UBC Student Financial Support Project - University of British Columbia

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In the last academic year, the UBC Board of Governors began a conversation around the application of Policy 72 in practice. The BoG asked whether financial aid was being allocated to the students in the most need of financial resources. The response to this question is that it cannot be determined for certain, because only students receiving government student loans are eligible to receive bursary funds. While students on student loans have financial need, there may be many other students who are not participating in the government student loan program who also have similar if not greater unmet financial need. In addition to the allocation of financial support, there was also an audit of the student financial support process that identified risks in the management of data maintained for awards. This pointed towards a need for the improvement of data management systems. The Student Financial Support Project stemmed from these discussions between the Board of Governors and Enrolment Services regarding allocations of both merit based and needs based financial aid to UBC students. The result of these conversations pointed towards a need to ensure that the financial aid process was opened up to all students who demonstrated financial need. Scope of Project The systems and process improvement will cover university and external awards for graduate and undergraduate students, domestic and international. This will include merit based scholarships and needs based bursaries as well as student loan programs. Vision of Project “Provide adequate student financial support to ensure financially challenged students have access to the whole UBC experience - a goal outlined in UBC’s Place and Promise.” The Student Financial Support Project plans to work towards this vision by: • Simplifying the processes involved with applying for and allocating financial aid • Offering merit and needs based awards earlier, giving student more time to plan • Offering comprehensive financial packages to students upon admission • Recognizing and taking into account the real cost of living in Vancouver and Kelowna and attending UBC in assessing financial need Opening Up Financial Aid Process Currently, the university relies on the government student loan program to review a student’s financial situation and determine whether an individual student demonstrates financial need. Because UBC does not have the systems or processes in place to assess financial need in-house, UBC has been thus far unable to open up the bursary program to students who are not enrolled in the government student loan program. This project will allow the university to build the infrastructure to enable all students to complete a financial profile upon admission, and throughout the course of their degree, to submit necessary information to assess a student’s financial need. Based on the information collected through the financial profile, Enrolment Services will be able to provide students with a financial package based on their unmet need with their admissions offer or by late May for continuing students. This process will provide financial certainty to student enabling them to accurately plan ahead for their academic year at UBC. Office of the AMS Vice President, Academic and University Affairs April 10, 2013
In order to accurately assess student unmet need, the project will also work to develop a financial need assessment system that takes into account the real costs of attending UBC in Vancouver and Kelowna. The project will also create UBC specific student/parental contribution tables taking into account the unique situations of UBC students. The system will be integrated with the awards system to account for scholarships, merit based awards, external bursaries or UBC employment income allowing for a more accurate picture of a student’s financial situation. Through creating a UBC specific assessment tools that is openly communicated to the UBC community, the project will aim to increase the transparency in the financial aid allocation process. Student will be able to understand why they have received a certain amount of funding with assurance that funding is being allocated to students with the most need. Streamlining Merit Based Award Adjudication In the preliminary stages of this project, Enrolment Services mapped out process management for all UBC scholarships and external awards to identify areas for improvement and increased efficiency. This project will work to improve the processes for adjudicating merit based awards. This past year, major entrance scholarship applications were integrated into the UBC student application process. This move linked the MES to the personal profile process of Broad Based Admissions effectively making all students eligible to be considered for a MES. In the past, students were nominated for MES by their secondary school. This process enabled students to receive notice awarding of a MES along with their admissions offer. There is currently a project in developed to integrate the student housing application with this process with an aim to work towards a consolidated offer system where, along with their admissions offer, student receive offer for merit based scholarships, financial aid and on-campus housing. For continuing students, the merit based process will be improved by utilizing the new awards system to identify candidate, consolidate adjudication committee scores, verify eligibility, and generate offers. There is also an opportunity to explore the creation of a database that outlines the different internal UBC awards available to continuing students. Office of the AMS Vice President, Academic and University Affairs April 10, 2013
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UBC Student Financial Support Project - University of British Columbia

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