TCSI Newsletter July 2020
Reporting Requirements for the Higher Education Data Collections
Vice Chancellors and CEOs of higher education providers were advised of the release of reporting requirements on Friday 3 July 2020. The contents of that letter are included below and the instruments for both 2020 and 2021 are now available from the Ministerial Notice documents page on HEIMSHELP.
The 2020 Ministerial Notice
The update to the 2020 Ministerial Notice formalises the department’s earlier advice that providers have an extended timeframe to commence reporting their 2020 data submissions. Providers may also continue to use the legacy system HEPCAT to report all 2020 data within the timeframes detailed in this update. This includes the reporting of the final 2020 data submissions by 31 January 2021 and the verification of 2020 data by 31 March 2021.
The Notice has been updated in response to the requested delay to the implementation of the Tertiary Collection of Student Information (TCSI). This has been due to the impact of COVID-19 on providers, their TCSI developers and the department. Universities Australia initially proposed a delay to TCSI in their letter to the department on 6 March 2020, to help alleviate the administrative burden providers are facing in the challenging COVID-19 environment.
The resolution of some defects identified in the development of the new Student Entitlement Management System (StEME) has also impacted the delivery of TCSI.
All documents related to the 2020 Notice, including the updated reporting schedule, are available on the department’s website at Ministerial Notice documents | HEIMSHELP (dese.gov.au)
The 2021 Ministerial Notice
The 2021 Notice implements event based reporting using the TCSI reporting channels. This reflects the reporting requirements issued for TCSI for 2020, with some minor modifications. These modifications have been made in response to feedback from providers and are largely the result of typographical errors or text clarifications.
The details of these changes are included in the 2021 Higher Education Data Collections Change Control Document. All documentation related to the Notice is available on the department’s TCSI Support website.
Transition to TCSI
The key dates for transitioning to TCSI are:
December 2020 – TCSI is scheduled for release to production. Providers may choose to begin using their TCSI solution to report the remainder of their 2020 records.
January 2021 – Open uptake. All providers can commence transitioning to TCSI for their 2021 student data.
31 March 2021 – Transition to TCSI is complete. All providers have adopted event based reporting using TCSI.
Providers should plan to adopt their TCSI solution well before the due date to ensure they have adequate time to implement their system and manage any unforeseen challenges. The TCSI team will work with providers over the coming weeks to clarify transition arrangements.