Did I hear you say Taxi?
Yes, TCSI (pronounced “taxi”), you heard that right! It stands for Transforming the Collection of Student Information (TCSI). It’s a joint project between the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) and Services Australia to transform how student information is collected to build a better solution that benefits both Australian education providers and students. The project name TCSI has also been retained as the name of the new portal in which institutions report to, however the acronym now stands for Tertiary Collection of Student Information.
What does it mean and how does it affect me?
All Australian Education Providers, Higher Education (HE), Vocational Education and Training (VET) and other Tertiary institutions that report via Provider Information Request (PIR), will need to transition their student data reporting to TCSI by the first quarter of 2021. Previously, institutions generated student data files and uploaded them to HEPCAT (the Higher Education Provider Client Assistance Tool) monthly or quarterly. With TCSI reporting can be done seamlessly and regularly. This hopes to solve all the shortfalls of HEPCAT and promises to make reporting easier and streamline the submission process.
How long do we have to prepare for this transition?
Whether you are a VET or a Higher Education provider, the transition period is the same. All providers will need to transition by the first quarter of 2021. The government is doing a soft launch, for Early Adopters, in December 2020, and all providers must meet the reporting requirements using the preferred TCSI solution by 1 January 2021.
What do I need to do?
There are two paths you can take to continue your data submission and comply with the government requirements:
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Use the Business-to-Government (B2G) API channel, where your Student Management System (SMS) can communicate with the government portal and submit the data through APIs.
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Use the Provider Portal, where you will need to do things manually by uploading a .CSV file to the portal.
In the most recent TCSI Provider Survey done by HEIMS, 63% of the respondents said their SMS provider will develop a TCSI solution and 20% said they’ll be using the TCSI Portal. We recommend finding out from your SMS provider what plans they have to support TCSI, and if it will be ready in time. 
Is Tribal ready?
Yes, Tribal is TCSI ready! Tribal, along with its customers, have been working to develop a Student Management System (SMS) agnostic submissions solution alongside Australian tertiary providers as a part of the Australian Government TCSI working group since its inception in 2018.
The solution Tribal Submissions is not only for our customers but for all education providers. Tribal Submissions works with any SMS solution across HE, VET and PIR providers, is delivered in the cloud, and driven by intelligence that simplifies the processing and quickly identifies any differences in your records before submission.
Tribal Submissions, powered by our Edge platform, is now live in production and being regularly updated to ensure compliance with Government TCSI reporting requirements and ensure readiness for TCSI go-live for early adoption in December 2020. The solution will help providers by fully automating approval, edits, and submission of data in bulk, in an easy-to-use intuitive interface.
Time is running out to prepare and be ready for the transition to TCSI. Check today with your provider and find out if they are ready.
Find out more about Tribal’s TCSI solution or click below to speak to one of our TCSI experts today.
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