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Educational Institutions/MSD (StudyLink) Loans and Allowances Programme
Annual Report
Purpose: To verify student enrolment information to confirm entitlement to allowances and loans.
Year commenced: 1998 (allowances); 1999 (loans)
Features: Online transfers are used for the bulk of the data. Requests are faxed to institutions which have not developed systems to handle batches of data appropriately.
MSD StudyLink's disclosure to educational institutions: When requesting verification of student course enrolments, MSD StudyLink provides the appropriate educational institution the student's full name, date of birth, MSD client number and student ID number.
Educational institutions' disclosure to MSD StudyLink: The educational institutions return to MSD StudyLink the student's enrolled name, date of birth, MSD client number, student ID number and study details.
2010/11 activity:
| Educational institutions involved in the matching programme | 606 |
| Records sent for matching | 949,710 |
| Individual applicants involved in matching | 231,062 |
| Notices of adverse action sent out (individuals may receive more than one) | 47,136 |
| Percentage of applicants issued a notice of adverse action | 20% |
| Challenges | 140 |
| Successful challenges | 62 |
| Decisions to decline loan/allowance | 26,316 |
The percentage figure overstates the number of applicants who receive notices of adverse action because some applicants received more than one notice.
Commentary: The decrease in educational institutions involved in this programme is primarily due to a decline in the number of secondary schools involved.
Compliance: Compliant.
Technical information
| Information matching provisions | Education Act 1989 s.226A - institutions s.238B - private training establishments |
| Year authorised/commenced | 1998/1998 (Allowances) 1999 (Loans) |
| Programme type | Confirming eligibility Updating data |
| Unique identifiers | MSD customer number Student identification numbers |
| On-line transfers | Yes |
System description
The participants - MSD (StudyLink), tertiary education institutions, and secondary schools (in respect of students aged 18 or older) - know this process as the Verification of Study (VoS). The requests for VoS records generated by MSD are faxed, or batched and placed on a stand-alone server at MSD. The Privacy Commissioner has granted an approval for the use of on-line transfers that will continue to 30 June 2010. Institutions with the appropriate systems draw down the batches of requests they are required to verify using an online computer connection. Match results are sent back to MSD in the same way. This online channel is used by the larger education providers to process the majority of VoS requests.
MSD compares the returned data with its student database. The results of this process inform decisions on granting an allowance or loan. A student is not eligible if he or she is:
• not enrolled in an approved programme of study or
• not studying full-time (for loans and allowances) or part-time full-year (for loans) or part-time part-year with 0.3 or more EFTS[1] (for loans).
When three VoS attempts have proved unsuccessful, the applicant is given notice, as required by s.103 of the Privacy Act, that as a result of the match the applicant appears not to be eligible and is given the opportunity to show why their application should not be declined.
Historical activity
| 2005/06 | 2006/07 | 2007/08 | 2008/09 | 2009/10 | |
| Individual applications involved | 181,529 | 192,680 | 193,726 | 213,665 | 234,222 |
| Total VoS requests made | 737,908 | 766,375 | 751,647 | 829,172 | 957,562 |
| Institutions involved | 581 | 567 | 563 | 582 | 657 |
| s.103 notices sent out (loans and allowances) | 26,368 | 27,486 | 32,907 | 41,211 | 47,450 |
| s.103 notices per 100 applicants[2] | 15 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 20 |
| Decisions to decline loan/allowance | 15,693 | 16,645 | 16,472 | 21,847 | 25,060 |
| Challenges[3] | 54 | 56 | 96 | 156 | 202 |
| Successful challenges | 25 | 19 | 58 | 69 | 96 |
[1] Access to the fees component of the student loan scheme was extended to part-time part-year students from 1 January 2004. EFTS = Equivalent full-time student.
[2] Applicants may receive more than one s103 notice.
[3] Includes applications for reviews that were subsequently withdrawn, or that are still under consideration at time of reporting.