Student Finance & Funding (STFF)
The Student Finance and Funding (STFF) workstream focus will be on specific areas of student administration and related systems functionality that cover student finance and funding to include fees and support provided through bursaries, scholarships, loans, and other funding. It will look at the possibility of adding significant activity into the new system as well as using this opportunity to review processes.
The Student Finance and Funding workstream will operate between October 2011 and July 2015.
The workstream chair is Richard Sommers, Treasurer, Lady Margaret Hall and the Implementation lead is Catherine Whalley.
Read more about this Workstream: Student Finance and Funding (STFF) Charter 
(267kb) (oxonly)
Progress update
For a progress update on this workstream, please see the Student Systems Programme news on Sharepoint.
Objectives
This workstream is focussed in Years 1 and 2 on:
- Specification of the use of SITS:Vision, eVision and, where appropriate, other finance and funding systems to hold data and support finance/funding processes;
- Improved system-based functionality for student finance and funding processes;
- Maximising use of eVision (rather than the client/back end of the system) as the mechanism by which users access and manage student finance and funding;
- Specification of the data coding strategy for student finance and funding data in SITS:Vision;
- Functioning interfaces, if required, between SITS:Vision and other related systems. The nature of such interfaces will be specified by this workstream, with the build of any such interfaces being carried out within the System Tools (TOOL) workstream;
- Specification of student finance and funding reporting requirements, to feed into the Reporting and Data Analysis (RDAN) workstream in year 2 of the Programme (2012-13);
- Feed support and training requirements into the Support and Training (SPTN) workstream.
Membership
The full membership of the Student Finance and Funding workstream is as follows (Aug 2012):
Please note that membership may evolve, e.g. to include more academic colleagues as a complement the group members who have a high level of expertise in carrying out finance and funding processes as part of their role.
Richard Sommers (Chair), Treasurer, Lady Margaret Hall
Catherine Whalley (Implementation Lead) , Student Systems Programme
Andrea Addison (Project Manager), Student Systems Programme
- Nigel Bird, Director of Finance, Pembroke College
- Aga Borkowska*, Graduate Admissions Administrator, Department of Chemistry
- Eleanor Burnett, College Accountant, Exeter College
- Jane Gover, Senior Assistant Registrar (Education), Social Sciences Division
- Jodie Ford, Fees Manager, Academic Data Management
- Alan Glaum, Financial Accountant, Finance Division
- Lynn Hutton, Divisional Financial Controller, Humanities Division
- Lindsay Johnson, Coordinator, Medical Sciences Doctoral Training Centre
- Ben Jones, Senior Data Officer; Business Analyst for some activities, Academic Data Management
- Catherine Paxton, Senior Tutor, Merton College
- Julia Palejowska, College Accountant, Brasenose College
- Joanna Paul, Financial Support and Study Abroad Officer, Student Information and Financial Support
- Seamus Perry, Lecturer in English; Tutorial Fellow, Balliol, Faculty of English
- Keira Sullivan, Administrative Officer, MPLS Division
- Peter Ransom, Financial Controller, Department for Continuing Education
- John-Paul Roche, Graduate Finance Manager, Graduate Admissions & Funding
- Emma Sabzalieva, College Registrar, St Antony's College
- Julie Sheppard*, Graduate Admissions Secretary, Department of Computer Science
- Gary Walker, Finance Manager, Said Business School
- Lynn Wilkinson, Deputy Academic Registrar/Student Support Adviser, Pembroke College
- Katie Colliver, Vice President of Welfare and Equal Opportunities, Oxford University Students Union
Expert members (to attend selected meetings)
- Susan Brace (on maternity leave Jan – Dec 2012), Fees Clerk, Education Policy Support
Note that a * indicates that these colleagues from units in MPLS will be sharing a place on the group. One person will attend each meeting.
Milestones
The initial high level plan is as follows:
| Activity | Output/Milestone | Delivery date |
|---|---|---|
| Project charter approved; current process reviewed |
Workstream group approves project charter; then passed to the Student Systems Programme Board for approval. Review of current processes circulated and approved by workstream group |
Feb 2012 |
| Requirements defined and prioritised | Workstream group approves list of prioritised requirements | Apr 2012 |
| Progress report | Progress report provided to Student Systems Management Group and Student Systems Programme Board | Apr 2012 |
| Fee configuration processes completed |
'To-be' process approved by workstream group Set-up in SITS approved by workstream group Testing largely complete |
May 2012 |
| Student Loans Company processes completed |
'To-be' process approved by workstream group Set-up in SITS approved by workstream group Testing largely complete |
Sep 2012 |
| Progress report | Progress report provided to Student Systems Management Group and Student Systems Programme Board | Sep/Oct 2012 |
| Recording of funding details completed |
'To-be' process approved by workstream group Set-up in SITS approved by workstream group Testing largely complete |
Dec 2012 |
| Fee collection processes completed |
'To-be' process approved by workstream group Policy changes (if applicable) submitted to all relevant committees Set-up in SITS approved by workstream group Testing largely complete |
Dec 2012 |
| Progress report | Progress report provided to Student Systems Management Group and Student Systems Programme Board | Jan 2013 |
| Fee calculation processes completed |
'To-be' process approved by workstream group Set-up in SITS approved by workstream group Testing largely complete |
Mar 2013 |
| Progress report | Progress report provided to Student Systems Management Group and Student Systems Programme Board | Mar 2013 |
| Iterative and end to end testing completed | All problems in the system identified and corrected; testers are content to sign off STFF activities as working correctly | Ongoing, latest by Jun 2013 |
| Reporting needs defined | Reporting and Data Analysis workstream provided with full details of reporting needs for activities covered in 2011-13 | Ongoing, latest by Jun 2013 |
| Training needs defined | Support and Training workstream provided with full details of any necessary training for activities covered in 2011-13 | Ongoing, latest by Jun 2013 |
| Final report | Final report on 2011-13 activity provided to Student Systems Management Group and Student Systems Programme Board | Jul 2013 |
Timings
Timings for workstream activity between October 2011 and June 2013 are as follows:
| Workstream Phase | Description | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
|
Activity overview |
Creation, review and approval of an activity overview map summarising STFF processes. This map will offer a high-level view of all the activities (whether IT-related or not) in this area. Creation, review and approval of the project charter (this document). |
Oct – Dec 2011 |
| Current processes |
Using the activity overview map, current STFF processes will be broken down to give fuller information about how they are undertaken. Some processes have already been detailed, and these will be updated. |
Dec 2011 – Feb 2012 |
| Define and prioritise requirements |
This will be an iterative process balancing the requirements of the group and the possibilities SITS offers. The aim of this phase is to review current processes to determine whether there is a need/desire to change them to make better use of an improved system. At this stage, interfaces required with other systems will be identified and specified. |
Feb 2012 – Apr 2012 |
| Consulting on policy / process changes | If the workstream group recommends new/changed processes, consultation will take place with relevant committees and teams. | Feb 2012 onwards |
| Define reporting needs | Define what reports will be needed to operate and manage STFF processes. STFF will be responsible for identifying data and building reports relating to student finance and funding. | Ongoing to Jun 2013 |
| Define support and training needs | Define which processes will need accompanying explanatory documents and/or training. The aim is to make the user interface as self-explanatory as possible, so it is expected that most training needs will be for ‘super-users’ who have to configure the back-end of the system. This information will be passed to the Support and Training workstream. | Ongoing to Jun 2013 |
| Access to the system | Define which roles will be able to access which parts of SITS:Vision and eVision. | Ongoing to Jun 2013 |
| Fee collection |
This phase covers the capacity of SITS to collect tuition fees, college fees, application fee, deposit and continuation charges. The sub-phases of Phase 8 are set out immediately below. Work in these areas will underpin potential further future developments including fee collection for OUDCE and colleges (only if wished). |
see below |
| Fee collection: Interface to R12 General Ledger |
Specification: Includes the process specification of what information we want to go to Oracle Financials (R12) and the technical specification of how this is achieved. Delivery: building and testing the interface. |
Jul 2012 – Jan 2013 Jan – July 2013 |
| Procure and set up PSP | Procurement and installing/bespoking of an online payment system (a Payment Service Provider (PSP)). | Jul – Nov 2012 |
| Graduate Application fee set-up | Setting up SITS:Vision to collect graduate application fees. | Sept – Dec 2012 |
| Recognised students’ fee set-up | Setting up SITS:Vision to collect tuition fees for Recognised students. | Jan – Feb 2013 |
| PGR continuation charge set-up including policy issues |
Policy work: securing agreement on divisional policies re waivers etc. Set-up to enable collection (and waiving) of PGR continuation charges. |
Mar – Oct 2012 Jan – Mar 2013 |
| SBS fee collection set-up | Setting up SITS:Vision to collect tuition fees for some SBS PGT courses. | Jun 2012 – Mar 2013 |
| Fee configuration |
This area involves mapping all the different types of fee, noting that the fee can be affected both by student information (e.g. nationality) and course details (e.g. level of course). SITS will definitely be used for this activity, as it replaces an OSS function (the fee matrix). The process for agreeing fees is not included in the scope for this workstream to review. |
Jan – Aug 2012 |
| Student Loans Company | Oxford has a contract with the Student Loans Company (SLC), which does a lot of the undergraduate funding-related processes. For example, with tuition fee loans, SLC pays the University) based on data (e.g attendance confirmation and fee liability) provided by Oxford, and data is fed in and out of OSS. With bursaries, SLC pays the student based on data (e.g bursary rules) provided by Oxford, although bursary data is not currently fed in to OSS. SITS will have a role to play in the SLC processes, with the level of involvement for different aspects to be decided by the group. | Apr – Sept 2012 |
| Record funding details | This activity involves recording details of student's numerous sources of funding, including details of the costs and charges against which this funding is allocated. The possibility to upload supporting documents to be verified by staff will be investigated. SITS will be used for this activity. |
Oct – Dec 2012 |
| Fee calculation | This activity will involve capturing information about the student and the course to calculate what fee someone must pay. It is strongly recommended that SITS is used for this activity. This phase includes a review of the fee schedule process. Further details are shown in the four sub-phases below. | Jan – Mar 2013 |
| Fee status assessment | Specifying how fee status is assessed and stored for all applicants and students. (NB Burden falls on Fees Team rather than STFF; PAOM to build the set-up) | May – Dec 2012 |
| PGR Fee liability | Configuring SITS:Vision to store information about fee liability for PGR students, both at the level of the course and of the individual student. Includes developing a ‘fee liability counter’ field to contain information about fee liability used/remaining. | Apr– Oct 2012 |
| Fee calculation rules | Configuring SITS:Vision so that fee information is applied to individual students. | Apr– Sept 2012 |
| Fee schedule | Developing the fee schedule and related reporting/export facilities. Bespoke to Oxford so is requiring considerable consultant input/development time. | Apr – Oct 2012 |
| End to end testing | Full test of student finance and funding functionality in SITS, following testing of specific activities covered above. | Apr – Jun 2013 |