Student Status Audits

The University is required to confirm the attendance for all funded students with standard start dates to the Student Loans Company (SLC) at the beginning of October. This includes Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Postgraduate Research students.

This triggers the release of the first instalment of tuition fee loan payment from SLC to the University. Registry are responsible for ensuring that  an accurate data return is submitted to the SLC, confirming students who:

• are normally registered for the current session

• have arrived and started attending their studies

To facilitate this process, Colleges are required to submit a data return to Taught Student Administration (TSA) listing the exceptions to the above, namely:

• new students who have not arrived to take up their place at the University

• continuing students who are not returning to study as they are permanently withdrawing from their programme or taking a leave of absence

Overview document

• Liability Points Overview (DOCX - 150Kb)

The liability points overview document includes information on deadlines for academic Schools and Departments to return information to TSA for liability points 1, 2 and 3. Implications for students in terms of their fee liability, and a summary of the responsibilities of College staff in relation to the liability points data returns are also included. 

Resources for College Administrative Staff submitting a liability point data return:

To assist with your data return, consult:

• Operational Instructions for Administrators (PDF - 315Kb)

Included in this guide is the checklist for new and returning students. Please note that the checklist is designed to be used as a reference guide for determining students that have not arrived or are not engaging with induction activity / their programme of study. You are not required to complete and return the checklist.

• Liability Point 1: presentation (PPT - 958Kb)

• Liability Point Return spreadsheet (XLSX - 14KB)

• Class Register by Department & Joint Honours - BOXI Report

This is an optional BOXI report that can be generated to create induction registers for classes, and to copy and paste the data into your return template. This is located by searching for the following folder:  Banner Documents/BIRMS Students/Student Records General

Undergraduate Students enrolled on programmes with Non-Standard Liability Points:

• List of programmes with non-standard liability point(s) (XLSX - 32Kb)

The list includes all programmes (full-time and part-time) that do not follow the standard liability points outlined in the overview document.

Students studying on Part-time Undergraduate Programmes

College administrators are required to return the details of new and returning students who have not arrived, or are not engaging with their programme of study to their TSA named contact as soon as possible. Do not include these students on your liability point 1 template return; instead, please contact your named TSA administrator directly.

As the fee loan amount will be calculated for part-time students based on their credit load, it is vital that students are registered for the correct modules at the start of the academic year, and that their record is accurate by 4 October.

Further information is available in the Undergraduate Students Overview (PDF - 125Kb).

Postgraduate Students

Please note that the liability point deadlines for staff outlined in the liability points overview document do not apply to PGT students.  

College administrators are required to return the details of new and returning PGT students who have not arrived, or are not engaging with their programme of study to their TSA named contact as soon as possible.

Information for academic Schools and Departments regarding Postgraduate students:

• Postgraduate Loans Overview (PDF - 173Kb)

Postgraduate Research Students

Please note that the liability point deadlines for staff outlined in the liability points overview document do not apply to PGR students.  

• Postgraduate Doctoral Loans Overview (PDF - 148Kb)

A census of registered students on each programme of study is taken on 1st November.

The census data is used:

• As the base to undertake initial forecasts of the OfS grant and any financial holdback for the new academic year.

• To measure student intakes against College/School targets.

• As the base from which we will forecast the student population and tuition fee forecast as required by OfS in December.

• For the statistical profile and other management information purposes.

Only those students who are normally registered as of 1st November are included in the census. It is therefore essential that all students engaging on their programme have ‘Normally Registered’ status on the Banner student record system by 1st November.

How students complete registration

Students must register themselves online for each academic year of their programme.

All new students are sent emails providing their ADF username/password and asking them to complete registration. Returning students are sent an email to inform them when https://registration.bham.ac.uk is open to complete Online Registration. Returning students who do not know their ADF username/password or experience problems while registering can contact the Registration Helpline +44 (0)121 414 9009.

Unless arranged otherwise, Registry are not able to register students on their behalf, as the registration process is a binding legal contract between the individual student and the University.

How to check which students have not completed registration

Lists of students and their registration status as recorded on the Banner student record system can be acquired through BOXI.

Run the appropriate report to Identify unregistered students in via BOXI.

• Students who are registered have the status ‘NR – Normally Registered’

• Students that have yet to complete their registration will be recorded as ‘AS – Provisional Registered’ (new students) or ‘ER – Expected to Re-register’ (returning students)

If you do not have access to BOXI this can be requested through the IT Services Helpdesk

Encouraging students to complete registration

Students who have not completed registration are automatically sent regular reminders to encourage them to do so.

Schools are asked to encourage students who are in attendance but not registered to complete this process as soon as possible. In previous years we have found that direct contact from Schools in addition to the reminders from Registry has been effective in persuading students to complete their registration.

Taught Students

From Week 2, Registry will contact taught students who remain unregistered advising them that failure to register via https://registration.bham.ac.uk may lead to their records being closed down. Support and advice will be provided if students report that they are unable to complete the registration process. Students will be further contacted before records are to be closed down.  

The schedule of communications with students is included in the Student Status Schedule 2023/24 at the top of this page.

The students who remain unregistered in your School can be identified by the BOXI report as mentioned above. If you require assistance in interpreting or generating the report, please contact your usual Student Administration contact.

Postgraduate Research Students (PGRs)

To enable a postgraduate researcher to register online, a progress decision must first be processed in BIRMS. Please ensure that all outstanding progress decisions are actioned in BIRMS to enable PGRs who should be normally registered to register online by 1st November and be incorporated into the census.

PGRs who are in attendance and who have not completed online registration should be encouraged to do so. In previous years we have found that direct contact from Schools has been effective in getting PGRs to complete their registration.

PGRs who have not registered can be identified by the BOXI report referred to  above. If you require assistance in interpreting or generating the report please contact your usual Student Administration contact.

Students who will not be taking up their place / are withdrawing from their programme

Please inform your Student Administration contact of any student who will not be taking up their place on the programme or will not be returning to continue with their studies.

Please also inform Research Student Administration of any PGRs who have agreed a later start date. This is vitally important for all Student Route (formally Tier 4) PGRs so that the UKVI (Home Office UK Visas and Immigration service) can be informed of the revised start date.

Queries

If you have any further queries regarding the census please contact:

• Taught students:

  Marcelle Cobbold, Head of Taught Student Administration

  m.y.cobbold@bham.ac.uk  

• PGRs:
  Matt Phillips, Deputy Head of Research Student Administration

  m.phillips@bham.ac.uk 

Student Administration will send a report of students due to return from a period of leave of absence to each School/Department in September and December 2023, to assist Schools in their work to ensure that students have a smooth transition back to their studies.

Student Administration will send a report of students whose leave of absence has expired to each School/Department in October 2023 and January 2024 to assist Schools in their work to signpost students who may need a further leave of absence to the relevant welfare support services.

Once Schools have attempted to make contact with students, confirmation of no response/withdrawal can be sent to TSA for record updates and confirmation of withdrawal emails will be sent. It will be assumed that they have voluntarily withdrawn from their programme in accordance with Section 10: Failure to Return from a Leave of Absence Code of Practice on the Leave of Absence Procedure.