I agree. This is the best way to promote funding and maintain regulations.
On our campus, the admissions reps are involved with introducing prospective students to the college and its programs, as well as, enrolling students. However, they are not allowed to administer the entrance tests (we have a separate person hired to proctor tests), or discuss financial aid.
As a program director, I can speak to things related to my program, but do not speak about financial aid or business office related issues/matters.
There should be no concflict of interest in the performamnce of a job. The students should not be placed in a compromised situation. They could be vulnerable.
It is for the best that the jobs and functions are being separated. It protects all the people that could be involved.
We have a strict separation of duties in our school. For example:
1) Financial Aid Officer and/or Director award the financial aid to students, but disbursements of that aid are posted by the Business Office/Accounting Dept;
2) Admissions forward the students to the Business Services Office for payments for registration;
3) The placement tests are handled by independent clerk, not connected to the Admissions Department.
The business office disburses Title IV payments and posts all payments. Refunds are made exclusively through the business office.
The financial aid director and business office director share responsibility for a weekly review of all stipends and credit balances. Each department reviews the status of the stipends or credit balances and determines the funds are eligible. A check is requested from the Business Office from accounting at home office.
The financial aid offices awards funds, so they cannot also disburse them. Instead, they review student eligibility requirements such as SAP, attendance, grades and once eligibility is determined, the business office disburses.
As with your Patricia; if a prospective student has any questions, even if the representative is "fairly sure" of the answer, the individual is referred to me as the Program Director, to outline the course of study, time required to commit to study, extern and the like. I answer questions related to the industry, job eligibility and salary to be expected upon graduation. Most of the time this is done in my office without the representative present, to give more of a feeling of "no pressure" and clarity.
I also would point out that in regards to such as grade changes, there are the checks and balances in place to have the instructor go through me, then the same request is routed through the dean, then to the registrar for the change to be made.
Leah - it's great to have such controls in place to mitigate risk of errors.
Admissions enrolls a student after the test proctor delivers the entrance test and a FA officer give a prospective student a overview of the FA they may receive beased on information given at that time
There are several divisions. The main one would be
Financial Aid (awarding FA) & Business Office (posting FA). Our compliance department does an excellent job of ensuring we are compliant in every way!
We have also established control mechanisms within our management software. It allows each team member to enter and retrieve general information about a student that is needed across the organization, but limits access to the topics/areas that are relevant to each part of the team. Limited permissions also ensures that the persons accessing and updating information are trained in what they are doing, which limits mistakes/user error or confusion between the team.
The Admissions Department can not have anything to do with testing or test reveiw.
A test proctor who reports to the Academic Dean will administer tests and keep records and submit records to the Registrar for student files.
As a Program Director, our campus Admissions Team follows the same protocol. If a prospective student has any questions regarding the program, they are directed to me where there is discussion regarding the profession and courses. The person is then redirected back to admissions regarding any questions regarding enrollment/testing requirements. If needed, the person also speaks with financial aid.
All on campus know their roles and stay with their levels of expertise yet continue to work as a Team for the betterment of the campus and the students.
That sounds like a great example of a "best practice" for handling such questions.
Lisa - good examples of separated duties.
Marie - you bring up a good point about being good to have employees know about all functionals but having clear roles and responsibilities for each position.
April - good example and this is actually one that is specifically defined by the federal department of education that must be handled by separate areas/individuals.
Roberto - good example of a process in place at your school to have cross checks between departments. Thanks for sharing.
An example of separation of duties. one department will process the financial aid, process the student loans and grants, while a separate department goes over the programs details and cost. Then their is the education side that, of course handles the education portioin of the cours.
One procedure that was put in place to insure appropriate separation of duties is the way in which we submit student payments. In the past the Financial Aid department was in charge of collecting and turning in all student payments. Now it is up to our Admissions Coordinator to accept payments and for our School Director and Academic Records Coordinator to verify and submit all payments. This new methods allows us to be more diligent in making sure everything is accounted for and is not a conflict of interest for our Financial Aid Department.
