The Tertiary Collection of Student Information or TCSI (pronounced 'taxi') is a joint project between the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (department) and Services Australia to transform how student information is collected.
There are two ways of reporting your VET Student Loan data to TCSI – VETtrak allows you to use either of the following:
- There is a file unload facility using TCSI reporting portal which involves extracting files from VETtrak and uploading to that portal.
- The other way is an automated way using TCSI API reporting. We strongly recommend that you use the API reporting method as it will be easier to use and it is also the TCSI preferred method of reporting. Once you choose the API method you cannot revert back to doing file uploads.
Onboarding to the TCSI system is a managed process. VETtrak has developed a two stage approach to upgrading. The TCSI project are offering onboarding sessions for all VSL providers so you need to register and attend those as part of this process. We expect that you will have initiated or be ready to initiate your TCSI onboarding process by the time you come to the VETtrak setup.
This guide will only detail the VETtrak specific actions required. For detailed information visit the Transitioning to TCSI page on the TCSI support website.
If you have completed this step, and are instead looking to start your TCSI reporting, view the following article:
Getting Started
In VETtrak 20.4 we have introduced functionality to allow you to connect your VETtrak instance to the PRODA environment. This will allow you to add your PRODA credentials and test the connection is working. It is important that you complete this step in 20.4 BEFORE upgrading to VETtrak 21.1.
Setting up a PRODA device
In the Configuration Manager, edit the organisation.
On page 1 of the Organisation wizard, make sure that the ABN number has been entered and is correct.
On page 2 of the Organisation Wizard, in the VET Student Loans section, set the Provider Code, and then click the Activate new B2B device button.
The Activate PRODA device wizette will open.
Clicking Finish will register the device, popup a confirmation message and populate details in the Organisation Wizard.
The confirmation message allows setting the default status of the ‘auto send to TCSI’ checkboxes.
We suggest that this you turn this setting off in the initial stages until your first upload has been achieved, as its likely that you will have transitional issues to deal with migrating to the TCSI system and auto reporting could interfere until these issues are resolved.
Now if all goes well you should see information on the screen similar to that highlighted below. If not check in PRODA that your device is still active
Now, test the PRODA connection.
If successful, the following message should result.
That is all that is required for now.
Errors
If you receive this error when selecting Test PRODA Connection in the Organisation wizard
You can resolve that by going into Preferences->VSL and change PRODA to 'proda' (lowercase) in the PRODA Authentication URL:
Go back to the organisation page in Configuration and retest the PRODA connection.
Should you get further errors please enable the logging in configuration, retest the connection to generate the error, then come back to preferences to view the log where you can copy the log contents and send to VETtrak for further analysis.
At this stage what we have found is that further errors are typically as a result of a configuration issue within your PRODA account.
TCSI Onboarding
You are now able to initiate your TCSI onboarding process through the TCSI support team and you will continue to report your data to HEPCAT until you are ready to enter TCSI "go-live" mode.
Next you will need to have checked your migrated data in TCSI and fixed any errors.
To check your migrated data you need to either log into the TCSI Analytics portal to view and export that data. Note that the TCSI Analytics is currently unavailable so until it is you will need to request a Data Extract from the TCSI team who will provide those reports to you.
You will need to fix any errors and possibly update the Department records with another HEPCAT upload from VETtrak 20.4 before you are ready to give the consent to go-live.
Once all errors have been fixed and you have completed a final HEPCAT upload, the next step is to provide CEO confirmation to the Department that the data is correct and that you wish to go-live. At the that time you should update VETtrak to the 21.1 version and not do any further data entry in VETtrak 20.4 until that process has been completed.
Once go-live request has been made to TCSI, they (TCSI) will then switch off the HEPCAT system for your organisation. As part of that process there will be a final migration of data from HEPCAT to TCSI and you will be ready to start live reporting via TCSI. That process takes about 48 hours.
Preparing for your first TCSI upload
This has now been made into its own article, see Preparing for your first TCSI Report
Reports
There is a custom report that we have had developed to match the TCSI Data Extracts, hopefully these might make your job of comparing a little easier.