveys requesting your updated transition date. Thank you to all who responded so diligently to these crucial information requests.

So we can adequately support your transition and predict demand on our staff, it is essential that you keep us apprised of any change in your expected TCSI transition date.

If your date changes, or if you have not yet provided us with an expected transition date, please email the TCSI Support team TCSISupport@dese.gov.au with your most current expected transition date.

Keeping us informed allows us to better help you, and to ensure you are compliant with your legislative obligations.

Recently the TCSI test environment has experienced intermittent errors in which the system is unavailable. We have investigated the issue and it appears that the environment was impacted by the same TFN being used for multiple students.

It is important that a mock TFN is not used for more than one student.

We are happy to provide 100 mock TFNs at a time – if you have allocated all your TFNs to test students, please contact TCSIsupport@dese.gov.au and we can easily provide more.

Refreshing the test database

The department is currently considering options to implement a regular refresh of the test database.

If you have views on refreshing test environments and possible frequency for refreshes please send them through to TCSIsupport@dese.gov.au. We would love to receive your feedback

Our team will be out of the office from 12:00pm AEDT on Thursday 24 December, and we’ll return at 9am on Monday 4 January 2021.

The TCSI Support mailbox will not be monitored during this period, and any queries received will be responded to on our return.

We’ll be back in the new year refreshed, recharged, and ready to help you all transition to TCSI.