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International Office Study Abroad Procedures

FINANCIAL PROCEDURES INTERNATIONAL OFFICE STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMMES

  Study Abroad : Aims and Objectives

 

  • To ensure that the payments to schools are achieved with a greater degree of accuracy.

 

  • To ensure that all student fees are accurately paid off on FBS and that the fees are paid into the correct accounts

 

      -    To clearly define which fees are tuition and which are commission on SRS

 

  • To ensure that tuition and commission are paid into separate accounts

 

  • To ensure all tuition fee accounts are be cleared by the end of the financial year (with the exception of those students straggling two financial years)

 

  • To ensure that the income generated by the commission is separate from the IEOs baseline budget

 

  • To ensure that the commission is available for expenditure in the financial year after it is generated without being carried forward (the auditors rules for carry forward do not permit this income to be carried forward via the standard procedures).

 

 Study Abroad Programme Structure

 

  • Students may study in any of the schools across the university and many will study in more than one school in any one semester.

 

  • All income is paid directly to the IEO and then the IEO pays each school the tuition fee.

 

  • Each school receives a set fee per module per student. For example:

    One student studies 2 module in SSHL and 1 module in WBS and 1 module in CCI @ £700 per module.  Schools therefore receive the following payments:

    SSHL - £1400
    WBS - £700
    CCI - £700

  • The IEO retains a set amount per module (currently £50)

 

  • A minority of students also pay a registration fee.  The amount of the registration fee alters from partner to partner

 

  • The following are the codes used by the IEO

    Tuition Fees Codes
    US Study Abroad GM31001 9050
    European Study Abroad GM31003 9050
    Japanese Study Abroad GM31002 9050
    International Study Abroad GM31004 9050

    'Commission'                                    GM39999 9050
 
Step 1:            Study Abroad Tuition Fee Income
 
Study Abroad Income is received in two ways:
 
1.   Direct Enrolments (Independent Students) pay directly to IEO via cheque, credit card or bank transfer
 
2.  Indirect Enrolments (students from partner institutions) are invoiced each semester by Finance and payment is  received  via cheque
 
Direct Enrolment
 
  1. Payments for independent student fees are received by the IEO and then passed to the cashier and all payments are put into a suspense account (A212580 A305 for advanced cash, A499974 A599 for ESA and for all other cash received A499930 A599)

 

     2.   Payment is completed by the cashier and the receipt is passed to IEO

 

      3.  Information on the payments are then passed to the Finance department     (contact  Margaret Lennon) then who then pays the money off on fee billing and into the accounts (see above) as appropriate.

 
  Indirect Enrolment
 
1.      All partner institutions are sent invoices by the Finance department based on the information provided by the IEO (usually in the week after the start of the semester)
 
2.      Payments are received by the Finance department.
 
3.     Finance staff will then pay off the student debt on fee billing and puts the income into the codes above. 
 

Step 2:  Study Abroad Tuition Fee SRS

 

  1. IEO enter the student fees onto SRS.  The fees are separated at this point into tuition fees and Study Abroad 'commission' (shown under BTEC fees)

 

     2.   These fees will be entered on to the enrolment forms

Step 3: IEO Spreadsheet and FBS

 

  1. IEO will produce a spreadsheet (see attached) of Study Abroad income each semester in order to:
    *  provide a cross check for the IEO and Finances records
    *  to allow the IEO to monitor income
    *  to allow the IEO to cross check the payments to schools to ensure there are no underpayments/overpayments.

 

     2.     The IEO will send Finance the spreadsheet together with all of the                           enrolment forms  each semester.

 
Step 4:            Study Abroad Payment To Schools
1.     The spreadsheet (see above) will be sent to Margaret Lennon each semester, usually within 6 weeks of the start of the semester
 
2.     The schools will be paid the indicated amounts via journal.
 
3.     The tuition fee accounts must be 'zero' at the end of the financial year. 
 
4.     Students who straddle more than one financial year will be carried forward (either debt or credit)  

 

Step 5:   Study Abroad Commission

1.Each semester a set amount will be retained by the IEO per module
2.  This will be held in an account separate to the tuition fees  
 
3.  This income will be used in the financial year to support marketing developments and provide scholarships to students. 
 
4.  It is possible to carry 75% surplus in this account forward, the centre will retain any remaining income at the end of each year, the IEO will be responsible for any debt carried forward.  100% of any deficit in this account will be carried forward.
 
5. The IEO will submit a bid for a budget for this account annually as part of the budget making process.
 
Step 6:  European Study Abroad
 
1.  Unlike all other study abroad students, all student on the European Study Abroad programme (8801 and 8802) are counted as being part of the Regent campus
 
2.   Like all other study abroad students, they can study in a combination of all to the schools within the university
 
3.   All fees will be paid off on fee billing as usual by Regent Campus Finance
 
4.  All income will initially be credited to the Regent holding account A499974 A599
 
5.  This code should therefore be used on the memo to the cashier for all ESA fees.
 
6.    Fees will be paid off to the campuses each semester via journal
 
7.  The IEO will provide a spreadsheet to show how much each school should receive at the end of each semester.
 
8.    A spreadsheet showing the total income in the Regent account will be sent to Regent Campus Finance each semester
 
SOCRATES ERASMUS GRANT
 
1.    The University receives a grant from both the EU commission and UKSEC (the national agency) each year.
 
2.      Both organisations pay the grant in two stages
 
3.     The university is liable to re-pay any of the grant not spent
 
4.      The agencies can ask for the return of this income at anytime (past experience shows that this can be years later and that there is little prior warning)
 
5.     Both agencies have different financial years to the UoW and the IEO frequently receive bills from academic colleagues (who are claiming against the grant) after the close of the financial year
 
6.      All of the grant which is unspent will be transferred to a balance sheet
 
7.       Each financial year will have an individual line on the balance sheet
 
8.        The agencies can be refunded any remaining grant from the balance sheet at any time.
 
9.        Outstanding payments to schools/academics claiming against the grant can be paid from the balance sheet where appropriate
 
Questions:
 
1.     As we are in something of a transition period and it is therefore likely that some payments may slip through with the wrong code etc, what steps should I be taking to ensure that all errors are rectified?

Answer: A journal should be raised for any discrepancies via the electronic form on the finance intranet site.

2.     Where should we place the misc. income, such as fees for transcripts?

Answer:  All income of this nature should be paid into the G831002.cost centre
 
 
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