eCAF Integration
- Sanket Shrestha
Meshed Platform eCAF Integration Overview
The Meshed Platform can be integrated with the Electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (eCAF) System. An eCAF is required to be submitted by eligible students who wish to use HECS-HELP or FEE-HELP to pay their tuition fees. The eCAF system facilitates access to HELP loans, removing the requirement for paper CAFs or maintenance of in-house eCAFs. The eCAF System does not provide eligibility verification. Confirming a student's eligibility remains the responsibility of the Provider. The interchange of data between the Meshed Platform and eCAF System eliminates the need to double handle data and minimises the possibility of data inconsistency.
The integration of eCAF with the Meshed Platform allows for:
Submission of an Electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (eCAF) from the Meshed Platform.
Removal of an Electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (eCAF) from the Meshed Platform.
Once the eCAF is sent from the Meshed system and submitted by the student, the feature also allows for:
Retrieval of TFN from the student submitted eCAF.
Presetting Student Status Codes in the Meshed system.
The Meshed Platform integration uses the application programming interface ("API") for the eCAF System to interchange data between two systems.
Meshed Platform eCAF Integration Configuration
To enable the integration in the Meshed Platform, the following information needs to be configured:
In the Meshed Platform navigate to Admin > Configuration and Setup.
Select Provider Info
Enter the required values in the eCAF Information section
Click Update
Field | Description |
Endpoint URL | The training environment and production environment are as below: • Training - https://ecafapitraining.education.gov.au • Production - https://ecafapi.education.gov.au |
User Name | eCAF user access credential Logon ID (Provided by the department)
|
Password | eCAF user access credential Password (Provided by the department)
|
NOTE: All eCAF users are required to have individual access credentials. If access has not been granted to the eCAF system to the organisation, please contact the department (HigherEd Providers) at heenquiries@education.gov.au or VETStudentLoans@dewr.gov.au (VET Student Loans Providers) to receive the eCAF API access details.
eCAF Enrolment Information
The eCAF Enrolment Information for Eligible Students is mapped as below in the Meshed system;
Field | Mapping | Example | Notes |
Student ID | Student ID | ACME20242532 |
|
Student Name | Student Name | eCAF Test1 |
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Citizenship Status | TCSI Student Information>> Citizenship Code | 8 |
|
Date Of Birth | Date Of Birth | 19/04/2000 |
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Provider Trading Name | Provider Name | Higher Education Training Institute |
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Campus Name | Campus | Sydney |
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CHESSN | TCSI Student Information>> CHESSN | (Valid CHESSN) |
|
USI | USI | (Valid USI) |
|
TFN | TCSI Student Information>> TFN | (TFN as per ATO algorithm) |
|
Course Of Study Code | National Code | 1111 |
|
Student Course Status | Student Course Status | Enrolled |
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FEE-HELP | Course FEE-HELP type | FEE-HELP |
|
Est Course Cost | Tuition charged fee | 20,000.00 |
|
Est Duration Months | Course Duration | 26 |
|
Enrolment Date | Application Submitted | 19/04/2024 |
|
Census Date | Census Date | 29/09/2024 | Census date will be the first subject enrolment census date if subject enrolment exists. Else, the semester census date is reported as the census date to eCAF |
Academic Suitability | TCSI Student Course Information>> Academic Suitability | AqfCertificate | If no Academic suitability is recorded, a default value of Year12Certificate is sent to eCAF |
Submission of an eCAF from the Meshed Platform
To submit an eCAF using the Meshed Platform, the following steps are required:
In the Meshed Platform navigate to the Home Page and click the eCAF Icon.
The eCAF page will open up with the following filters and dropdowns. The descriptions and purpose of each filter, icons and dropdowns are listed below:
Filter | Description |
FEE-HELP | This filter is used to list out students based on the course FEE-HELP type i.e., FEE-HELP or HECS-HELP. The records can also be listed by selecting the dropdown value as TCSI.
|
Search By and Search Value | The Search By filter allows to search for a particular record based on Student ID, First Name, Last Name, eCAF ID, or Course ID.
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Course Start Date From and Course Start Date To | These filters are used to bring records based on the course start dates.
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eCAF Filter | The list can be further filtered based on if the enrolment has an eCAF. The filter options are Has eCAF, No eCAF, or All.
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eCAF (API) Status Call | This parameter appears when the eCAF Filter is set to Has eCAF. By ticking this checkbox, the Meshed system communicates with the eCAF system to bring the current status of the student enrolments with eCAFs. |
TFN Provided | This parameter appears when the eCAF Filter is set to Has eCAF. This can be used to filter out students based on TFN provided or Not Provided. |
Select Student Course Status | This multi-select dropdown allows to select course statuses to bring the student records. The users are able to include or exclude certain course statuses. |
This icon appears next to a new enrolment record which is not pushed to eCAF via the API yet. By pressing this button, the enrolment can be sent to eCAF.
| |
This button is used to send the selected list of student enrolments from the grid in bulk to eCAF. | |
This button is used to delete an existing eCAF for the student enrolment. | |
| This button appears next to enrolments that have an eCAF ID but not a TFN recorded in the Meshed system. By pressing this button, the TFN can be retrieved from the eCAF record to our system, if existing. |
| The Import All button is used to import all Missing TFNs for the students with a missing TFN from eCAF records in bulk. |
This icon appears on the top-right corner of the page when eCAF (API) Status Call is checked and at least one of the eCAF API status in the grid is Student Submitted. The button allows to Preset the Student Status codes in the Meshed system for the students who have submitted an eCAF form. FEE-HELP- Preset to 230 HECS-HELP- Preset to 201 VSL- Preset to 401 | |
This icon allows to export the data listed in the grid in an Excel format. |
Academic Suitability
The Academic Suitability values for HELP eligible students must be provided when creating an eCAF.
A student is not entitled to Commonwealth assistance for a unit of study if they have not been assessed as academically suited for their study as per the guidelines from the department. Before enrolling a student in a unit of study, a provider must assess the student as academically suited to undertake the unit concerned.
To record the data for Academic Suitability for a student, the user can navigate to Student>> TCSI >>Student Course Information>>eCAF.
On this page, the information related to the student’s eCAF enrolment is available which comes from different pages in the system.
The value for Academic Suitability can be selected from a dropdown as below:
Note- If no academic suitability for a student is recorded, a default value of Year12Certificate will be used.
Once the academic suitability is selected from the dropdown list, the changes can be saved to send the values to eCAF.
Sending Enrolment to eCAF
The student enrolment data is now ready to be pushed to eCAF. To send the enrolment to eCAF, go to the eCAF icon on the homepage or use the eCAF Management button available in the UI.
The eCAF enrolment management page also shows the Academic Suitability as recorded from the other page.
When sending enrolment data to eCAF, the data is pushed successfully and an eCAF ID is returned.
If there are any errors, a relevant response is returned with the error details.
The enrolment gets listed in the eCAF portal where the student can log in and complete the eCAF. The email is triggered to the student to log in (using the details and instructions provided in the email) and submit the eCAF.
The academic suitability value for the student is sent as per what was recorded in the system:
The eCAF ID is also updated back in the eCAF page to indicate that an eCAF is created for the student.
As an eCAF exists for the student now, the value for Academic Suitability can no longer be updated and the field is disabled.
Retrieving eCAF status in Meshed
Once an eCAF enrolment is pushed from the Meshed system, the eCAF status can be retrieved from the eCAF portal using the eCAF (API) Status Call (Auto-fetch data when search) button.
This button allows to import the eCAF (API) Status based on the status of eCAF in the eCAF portal.
Auto-fetch data when search- Ticking this checkbox indicates our system to communicate with the eCAF WEB API request to pull each student record's current status, according to your search criteria. Request can be timed out depending on how many data requests are made and how eCAF API will respond.
Different eCAF (API) statuses:
When there is no information attached with the eCAF or the eCAF is not filled out, the API call will return the status “No Information in eCAF”.
When the student fills out the eCAF form, the API call will return the status “Student Submitted”.
Retrieving TFN in Meshed from eCAF
If the student has submitted an eCAF in the eCAF portal, the TFN information can be imported back if not already existing in the Meshed system.
The user can click on Get TFN button to import TFN for a record or Import All button to get the TFN details for all records.
The TFN also gets updated in the Student TCSI Information section as shown below:
Preset Student Status Codes
Once the student eCAF has been submitted and the status retrieved by the API is Student Submitted, a new button Preset Status Code can be seen on the page. This icon allows to set the student status code (E490) for TCSI reporting in the system.
The mapping logic is as below:
FEE-HELP/TCSI: Set to 230
HECS: Set to 201
VSL: Set to 401
If there is any existing student status code data for the student for the student status code, it shows the existing record which can be updated if required.
The grid action also allows the user to do the following:
Update to all shown in the list- This can be used to update data for new as well as existing student enrolments where the status codes may or may not exist.
Only do with fresh students to insert new This is used to update the student status code for students where there is no existing student status code data.
Only update existing student record- This is used to update student status code from an existing value to a new value.
The Update student all Subject Status Code button allows to update the Student Status Code for existing subject enrolments for the student under subject FEE-HELP information.
The existing subject enrolment for the student exists with 233:
When the student status code is now Preset as 230 it will also be updated for existing subject enrolment.
Deleting an eCAF
An eCAF can also be deleted via the Meshed system using the API service if it has not been submitted by the student or the status of the eCAF is not Student Submitted.
If the eCAF form is submitted by the student or the status of the eCAF is Student Submitted, the eCAF can’t be deleted: