Purpose

To create the Past Course Completions file (PS) for submission to DIISRTE.

SubSystem

Statistics

This job is run to create an extract file (PS) containing details about Award Courses completed by students in the Submission Year. (Note: The Submission Year is defined in STAF1350 or is the current year.)

This job is normally run at the start of a year for the previous year. (For more information, see the Timing Matrix on the HEIMS website).

It also produces a snaphot of the data being reported, to allow for comparison and subsequent Revisions processing. i.e. records are generated in the GOVT_PST_CRS_CMP_SNAPSHOT table (see details below).
When the 'Include Revisied Records From' and 'To' parameters are used in STAJ0070, they specify the Start and End Year to be considered when performing Revisions processing. (For a general idea of how Revisions works see Revisions Processing.)

This function includes students who have completed a course for which ALL units of study were completed either solely through Open Universities Australia (OUA) or through OUA and another university. For these students, the following values must be set in the Past Course Completions (PS) file:

• Element 329 (Mode of attendance code) is set to 4.
• Element 385 (Total exemption granted) is set to 99.

Special Notes:

• The Attendance Type in the Past Course Completions file needs to be derived from the previously reported government values rather than being taken from the nominated Attendance Type held against the Student Course Attempt.
• If the Commencement Date of a course is after 31/12/2007, the value of Element 385 is 00. If the Commencement Date is before 01/01/ 2008 and there is Advanced Standing granted for the Course Attempt, then this Advanced Standing is used to determine the percentage of the course's requirements for which exemption was granted (Element 385).
• The following codes for DIISRTE Element 487 Scholarship Type are reported as '00':
  • 03 - Commonwealth Education Costs Scholarships (CECS)
  • 04 - Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarships (CAS)
  • 05 - Both Commonwealth Educations Costs Scholarships (CECS) and Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarships (CAS)

For insights into Statistics, see Understanding HE Statistics.

This job is accessed via the main menu.

The Create Past Course Completions File block contains:

Parameters Tab

Create New Submission:

• Submission Year
• System Submission Type
• Submission Number
• Start Date - (display-only)
• End Date - (display-only)

Include Revisions:

• Include Revision Records From
• Include Revision Records To

Rules/Notes:

Submission Year:
The Submission Year must have either a Submission 1 or 2 defined in STAF1350, or it must be the current year.
It must also be defined in the GOVT_SNAPSHOT_CTL table (ee STAF1350).

To Create a Past Course Completions File:

The job creates a Snapshot and Extract file, containing details about Award Courses completed by students in the Submission Year.

The majority of this data is sourced from the main database tables (i.e. not from the Enrolment or Government Submission Snapshots). The exception is the derived Attendance Mode which is sourced from the Government Submission.

The Specialisation Code in each record is derived in the following way:

• For each student/course combination, up to three specialisations can be reported.
• If a Student Course Attempt has either Candidature Fields of Education or Unit Set Fields of Education recorded, these are used. If the Student Course Attempt has neither recorded, the major field of education for the Course Version is used.

Records are selected where a Student Course Attempt's 'Course Requirements Complete' check box (PRGF4170) is set to 'yes' and the Course Type of the course has its Award Course check box set to 'yes' (in CRSF1110).

The process then determines whether or not a Course Attempt record is reportable using the logic that determines if records are Government Reportable in the Enrolment Statistics Snapshot process.

These records are stored in the institution-specific PS file (with which Statistics Specialists will be familiar), in a directory specified by the 'KEEP' environment variable. This is a secure directory to which users do not have access.
The process 'Copy Extract Files From Secure Area' (STAJ0120) allows the PS file to be copied from the 'KEEP' directory to an accessible directory, specified by the 'USER' environment variable (refer to your System Administrator).

Rules/Notes:

For this job to run, the System Submission Type, defining Past Course Completion, must be entered. The System Submission Type is defined in STAF1350, with start and end dates. The logic that this job uses to determine which students to report, is based on these start and end date values. When the job is run, it reports all records where a course was completed between those dates (inclusive of both start and end dates). The effect of this is that the data checked is based on the Submission year selected.

The file also reports certain characteristics of those students (such as, Scholarship Type Code, Location Code of Permanent Home Residence, CHESSN, Course of Study Commencement Date, etc). The file is created in accordance with the DIISRTE file specification.

The snapshot is refreshed each time the snapshot is run, i.e. All the records in the snapshot table relating to the snapshot being run will be deleted and replaced with a new set of records.

Output is in the DIISRTE file specification format.

The name of the Past Course Completions file is: HHHHXXYYYY.PNNNNN
where:

• HHHH = Higher Education Provider Code - (Institution code)
• XX = File Abbreviation Code - (File type code is not case sensitive), i.e. PS
• YYYY = Reporting Year
• P = Reporting Period - (1 or 2)
• NNNNN = Submission Number - (00001 – 99999)

For example, 1234PS2011.100001

Government Reporting

Element 578

Completion Percentage shows the percentage of the course completed in a joint degree attributed to the reporting institution.

Completion Percentage is derived from data entered in ENRF4310 . If no data is entered, the value defaults to 100%.