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Edition: 17 February 2003
E.1 SCOPE OF THE STUDENT FILE
The Student File is
to contain records for all students in the institution
for whom there is an effective
registration in a qualification which meets all the following criteria:
(a) The
effective registration in the qualification was made in the period 1 January of
the Collection Year through 31
December of the Collection Year.
(b) The
qualification is one of the types listed in the element specifications for Element 005 (Qualification type).
(c) The
qualification either:
i) has been
approved by the Minister, or
ii) is not an approved qualification but
comprises a course or courses which are
normally undertaken by students as components of an approved qualification.
(d) At
some time during the period 1 January 1999 through 31 December of the
Collection Year, the student was either:
i) effectively
registered in at least one course which is a component of the qualification,
or
ii) was not effectively registered in such a course, but is
being reported as having completed
the requirements of the qualification in the collection year through
recognition of work undertaken for another qualification or work undertaken
outside the reporting institution.
Where there was an effective registration in
a qualification of the type defined above and it was terminated for any reason
by either the student or the institution (e.g. completion of the qualification; discontinuation by
the institution) the record for the registration is still to be included in the
file.
1.2 Number of records for each student
The number of records
in the Student File will depend on the number of students for whom qualifications are being reported and the
number of qualifications undertaken by each student.
If a student has had an effective registration in only one
qualification there will be only one record in the Student File for that
student.
If a student has had effective registrations
for more than one qualification, there will be more than one record for that
student in the Student File. Those
records would have the same value for Element
007 (Student number) but will differ in terms of the values reported for Element 001 (Qualification code).
However, there will be only one record in the
Student File with a particular value for Element 007 (Student number)
concatenated with Element 001 (Qualification code).
1.3 Elements to be reported in the Student
File
The elements for
which data are to be reported in records in the Student File are listed in the
section describing the structure of the
flat ASCII files to be prepared by institutions.
For Submission 1 of the Student File,
substantive data are not required for Element
025 (Qualifications requirements status).
Any values reported for that element in the first submission file will
be ignored by the Department and not loaded to the National database. However, in the second and (if submitted) the
third submission of the Student File, substantive values (i.e. values depicting
the real status for each qualification) must be reported for Element 025
(Qualifications requirements status).
Data in the Student
File will be linked in the National database to data in records in the Course Registrations File through Element 007 (Student number) concatenated with Element 001 (Qualification code). There will be a "one to
many" relationship between records in the Student File and records in the
Course Registrations File. This means
that there will be only one record in the Student File having a particular
value for Element 007 (Student number) concatenated with Element 001
(Qualification code), but there can be (and usually will be) a number of
records in the Course Registrations File having that value for Element 007
(Student number) concatenated with Element 001 (Qualification code). There will be more than one such record in
the Course Registrations File where a student is undertaking more than one
course in respect of a qualification (as will usually be the case).
The data in records in the Student File will
also be linked in the National database to data in records in the Qualification File through Element 001 (Qualification code). There will be a "one to
many" relationship between records in the Qualification File and records
in the Student File. This means that
there will be only one record in the Qualification File having a particular
value for Element 001 (Qualification code) but
there can be (and usually will be) a number of records in the Student
File having that value for Element 001 (Qualification code). There will be more than one such record in
the Student File where a qualification is being undertaken by more than one
student (as will usually be the case).
1.5 Submissions of the Student File
There will be at
least two, and possibly three submissions of the
Student File:
|
SUB-MISSION NUMBER |
CONTENTS |
CURRENCY OF DATA TO BE REPORTED |
SUBMISSION DATE FOR COLLECTION YEAR |
|
1
(mandatory submission) |
Substantive
data for all elements except Element 025
(Qualifications requirements status) |
Effective qualification registrations
(as defined in the Glossary) that were made between
1 January in the Collection Year (as defined in the Glossary) and 15
September in the Collection Year. |
A
letter will be sent out to Institutions with the submission dates |
|
2
(mandatory submission) |
Substantive
data for all elements including Element 025 (Qualifications
requirements status) |
Effective
qualification registrations that were made between 1 January in the
Collection Year and 31 December in the Collection Year, and with Submission 1
data corrected if required (as explained below). |
A
letter will be sent out to Institutions with the submission dates |
|
Data
for Element 025 (Qualifications requirements status) as at 31 March in the year
after the Collection Year. |
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|
3
(mandatory submission) Final audited data |
Substantive
data for all elements including Element 025 (Qualifications
requirements status) |
Effective
qualification registrations: Same
scope as for Submission 2, but with Submission 2 data corrected if required
(as explained below). |
A
letter will be sent out to Institutions with the submission dates |
|
Data
for Element 025 (Qualifications requirements status) as at 15 July in the
year after the Collection Year. |
The first submission file will report
substantive data for all elements in the Student File except Element 025 (Qualifications requirements
status).
The second submission file will be a copy of
the records in the first submission file with the following changes:
(a) Inclusion
of additional records which were inadvertently omitted from the first
submission file.
(b) Deletion
of any records which should not have been included in the first submission
file.
(c) Updating
of any incorrect information for elements reported in the first submission file
(e.g. mis-coding of date of birth).
(d) Inclusion
of any effective qualification registrations that have been made in the period
16 September to 31 December of the Collection
Year.
(e) Provision
of substantive data for Element 025
(Qualifications requirements status) as determined up to 31 March in the year
after the Collection Year.
The third submission file is optional and
will only need to be provided if there are significant numbers of students who
will be completing the requirements
of a qualification later than 31 March in the year after the Collection Year (e.g. UNISA). This file will be a copy of the records in
the second submission file, with the following changes:
(a) Inclusion
of additional records which were inadvertently omitted from the second
submission file.
(b) Deletion
of any records which should not have been included in the second submission
file.
(c) Updating
of any incorrect information for elements reported in the second submission
file (e.g. mis-coding of date of birth).
(d) Provision
of substantive data for Element 025
(Qualifications requirements status) as determined up to 30 June in the year
after the Collection Year.