What is an Early Exit

An early exit happens when a student, already admitted to the course, chooses to discontinue their studies for one of many reasons (e.g. withdraws, transfers to complete a related course, medical reasons, etc.) and satisfies the academic eligibility requirements to graduate with a related course or award. For example, a student currently undertaking a bachelor’s degree may be eligible for an early exit to graduate with a diploma. It is common for providers to publish information regarding eligible exit pathways for each course in their official course or handbook material.

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When to Report an Early Exit

Course enrolment is to be reported to TCSI as an Early Exit, only if it meets the following conditions:

• The course enrolment in Paradigm from where the student is exiting must be assigned an enrolment status that has been mapped to one of the following Element 599 values:

  • Withdrawn [E599 = 2 ^Withdrawn]

  • Cancelled [E599 = 3 ^{Enrolment cancelled]}

  • Transferred [E599 = 6 ^{Transfer to complete a related course]}

• On an early exit packet the E599 outcome code must be set to either:

  • Completed [E599 = 1]

  • Completed but continuing a related course [E599 = 5]

• The Course Outcome Code (E599 ) on an early exit packet can only be set to “Completed but continuing a related course” [E599 = 5] when the course enrolment being exited has already been reported to TCSI with an E599 value set to one of the following options:

  • Completed [E599 = 1]

  • Approved Leave [E599 = 4]

  • Completed but continuing a related course [E599 = 5]

  • Transfer to continue a related course [E599 = 7]

• Read carefully the TCSI Reporting notes below on what values to report when creating an Early Exit packet:

TCSI Reporting notes

The course identifier (UID5 or E307) in the exit awards packet must be the course for which the award is being granted. The course admission identifier (UID15 or E313/E307/E534) is the related course admission. If the student is not continuing with the course in the related course admission record, the course outcome code (E599) on that course admission packet must be revised to indicate that the student has 'transferred to complete a related course'. If the student is continuing the related course admission, the exit award should be reported as ‘completed but continuing a related course'.

Source: https://www.tcsisupport.gov.au/reporting/hestudent/course-admission-shortcuts/exit-awards/2021

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How to configure your Course Outcome Code [E599] in Paradigm to report the TCSI [E599] equivalent codes

Example: Coding Transferred, Cancelled, Withdrawn course outcome codes in Paradigm to send 6 for Transferred, 3 for Cancelled, and 2 for Withdrawn values to TCSI.

The screenshot below shows all the three possible enrolment statuses you can choose and their TCSI values under the Course Enrolment Status field in Paradigm.

• All the status values above have been mapped to report the exact TCSI equivalent values via the System> Edit Status Items menus in Paradigm.

• In this example from the Edit Status Item screen, the Paradigm enrolment Status Item (represented by the Status Id field) has been mapped to a HEIMS Course Outcome Identifier E599 value to represent a Course Outcome. For the purposes of an Early Exit, the HEIMS Course Outcome Identifier can only hold a value of 2 (Withdrawn), 3 Enrolment cancelled for (Cancelled), and 6 Transfer to complete a related course for (Transferred) as per the instructions: https://silverband.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PKB/pages/19333226/Preparing+Paradigm+for+TCSI+reporting#Element-599---Course-outcome-code.

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Early Exit Packet Required Fields

1 Edu Program Id – select the course/program that the student is being awarded as part of their early exit from their course enrolment

2 Course Outcome Code (E599) – select the correct outcome code here. There are only 2 possible reportable outcomes for an early exit:

• Completed (E599 value 1), or

• Completed but continuing a related course (E599 value 5)

3 Course Outcome Date (E592) – select the date when the early exit was approved by the provider

4 Entity Status – set this field to Active

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Processing an Early Exit in Paradigm step-by-step guide

The following workflow will guide you on how to process an Early Exit in Paradigm. Starting from the course enrolment where the student is doing the early exit down to enrolling them on the Course where they will continue their study. This will also include the process if the student decides to discontinue their studies. Note that all related workflows mentioned below are already part of established workflows in our knowledge base. We recommend that you start following the workflow below in order from STEP 1 and just skip the part that you already completed.

STEP 1 Finalise all linked unit enrolments

• Make sure that all linked unit enrolments to the Course to be early exited have the correct completion status values (E355), and that all the required unit enrolment details have been reported and validated by TCSI.

STEP 2 Set the Course Enrolment Status – TCSI Course Outcome Code (E599)

1. Update the Course Outcome code (E599) of the course to be early exited accordingly.

2. Report an Early Exit Award in Paradigm via the Graduation screen. Note that there are only 2 possible Course Outcome codes you can report in an early exit award packet:

   • Completed

   • Completed but continuing a related course

TCSI Reporting notes

• If the student is continuing the course, report an early exit award packet with an outcome code of “Completed but continuing a related course [E599 = 5]”

• If the student is not continuing to study the course, set the Course Outcome code (E599) of the course enrolment to be early exited to “Transferred [E599 = 6 ^{Transfer to complete a related course]”} and report an early exit award packet with an outcome code of “Completed”.

STEP 3 Process the Awarded Qualification/Course Credentials

This step is necessary if you want to provide the necessary course credentials to a student with the course or award they will receive when doing an early exit from their previous course enrolment.

1. Enrol in the Awarded Qualification/Course

2. Refer to Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and Credit Exemptions workflows in applying credits to unit enrolments

3. After enrolling in the awarded qualification/course and all credited unit enrolments, update the Course Outcome code (E599) of the awarded course accordingly, e.g. “Completed”.

STEP 4 For Continuing Study Only

This step is necessary if you want the student to be enrolled on a course that is different to the current or existing course that they have early exited upon.

1. Enrol in the New Course where the student will continue to study

2. Refer to Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and Credit Exemptions workflows in applying credits to unit enrolments

3. Enrol to all other scheduled units required to finish the new course for the specific enrolment time period.

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How to REPORT an Early Exit Award in Paradigm via the Graduation screen

The instructions below also assume that the student record to be reported to TCSI for an early exit is currently loaded in the system. If the student record has not yet been loaded, refer to this article on how to load a student record in Paradigm: https://silverband.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PKB/pages/985177/Course#01.How-to-load-a-Student-Record and then load the course enrolment record where you wish to report an Early Exit.

1, 2, 3 Once the student record to be reported as an early exit is loaded, you have two ways to load the EDIT Graduation page:

• On the Student Summary page (Student > Summary), go to the COURSE ENROLMENTS section and click the ACTIONS button of the course enrolment that you want to edit, or you can

• Choose Student > Course Enrolment > Course menus on the side. This will display the course(s) enrolled by the student.

4 Click the ACTIONS button on the right of the course enrolment of the student that you want to do an early exit.

5 After clicking the ACTIONS button, click the Edit Graduation option.

6 The Edit Graduation option will open the graduation details of the student. Scroll down and go to the EARLY EXIT AWARDS section, and click the NEW EARLY EXIT AWARD button.

7 A new section below will open for you to enter the reportable information for an early exit.

8 Click the SAVE DETAILS button after filling in the required information.

After clicking the SAVE DETAILS button you should see a SUCCESS message similar to the message shown in the screenshot below.

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