VoS response rules

General rules

• The VoS Response filename is used as a unique identifier in the StudyLink system. Any file received with a duplicate filename will not be successfully loaded into the system.
• A provider should return a single record in the VoS Response for each programme of study the student is enrolled in.
• The provider should provide all study details for the student, commencing on or after the study start date specified in the VoS Request.
• If multiple programmes of study for a student are returned in a single VoS Response file, any Fees information should be identical on all the lines returned. Each programme or enrolment period should be a separate line within the VoS response.
• Where a VoS response fails, StudyLink will contact the education provider and advise of this. A VoS response can fail for a number of reasons, including, but not limited to;
  • Commas or zeros not added correctly when a field is not required to be reported.
  • Additional commas have been added, or commas have been removed.
  • More than one decimal point in an EFTS value.
  • No quotation marks around the first name, last name or status fields.
  • Fields are not reported in the correct format (for example, dates) or they exceed the character limits.

VoS response file format

Multiple records with the same fund code are permitted. For example more than one Youth Guarantee Scheme funding code record is required. In this situation the minimum and maximum ages must be different for the same funding code records.

Non-updatable fields

The following fields should not be amended by a provider from the values specified in the VoS Request:

• Family name
• Given name(s)
• Date of Birth
• StudyLink client number
• Study start date
• APPL_SEQ
• STPC_SEQ               

StudyLink Client Number

A provider may store the student's Client Number on their records. This would be useful when wanting to return a ‘blank’ VoS at a later date for that student, and where an education provider needs to query a student’s file with StudyLink.

A provider must not use the student's Client Number for any other purpose, such as matching student details.

VoS Study Start Date

The VoS Study Start Date field is used to specify the date from which Verification of Study details are required.

Providers should respond with information on all study that commences on, or after, the VoS Study Start Date requested. The study end date should not be more than 52 weeks from the study start date unless the programme itself is approved by the Tertiary Education Commission for runs in excess of that length (this can be viewed at www.whichcoursewhere.co.nz/SearchQualAdvanced.aspx)

The study start date is used so that StudyLink can request information for a specific period of the year, for example second semester only, it also allows for study details that span calendar years e.g. Semester Two 2014 to Semester One 2015.

The default VoS Study Start Date is one calendar month prior to either the date the student supplied on their application (if no VoS has applied), or the start date of the latest applied VoS. This is to allow for small changes in start date, and students being unsure of the exact date their programme commences.

Study period is the term used for the period between the 'Student start date of study TOTAL' and 'Student end date of Study TOTAL' for a specific programme code.

APPL_SEQ and STPC_SEQ

These fields are no longer used and both will always be set to 1 in a VoS response.

Status field

The ‘status’ field is used to report on mis-matches and cases where the student is not able to be confirmed.

The following is a list of the values that can be used in the Status field of the VoS Response.   Unless otherwise stated, a Resulting VoS Status of ‘Requested’ will see the VoS Cycle continue until it has reached its end point of 12 requests/two weeks past study start date (whichever is later)

Reporting mis-matches of identifiers

The use of this field is dependent on whether the education provider is set up to match on two out of three identifiers (Ignore Mismatch is set to ‘yes’) or set up to match on three out of three identifiers (Ignore Mismatch is set to ‘no’).

The ‘VoS Rules and Processes for Education Providers’ document discusses the matching processes in greater details.

Providers that match on two out of three identifiers

Where the provider successfully matches on all three identifiers, the status field should be set to a value that reflects the student’s current enrolment.

Where the provider matches on two out of the three identifiers, they can report the incorrect identifier in the ‘status’ field of the VoS response. This is not a requirement though as this mismatch will be ignored.

Where the provider can match on fewer than two identifiers, the ‘Status’ field should be set to ‘N’, for ‘Not Known’.

Providers that match on three out of three identifiers

Where the provider successfully matches on all three identifiers, the status field should be set to a value that reflects the student’s current enrolment.

Where the provider matches on two out of the three identifiers, they must report the incorrect identifier in the ‘status’ field.

Where the provider can match, but on fewer than two of the identifiers, the ‘status’ field should be set to ‘N’, for ‘Not Known’.

Date of Study breakdown

There are four sets of fields to allow for providers that offer component, module or semester based study.

The student's overall Start date, End date and EFTS value, for the complete study period are to be entered in the Total fields:

A breakdown of the year into components, modules or semesters can then be entered into the four Study Breakdown sections:

This information is used to help assess students who may only be eligible for loans during a particular component, module or semester of the year.

It is recommended, but not compulsory, that providers use the Study Breakdown sections for all students enrolled in summer schools.

When the Study Breakdown fields are not used, they should be left NULL.

Breaks in study

There are two sets of “Break in Study Exceeding 3 Week” fields. These are to cater for students who have breaks during their study period for more than three weeks.

Payment of Living Costs from a Student Loan and/or Student Allowance payments will be stopped during any break in study exceeding three weeks.

Where there are no breaks that exceed three weeks in length, these fields should be left blank.

Full-time indicator

This field is used only for secondary schools, as their programmes do not have a corresponding EFTS value. The field should be left blank by all tertiary providers.

For information on what constitutes full-time, refer to the VoS Rules and Processes for Education Providers’ document

Set this field to:

• 'Y'  to indicate the Student is considered full-time
• 'N'  to indicate the Student is NOT considered full-time.

Fee information

The Fee Information flag is used in the VoS Request to indicate whether StudyLink is requesting a student’s study information only or study and fees.

If in the VoS Request the Fee Information Flag is set to:

• V          Study details only should be returned by the provider
• F          Study details, along with the Total Compulsory Fees and the Fees Requested should be returned

If fee information is not available when the VoS Request is received by a provider, but study details are, providers can reply with study details only; StudyLink will continue to VoS for the fees information.

Total Compulsory Fees

The Total Compulsory Fees for a student for the study period must be aggregated for the student and included for each programme code returned in the VoS Response.

The fees reported should not be for the entire length of the qualification (for example, the fees should not be $100,000 for a Medical program – they would be $15,000 for the yearly amount). The fees reported should be the fees for the period of time that is being reported in the VoS response.

Each programme code in a single VoS Response MUST have the same Total Compulsory Fees; otherwise incorrect Fee Payments may occur. This is cases where multiple lines of study are being reported in the one VoS response.             

Fees Request

The Fees Request is the amount of fees that the provider is requesting StudyLink pay from the Student Loan, on behalf of the student, for the given study period.

These must be aggregated for the student and included for each programme code returned in the VoS Response.

Each programme code in a single VoS Response MUST have the same Total Outstanding Fees; otherwise incorrect Fee Payments may occur. This is cases where multiple lines of study are being reported in the one VoS response.

Fund Code

If the student’s study start date is before 1 January 2015 the program fund code will be ignored and VoS is processed as usual. Otherwise a fund code is required and will be taken into account during the VoS processing.

The funding code provided in the VoS response is compared to a list of approved codes, provided daily to StudyLink by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC).

The student’s funding code should only be changed when the student has been changed by the provider to a different source of funding.