FA determines the Title IV eligibility and packages Aid but the Accounting dept. draws and posts funds.
An example would be a Business Office/Dept that collects payments and a Fin Aid Dept that awards students. No one person or dept is both collecting and awarding dispersements.
Seperation of duties are absoulty necessary, especially now that the new regulations are about to take effect. Confining your information to the student to the area you are assigned, ie Admissions, FA or Instructor, keeps the boundries clear for the student.
The student will always ask questions that you know the answer to, however it is not your department. Answer all the questions for the student that covers your job discription and refer all questions that are not back to the Admissions department or educationl department. It keeps the communication between departments clear and avoids confusion for the student.
I think it is great to learn as much about how your school operatios in all its functions, but management needs to be clear what your role is pertaining to the student.
This seperation and clear directions and goals makes my job a lot easier and the students know where to go to get the right information.
Accounts will not be handled by the same person. So say you have a controller they will not be the ones handling the books, nor taking money to the banks. Accounts Recievables shall not play a collecton role on debt. Payables shall not do recievables. This way it cuts down on risk of one person being blamed for anything.
Russell - thanks for mentioning this as a means of a management control mechanism. Such policies can definitely assist in ensuring blocks from intentional or unintentional problems.
Security policies are established in the student information system to block obvious conflicts of interest.
I.Admissions
II. Financial -Aid
III. Business Office
IV. Career Services
V.Education Department
VI.Student Services
VII. Business Office
VIII. Administration
David RIchardson
As posted before, our Admissions Department and Finance Department deal with the initial process for potential students. Once the students shows a specific interest in my profession, I have an interview with the prospective student to provide a detailed explanation of the profession. These prospective students are referred to me by either the Admissions Representative or the Finance Officer.
This works quite well for us in that in provides for a specific separation of duties for each individual involved in the initial application process.
As people who are part of a helping profession like education, it takes training like this for everyone to be aware of what constitutes help and who can assist with what and in what way. People often want to do the most they can for individuals who need assistance, but we have to recognize that by following the rules and procedures to meet the regulations, we do provide the best assistance in the best way for everyone concerned. In this case the intention or desire to help is far outweighed by the possible penalties of not following the regulations, and that affects everyone.
For instance, financial aid is not to be discussed by admissions reps AT ALL. when a student has a financial aid question we qither walk the student to a financial aid rep for have financial adi rep come into the interview and answer the question. Even it is a simple questions and the admissions rep does know the correct answer. I is an extra step, but this ensures that the student is ALWAYS getting accurate information from the correct dept.
Separation of duties seems more than fair, especially if the goal is transparency. For example, if you were scoring your child's exam or assignment, inherently you would potenital at the very least to come under scrutiny for being in the position of having an ability to influence your child's grade, whether you ever do/did or not is a separate issue. If I were in either of admissions or financial aid, seems I would welcome the opportunity to be free of the guise of suspicion.
I value the seperation of Admissions and the Academic department when it relates to the evaluation requirement.
Admission Dept handles all applicants. Prospective students sometimes meet the acyual Program Directors or instructors.
One of the important separations of duties is the PTA admissions process. The admissions department is responsible for information and student disclosure but the reception department is responsible for entrance examination testing. This provides a separation of the entrance examination from admission thus keeping admissions from manipulating or falsifying examination results in order to secure an ill prepared or inappropriate student admission.
Actually there are structures with in the school structure to confirm the actual separation of duties.
Admissions - they recruit, meet with prospective students, provides tours of the school, answers questions and provides required disclosures and they enroll students. Prior to enrolling the prospective students, some one NOT associated with Admissions administers the entrancing testing and the results are entered into the prospective student's record by some one NOT associated with Admisions.
Financial Aid - there are specific roles within the Financial Aid department and the same individiual that awards the funds can NOT be the same individual that disperses the funds.
These are all examples of how separation of duties are actually separated in the individual departments, as well as by departments.
I feel separation of duties are very important to safe guard the school and student. Admissions enrolls student, Financial Aid packages student and business office collects and post student payments.
Admissions - enrolls the students, Financial Aid - processes FA paperwork and provides award letter for funding, - Accounting - posts FA disbursements.
DeVaria - Great examples of roles and responsibilities demonstrating separation of duties for certain departments. Thanks for sharing.
