Hi everyone

We have been recommended by an internal auditor to investigate  withholding certificates and possibly results for debtors at the College, i.e. students who have not paid their fees by a certain time in the year.  We are looking at the exams and finance logistics of doing this and would be really interested in finding out from other colleges/centres who have managed to do this and how does it work.  I would be grateful if you could complete this simple questionnaire so we can provide SLT with basic information.

Many thanks in anticipation of your co-operation

Questionnaire

·       Do you withhold certificates for students who have not paid all their fees? YES

·       Do you withhold results for students who have not paid all their fees? YES, but only for vocational – mainly GOLA results

·       If yes to either question above do you inform the students upfront of this and if so how do you do this? Only just before they sit a re-sit exam if they are even permitted to do this – depends on situation

·       What criteria do you use for identifying students when you withhold their results or certificates e.g. a % of their total fees unpaid or students who owe more than £500 etc.

·       How administrative hungry is the process for Finance staff?

·       How administrative hungry is the process for Exams staff? NOT

·       Do you normally post out the majority of certificates to students? YES

·       Do you normally hold on to the certificates for collection by students? NO

·       How many students or enrolments do you have at the College/Centre in an average year? 6,000 +

·       Any other information which would be useful for us to know about how you manage the process? We don’t have a strict process in place, it is very much informal and a judgement is called in each case.  We sometimes get emails from Finance to withhold certificates if students are in debt and there is an ongoing issue – for this, we just make a note on our Exam/Certificate level of MIS so we are alerted to it if a certificate comes in for this learner, but most of the time Finance tell us after the certificate has gone out!  It’s a bit tricky as the actual certificate is the property of the candidate, and they are able to request replacements direct with the AB anyway

Thanks

Sally

Mrs Sally Graham

Stockport College

Exams/Awards Manager

Direct Dial No: 0161 958 3312

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