business process: identifying and recording a … and...scope: this process is used ... status (fst)...

KEELE UNIVERSITY PROCEDURES

Final Fundability Business Process.doc 1 of 14

BUSINESS PROCESS: Identifying and recording a Student’s Eligibility for Funding

PURPOSE: To correctly assess and record the fundability eligibility status of a student in line with HEFCE requirements

SCOPE: This process is used to assess the fundability status of all students, and record it in the External Fundability ID (EFID) Field on the Student Enrolment (SCE) record. A fundability algorithm populates the fundability found in the SCE after considering data in key fields, including criteria that considers the HEFCE ELQ funding policy.

PROCESS OWNER: Head of Planning & Secretariat

INVOLVED: Management Information Services - Finance & IT Services Academic Registrar - Academic Services Postgraduate Taught Office - Academic Services Undergraduate Admissions Team - Academic Services Graduate School - Academic Services Continuing Education - Academic Services

PROCEDURE / WORK INSTRUCTIONS: 1: ESTABLISHING THE STUDENT’S FEE STATUS CODE Responsible Parties: Admissions, CPE Office, PGT Office, Graduate School and the Academic Registrar

When a student begins their studies it is necessary to identify and record their Fees Status (FST) code in the student record system (SRS), to identify whether they are eligible to pay home or overseas fees. The FST table is overleaf:



The FST table maps 15 FST codes to the 3 FST groups of H (Home) O (Overseas) and Q (Query). The process for allocating an FST status of either H, O or Q to a student varies slightly in application according to the type of student and/or how the student applied to the University. The processes are as follows:

Full-time Undergraduate students applying through Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS): All applications imported from UCAS generate an Application Clearance & Decision Entry (ACD) record on the SRS. On the ACD there is an Application Category (APC) field which is populated automatically from the information contained within the application form; if the applicant then accepts a place at Keele when the Application Transfer (ATR) process is performed, the APC entry is used to populate the FST field on the SCE and maps to the status of H, O or Q. During the applications process, applying students whose APC field is Q (query) are forwarded to the International Admissions Officer who will issue a Fee Status Query form to them (please refer to Annex A for a copy of the form). The completed form will be considered by the Academic Registrar to establish the correct APC which will then be entered onto the ACD record by the International Admissions Officer.

Full-time Undergraduate Students applying directly to Keele: International applications are also received directly by Keele; all these applications are sent a Fee Status form. The completed form will be considered by the Academic Registrar to establish the correct APC which will then be entered onto the ACD record by the International Admissions Officer. From this point the ACD record will be processed in the same way as students applying through UCAS.

Postgraduate Taught (PGT) and Postgraduate Research (PGR) Students: PGT & PGR students apply on-line. On a daily basis, on-line applications are processed through the TRAN process to generate an ACD record. The process populates the key fields relating to the fundability status of a student, for example, Country of Domicile, Nationality, Address etc, but it does not complete the APC field. The APC field is completed manually by the PG Office for PGT students and by the Graduate School for PGR Students. This is to ensure that it is recorded correctly in line with HEFCE/HESA guidance and account for changing course regulations. If further information is required to establish fundability then the applicant is sent a Fee Status Query Form which, when completed and returned, is considered by the Academic Registrar who will decide on the appropriate APC status which will then



be updated by the PG Office or Graduate School. The ACD record will then be processed as appropriate.

Continuing Education (CE): CE students only apply using a paper based application form (please refer to the Business Process on Enrolment of Students). Once it is established that the applicant is to enrol at Keele, the information on the application form is used to generate a student record. CE only uses the FST code of H – but in the FST table this is broken down into 3 codes which are used to identify the differential feel levels – UK/UKB and UKP.

2: ESTABLISHING THE FUNDABILITY OF COURSES Responsible Party: Planning and Secretariat

On the student record system information is recorded on the award and fundability of programmes of study and these are grouped and identified by a course code (CRS code). The course record identifies the balance of subjects (e.g. dual or single honours and major/minor combinations), the level (e.g. degree or diploma) and differentiates different sources of funding (e.g. HEFCE fundable, TDA or NHS fundable). Within these three criteria are a number of permeations, therefore, there are over 150 different course (CRS) records.

Information on major source of funding is recorded on the CSF field below in the CRS table:

There are a number of different CSF records, which map to the following categories:

01: HEFCE 07: TTA 31: HEALTH (Department of Health) 61: OWN INSTITUTION 65: ERASMUS 81: OTHER FUNDING 91: TUITION FEES



The mapping of each course record to a CSF is checked annually by Planning and Secretariat to ensure that the major source of funding remains accurate. This is important because it is a key piece of information for external reporting purposes, and is key to the algorithm that will be run to identify the overall fundability status for each student, including the identification of ELQ students.

3: Identifying the Highest Qualification on Entry for all students Responsible Parties: Admissions (Recording Highest Qualifications on entry) and Planning & Secretariat (grading of the QEN records)

When students apply to Keele they are asked to supply information on all of their qualifications and their UCAS record normally has information on their highest qualification on entry.

When the ATR (Applicant Transfer) process is run the highest qualification information is copied from students’ UCAS records to their course join records in the SCJ table in University’s student records system, within a field called ‘Highest Qual On Entry’ (denoted by blue arrow in screen shot below). The pick-list for this field is in the QEN table

In some cases, the highest qualification on entry is recorded manually on the SCJ

record for direct entry students, based on the qualifications information provided to Admissions.

The highest qualification on entry is used in the fundability algorithm which compares the highest entry qualification with the intended award in order to identify ELQ students. In order to compare the level of highest qualification with the level of the intended award, each QEN record has been graded numerically in the FE field (fifth column in the screen shot of the QEN table below):



The numerical gradings are as follows:

0 below HE 1 FY 2 UG Credits 3 UG Cert 4 UG Dip 5 1st Degree 6 PG credits 7 PG Cert 8 PG Dip 9 Masters

10 Doctorate

99 Unknown/ELQ as defined by HEFCE

The same numerical grading is assigned to the intended award (see below).

4: Recording the level of the intended awards Responsible Parties: SCI/PGT Office (set-up and management of awards AWD records) and Planning & Secretariat (grading of the AWD records)

Award records are created and maintained by the Academic Registry. These are mapped to each student in their SPR records in the section called ‘Award Details’ in the field called ‘Intended’ (denoted by the blue arrow in the screen shot below) This intended award code links to the AWD table, where information about the

award is stored.



In order to compare the level of highest qualification with the level of the award, each AWD record has been graded numerically in the User Defined field (UDF1) – denoted by a blue arrow in the screen shot below. The UDF field can be viewed by clicking on the UDF button in the top right-hand corner of the AWD table:

UDF button



The same numerical grading scheme is used for the AWD records as is used for the

QEN records:

0 below HE 1 FY 2 UG Credits 3 UG Cert 4 UG Dip 5 1st Degree 6 PG credits 7 PG Cert 8 PG Dip 9 Masters

10 Doctorate

99 Unknown/ELQ as defined by HEFCE

It is the responsibility of SCI/PGT Office to inform P & S when new AWD records

are created, so that they can review the record to ensure the HESA data is correct and to assign one of the above numerical grades in the UDF field.

5. Calculating the Fundability Status for Students using the Funding Algorithm Responsible Parties: MIS and Planning & Secretariat To Note: a different code is assigned to ELQ students than other HEFCE-non-fundable students as a result of this process. The fundability algorithm applies a series of criteria to fulfil HEFCE funding rule requirements. This is run each night as part of the over-night update queries run by MIS. The algorithm checks against the following criteria in sequence – at different points the code may be ‘over-written’. The final value when all criteria have been checked is then written into the student’s enrolment record in the field entitled ‘fundability’ (SCE_EFID).

The fundability algorithm updates all students with a FST of O (Overseas) as NOT FUNDABLE (code 2);

All student records with a FST of H or Q will then have their course award considered for fundability. On the CRS record there is an External Return Format (CRS_ERFM.CRS) field which identifies whether the course should be returned to HESA, as it fulfils the requirements to potentially attract funding i.e. the course is accredited, open, etc. Only students on a course with C, M or P are considered by the funding algorithm. Courses which are N (non-return) are not considered for fundability as the course, and students studying for those particular courses, do not attract funding.

Then the major source of funding of the course is used and the following fundability codes are set:

o Codes 01: EFID is set to code 1 (HEFCE fundable) -this can be over-written later for ELQ students

o Codes 91, 65 and 61: EFID is set to code 2 – NOT FUNDABLE – not fundable by funding council



o Code 31: EFID is set to code 5 – DH FUNDED – funded by the Department of Health

o Code 7: EFID is set to code 7 – FUNDABLE BY TDA – Fundable by Training & Development Agency for Schools

Then the Highest Entry Qualification is compared to the intended award using the numerical grading scheme for all students who began their studies from 2008/9 onwards:

o If either the QEN or AWD record have been assigned a numerical grade of 99 (Unknown/ELQ as defined by HEFCE) then the fundability code is set to 9 (ELQ)

o For all students whose intended award is lower or equivalent to their highest Qualification on entry (based on comparing the numerical grade on both the QEN and AWD records) then the fundability code is also set to 9 (ELQ)

o For all students whose intended award is NOT lower or NOT equivalent to their highest Qualification on entry (based on comparing the numerical grade on both the QEN and AWD records) then the fundability code is also set to 1 (HEFCE-fundable)

After the above criteria are applied through the algorithm, two further criteria are applied to any students who have been recorded with the fundability code of 9 (ELQ). The purpose of these final steps is to respond to the ELQ policy exemption of students in receipt of Disability Allowance (DSA) and protection of certain subjects. The two steps are as follows:

For all students in receipt of DSA (code 4 in the STU_DSBA or SCE_DSBA) the fundability code is over-written to 1 (HEFCE fundable)

For students on a Undergraduate Course Group, with a mode of attendance of full-time, with at least one External Subject (ESB) of their PWY as follows: A100; A300; B160; B610; B700; B701; B720; B730; B740; B760; B761; B771; L500; X100; X190, then the fundability code is over-written to 1 (HEFCE fundable)

The technical specification used by MIS is attached at Annex B for information.



SUPPORTING BUSINESS PROCESS FORMS:

Annex A – Fee Status Query Form Annex B – Technical specification for the fundability algorithm

TIMESCALE OF PROCESS: Annually

EXISTING QUALITY CONTROLS / AUDIT CHECKS:

System password protected and access restricted.

DATE PROCESS APPROVED: February 2010

DATE PROCESS TO BE REVIEWED: February 2011



Annex A – Fee Status Query Form



Annex B – Technical specification for the fundability algorithm

FundCode

Student Fundability

Award fundability Course Fundability

entry quals

intended award disability Fee type SIVS

Step 1 SCE_EFID

FST_FSGC in FST via SCE_FSTC (H/Q or O)

CRS_ERFM (Y/N)

CSF_HMSF (linked to SCE via CBO_CSF1 where SCE_CRSC=CBO_CRSC and where SCE_CBK = CBO_BLOK) options 01, 07, 31, 61, 65, 81, 91

link via SCJ_QENC to QEN. QEN_FEID

Link via SCJ ‐> SPR ‐> AWD ‐>

AWD_UDF1 STU_DSBA

ESB.CODE or ESB_CODE.ESB2 (PWY table, link via SPR_ROUC -> ROE -> PWY)

Course Group

MOA

ESB.CODE or ESB_CODE.ESB2 (PWY table)

Field to be updated (SCE_EFID)

1 All Set to null 2 is Null O not N 2

3 Is null H or Q not N 91 or 65 or 61 2 4 Is null H or Q not N 31 5 5 is null H or Q not N 07 7

6 is null H or Q not N 1 or 81

not null and not 99

is greater than [QEN_FEID] any 1

7 Is null and SCJ_AYRC is before 2008/9 1

8 is null and SCJ_AYRC is 2008/9 onwards H or Q not N 1 or 81

is null or 99 9

8b

If SCE_EFID = 9 and where SCJ_QENC = is null H or Q not N 1 or 81 z



9 is null and SCJ_AYRC is 2008/9 onwards H or Q not N 1 or 81

not null and not 99

is lower or equal to[QEN_FEID] 9

10 9 4 1

11 9

At least one PWY has ESB code = A100 or A300 or B160 or B610 or B700 or B701 or B720 or B730 or B740 or B760 or B761 or B771 or L500 or X100 or X162 or X190 UG

*FT* any 1

business process: identifying and recording a … and...scope: this process is used ... status (fst)...

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