(NZL) StudyLink Processing

This chapter provides an overview of StudyLink and discusses how to:

• Set up StudyLink functionality.

• Process VOS requests and responses.

• Maintain StudyLink loan information.

Understanding StudyLink

StudyLink, formerly known as WINZ (Work and Income New Zealand) is a governmental agency that administers the distribution of student loans for educational costs and allowances.

In the past, a third party was used to manage the transfer of fees between the student account and StudyLink. The third-party functionality is no longer be used and payments will be posted directly to the students' accounts.

The process is initiated when a student applies for a loan through StudyLink. StudyLink requests the student's verification of study (VOS) from the institution where the student is enrolled. The institution matches the student's name, date of birth, and ID, creates a loan record, and sends the student's enrollment data and tuition charges to StudyLink in a VOS return file. StudyLink then sends the funds to the institution (if StudyLink is covering tuition) or to the student (only if StudyLink is providing allowance), or it denies the student loan.

StudyLink sends the funds through a PAY file for confirmed students, and payments are posted to the students' accounts. The Refund External Org ID is supplied to allow refunding to StudyLink as necessary. StudyLink sends a declined file (DEC), and loans are recorded as declined on the student's loan record if the loan is denied.

If a student's enrollment changes and fees are reduced, funds are returned to StudyLink. This is accomplished through Student Financials refunding through accounts payable for external organization refunding. The system generates an institution PAY file to list refunds to StudyLink.

Setting Up StudyLink Functionality

You must define various parameters to use the StudyLink process.

This section discusses how to:

• Define StudyLink institution defaults.

• Define the institution ID.

• Define StudyLink posting parameters.

Pages Used to Set Up StudyLink Functionality

Defining StudyLink Institution Defaults

Access the StudyLink Institution Defaults page (Set Up SACR, Product Related, Student Financials, New Zealand Defaults, StudyLink Institution Defaults).

Refund External Org ID (refund external organization ID)	Enter an ID setup for StudyLink so that the system can process refunds should there be a change in the student's program causing a reduction in fees charged.
Refund Org Contact (refund organization contact)	Enter the contact information for the external org ID.
IVS Active (institutional verification of study active)	Indicates the number of days between VOS requests. For example, as shown previously, an institution VOS will not pick up student information that has had a VOS request sent within the past four days. Information will be forwarded if a Pending, Not known, Unregistered, or Mismatch response has been received, or if no response has been received by StudyLink following a previous VOS request.
Study Period	Used to classify the enrollments into study periods that correlate to the loan period. This designates the number of days prior to the study period start date. The study start date is the date that StudyLink uses to request information. This is typically one month prior to the reported study start date. If the adjusted class start date, one day prior in the preceding example, is earlier or the same as the period start date, then the class is covered by that period. If later, the class will be added to the next period within the loan.
Vacation	Any break in study. This is used to enter the number of days constituting a break in study, as in the number of days between the end of one study period or term and the start of the next study period or term. So that the vacation period is reported in the VOS, the vacation buffer days should be fewer or equal to the number of days between terms.
IVS History (institutional verification of study history)	Used to select records for the institutional VOS. The number of days, 360 in the preceding example, is subtracted from the current date and compared with the study period start date and the transaction date on the history table. History records with a study period and transaction date greater than this date are picked up for the full institutional VOS process.
Round Dates	If this is selected, the start date is set to the Monday of the week of the first class and the end date is set to the Sunday of the week of the last class after the other date buffer calculations are done. Otherwise, the date buffer values will apply without regard to rounding.
Residency	Identifies eligible residency defaults, New Zealand, Australia, or both. This is a required field.
Enrollment Status Reason and Enrollment Status Exclusion	The default is to exclude from equivalent full-time student (EFTS) calculation or from enrollment depending on the enrollment status reason. If the enrollment status reason default matches the enrollment status, then the particular class is excluded as a covered class or the EFTS is disqualified. These are required fields.
Withdrawal/Cancel	Default for withdrawing or canceling from the program of study. Typically, cancelations result in 100 percent refund of fees. This is a required field.

Defining the Institution ID

Access the Academic Institution 6 page (Set Up SACR, Foundation Tables, Academic Institution Tables, Academic Institution 6).

Access the Institution Table New Zealand page (click the View NZL Institution Fields link on the Academic Institution 6 page).

This page allows for multi-institution usage.

Defining StudyLink Posting Parameters

Access the StudyLink Posting Parameters page (Set Up SACR, Product Related, Student Financials, New Zealand Defaults, StudyLink Posting Parameters).

Priority	Refers to the business unit.
Payment Item Type	The item type that is posted to the student's account.
Refund Item Type	Used to designate refunds to StudyLink.
Excess Account	Select for situations in which excess payments are posted before being refunded to StudyLink.

Processing VOS Requests and Responses

When a student applies for a loan from StudyLink, StudyLink sends a VOS request to the institution requesting enrollment details and the tuition amount. The institution creates a VOS Response file if changes occurred in the student's enrollment such as dropping courses or withdrawing from the program.

This section discusses how to:

• Request VOS information.

• Initiate VOS responses.

Pages Used to Process VOS Requests and Responses

Requesting VOS Information

Access the Process VOS Requests page(Student Financials, StudyLink, Process VOS Requests).

Report Type

Values are: Detailed Report: The output includes the student IDs, total fees, and EFTS values for each record for which the student has requested coverage of tuition and fees and not just an allowance. This report shows the confirmed students by name, biographic and demonstration data, fee coverage requested, and enrolled program. Summary Report: The output contains the number of confirmed students and the total fee amount. This report also shows any data mismatches and unregistered students.

Report Only

Running the VOS Request in Report Only mode creates the VOS record but will not create the Loan record. If this check box is cleared, this process updates the database and creates the Loan record.

Initiating VOS Responses

Access the Initiate VOS Responses page (Student Financials, StudyLink, Initiate VOS Responses).

VOS Selection (verification of study selection)

Values are: Full: Selects all records that have not had a VOS request processed within the number of days that are set up on the StudyLink Defaults page in the IVS Active field. Selected: Selects only those records that have the re-VOS check box selected on the Maintain Student Loan page.

Maintaining StudyLink Loan Information

This section provides an overview of and discusses:

• Create payment schedules.

• Process batch refunds.

• Create student reports.

Note. All of the following processes are intended for administrative users only.

Understanding Maintaining StudyLink Loan Information

Your institution must review student loan information, process payment schedules, track refunds, and create student account reports. Administrative users will run these processes to process loans for students to pay their tuition and living allowances or just the allowances. Loans for allowances only are sent to directly to the student and are not applied to the student account.

After a student has applied for a loan with StudyLink and StudyLink sends the VOS request to the institution, the institution creates the VOS return file that lists any mismatches of name, date of birth, or ID; the student's enrollment details; and the loan request amount.

Your institution receives PAY files from StudyLink for confirmed and declined student loans. For confirmed loans, a COBOL process is run that posts the payments to the students' accounts. Any excess funds will be refunded to StudyLink through the accounts payable process and by processing the refund file.

Pages Used to Maintain StudyLink Loan Information

Creating Payment Schedules

Access the Process PAY File page (Student Financials, StudyLink, Process PAY File).

You must run the PAY file process to create the file and to post payments to student accounts. You can run the SQR (Structured Query Report) report SFSPAYR multiple times. Run the COBOL process SFPSLPAY to post the payments to the student account.

Processing Batch Refunds

Access the Batch Refund page (Student Financials, Refunds, Process Batch Refunds, Batch Refund).

To create refunds for StudyLink, complete the Batch Refund page as shown in the preceding sample page.

Access the Process Refund File page (Student Financials, StudyLink, Process Refund File).

Creating Student Reports

Access the Create Student Report page (Student Financials, StudyLink, Create Student Report).