Time to get prepared for TCSI reporting

Time to get prepared for Tertiary Collection of Student Information reporting

All Australian Tertiary providers (including Higher Education, Further Education and PIR Providers) will need to transition their student data reporting to the Tertiary Collection of Student Information, under the Transforming the Collection of Student Information (TCSI) project.

Higher Education and Further Education providers will have until January 2021. PIR providers will have until their mid-year reporting period, 2021.

Why the move to TCSI reporting?

TCSI reporting is a total departure from the prior the Higher Education Provider Client Assistance Tool (HEPCAT) reporting process. It brings with it a modernised, real time reporting system. Elements are either being retired, replaced, or updated to achieve a more streamlined process.

Who will the TCSI project affect?

The Transforming the Collection of Student Information project is a collaboration between the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) and Services Australia. The objective of this project is to build a better solution that will benefit both Australian Tertiary providers and their students.

All Australian Education providers will need to upgrade or deploy a new student data reporting system to be compliant with the new TCSI process by the 1 January 2021.

The current reporting process has proven to be slow and inaccurate, hence the call for an updated reporting solution.

Tertiary Collection of Student Information reporting will benefit both Australian Tertiary Education providers and students. These benefits will include:

For all Australian Tertiary Education Providers:

• Removals of duplications during processing
• A simplified and intuitive process
• System deficiencies are now resolved
• Data availability is improved

For students:

• Submissions of DHS claims are simplified
• Payment accuracy improvements
• Payments process is easily maintained throughout their studies
  
  

How can Australian Tertiary Providers report to TCSI?

There are two paths you can take to continue your data submissions and comply with the government requirements:

1. 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.
2. Use the Provider Portal, where you will need to do things manually by uploading a .CSV file to the portal.

We recommend finding out from your SMS provider what plans they have to support TCSI, and if they will be ready in time.

The Tribal Submissions Approach

Since the Australian Government TCSI working group’s inception in 2018, our team along with our customers, have been working on a SMS system that will not only comply with the new reporting methods, but provide an intuitive and easy-flowing user experience.

The outcome, we’ve built successfully built our submissions product, Tribal Submissions. It can be adopted by all education providers, you do not have to be an existing Tribal customer to use this product. Tribal Edge 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.

Discover more about the TCSI program and our approach to building Tribal Submissions in our next blog in this series. For more information please contact us.