Understanding CHESSN Data
CHESSN is a number assigned by HEIMS that uniquely identifies each student who receives Commonwealth assistance. All Commonwealth supported students or students who receive any Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP) assistance (HELP loan, OS-HELP) must have a CHESSN. The government uses the unique identifier to manage and monitor the Commonwealth assistance entitlements of students as defined by Higher Education Support Act 2003. The CHESSN allocated to a student is a life long identifier, therefore, except for exceptional circumstances, once a student is allocated a CHESSN, it will remain with them for life. Equally, an individual (student) must have only one active CHESSN.
Higher Education Providers (HEPs) can provide to HEIMS the data required for CHESSN allocation in one of the following ways:
In XML format sent to HEIMS through a web service channel (for allocation of one or many students).
Typed directly into a HEIMS web browser screen available to HEPs.
This method is typically reserved for the request for allocation of a small number of CHESSNs.
The data sent through either of the above two methods provides information about students, such that HEIMS can provide a provisional CHESSN. The information provided by the HEP to HEIMS will also be used to identify, with high probability, a unique individual so as to prevent and minimize the probability of allocating multiple CHESSNs per student.
A CHESSN becomes active within HEIMS only when a record for the student is received in the Load-Liability file (LL file). The HEP informs students of their CHESSN through the Commonwealth Assistance Notice (CAN) service. The CAN service is a part of the HELP loans processing feature and is documented in the PeopleSoft Campus Solutions Student Financials documentation.