Refund Policies

The U.S. Department of Education, your state's Department of Education, and your institution's administration may have different policies and procedures for refunding money to students when they leave school before completing their programs. The refund policy that is most advantageous to the student must be the one selected at the time the calculation is made. Refund calculations are triggered for a given student.

The refund calculation in Anthology Student supports straight pro-rata refund policies.

You can use the Refund Policies page to define the refund policies and procedures that your institutions can use when refunding money. The institution refunds money to students, government agencies, or private agencies when students receiving a grant or a loan leave the institution before completing their programs.

In a refund policy, the length condition can be based on different units within the policy itself. Many refund policies have an initial condition based on withdrawing within the first week of class, with the remaining conditions based on scheduled hours. You may need to set up several refund policies from which to select in differing circumstances.

Best Practice: If an existing refund policy ever needs to be changed, you should mark the existing refund policy as “Inactive” and create a new refund policy containing the changes. This will allow for all details of the inactive refund policy to be viewed later if auditing a refund calculation that was done on that policy.

Prerequisites

To view the page, you must have Student Accounts - Configuration - View authorization.

To edit the page, you must have Student Accounts – Configuration - Manage authorization.

To edit an item associated with more than one campus, you must have access to all the campuses. For example, if the item is configured to be available at three campuses and you only have access to two of the campuses, you can view the item but cannot edit it. When you add an item, you can only select campuses to which you have access.

You must be familiar with Background for Processing for Refunds.

Access Method

Select the Configuration tile > expand Student Accounts > select Refund Policies.

Filters

By default, the grid displays all records for the campuses you are authorized to work with. You can use the drop-down at the top of the page to display only records for a specific campus.

Procedure to Add or Edit Items

1. Review the values of the records in the grid.

2. If you want to: 

   • Add a new list item, select the New button on the toolbar
   • Edit an existing list item, select the name in the list

3. Specify or change the following values.

   Active Specifies whether the associated record is active. Adjust for Holidays Indicates whether the refund policy is adjusted for holidays. Campuses The campuses to which the refund policy applies. Multiple campuses can be related to the same refund policy. At least one campus must be selected before a new refund policy record can be saved. Code The refund policy code. Days After Indicates that the refund can be paid x days after the refund is calculated, that is either x days after Last Date of Attendance (LDA), student's Drop Date, or calculation date.

   Min Holiday Period Indicates the minimum number of days that can be considered holiday time. This field is visible when Adjust for Holidays is set to Yes. Name The refund policy name. Policy Type Indicates whether the refund policy applies after the student has enrolled (Post Enrollment) or before the student has enrolled (Pre Enrollment). For Post Enrollment policies, the system calculates the amounts to refund based on the maximum time completed. For Pre Enrollment policies, the system calculates the amount to refund based on the days before start date. Refund Due Indicates that the refund can be paid x days after the refund is calculated, that is either x days after Last Date of Attendance (LDA), student's Drop Date, or calculation date.

4. In Calculation Options, specify or change the following values.

   Academic Calendars Indicates the type of academic calendars that apply to your institution. You can select one or more academic calendars based on the number of calendars that your institution uses. The options are: - Non-standard terms - Standard terms of quarters - Standard terms of semesters - Standard terms of trimesters - Clock Hours - Credit hours without terms Allow Zero Adjustment Select this option to enable 0.00 tuition adjustments to be posted. Allow Zero Adjustment is enabled only when Manual Calculation is selected. By default, Allow Zero Adjustment is disabled. Calculation Option Indicates whether the calculation is based on amount to refund or amount to retain. Include Prior Period Balance Indicates whether to include the previous term balance in the refund calculation. This field is visible when Time Period is set to Academic Year. Manual Calculation Institutions can manually enter and store refund calculations for students refund calculations, so that these values can be displayed in Refund Reports, enabling institutions to report on the timeliness of refund calculations for their entire portfolio of institutions; even if these calculations were not made in Anthology Student. Select this option to manually enter refund calculations: - If there is no record in the Calculation Based On Length and Calculation Based On Percent grids, you can save the policy when editing a refund policy. - If there is a record in one or both grids, both grids are disabled. When you try to save the policy after editing it, data in both grids will be removed. If you cancel, the records in both grids continue to be displayed, and the Manual Calculation list displays as Yes. If you close the form and reopen it, the Manual Calculation list displays as No, and both grids are enabled.

   Policy Units Indicates whether the units of calculation are Weeks, Scheduled Hours, Hours Attended, or Days. When you set the policy unit to Days or Weeks, you can adjust the refund policy for holidays. When you set the policy unit to Weeks, you can define a week based on your institution. If you set the policy unit to Hours Attended or Hours Scheduled and set Time Period to Calendar Year, the Program Version Credits/Hours Per Year tab is enabled. If the unit value is not found on the grid, the system will set the default refund percentage to 0. Rounding Precision Indicates the number of decimal places to use in the results of calculations using Policy Units. The rounding occurs when the refund calculation (adjustment) is sent to the COD. Time Period Indicates the basis of the refund. The options are: - Use Billing Method (on enrollment) - Program - Term - Academic Year - Calendar Year For additional information on Time Period, refer to Background for Refund Policies. Tuition Charges Indicates whether the tuition charges be included in the institution charges based on the method selected by the institution. The options are: Ledger Card, Student Fees Folder or FA Program Set up. This field is visible when Time Period is set to Program. For additional information on Tuition Charges, refer to Background for Refund Policies. Weeks Calculation Type Enabled only if Policy Units is set to Weeks. Indicates whether your institution defines a week as: Scheduled Instruction Days: With this option, the number of weeks is calculated based on at least one class session per calendar week (Sun-Sat). Calendar Days (default): With this option, the number of days in the time period calculation minus holidays is totaled and then divided by seven.

   Refund calculations are based on the:

   • Calculation Based on Length grid first
   • Then on the Calculation Based on Percent grid

   You can use either or both of these grids to define your refund policy.

5. Take the appropriate action in Calculation Based on Length Indicates the calculations based on length for a refund policy. This grid is editable when Manual Calculation is set to No..

   • To add or edit calculations based on length:

     1. Select the Add button on the toolbar or select the field of each editable column.

     2. Specify the following values.

        Max Earn The maximum amount that can be earned at the level of policy units completed. Refund % The percentage needed to refund or retain the refund policy record.

        Unit Type The attendance units used to determine the unit that the length condition applies to. Valid values are: - Hours Attended - Days - Hours - Scheduled - Weeks Units The number of refunds. This value is calculated based on the values that you specify in Calculation Based on Length column.

   • To remove a record:

     Select the record and select the Remove button.

6. Take the appropriate action in Calculation Based on Percentage Indicates the calculations based on percentage for a refund policy. This grid is visible when the Policy Type is set to Post Enrollment. It is editable when Manual Calculation is set to No..

   • To add or edit calculations based on percentage:

     1. Select the Add button on the toolbar or select the field of each editable column.

     2. Specify the following values.

        Max Enroll % The maximum percentage of the enrollment completed by the student. Min Enroll % The minimum percentage of the enrollment completed by the student.

        Refund % Enter the percentage of funds received to be refunded or retained. Type Indicates whether the percentage to refund or retain comes from the Refund % field or the actual percentage completed by the student. Valid values are Pro-Rata and Percentage. For straight pro rata policies, the percentage of tuition earned by the institution correlates exactly to the percentage of the program that the student completed. For example, if the student completed 47% of the program before dropping, the institution retains 47% of the tuition.

   • To remove a refund record:

     Select the record and select the Remove button.

7. Take the appropriate action in Transaction Codes.

   • To specify the calculation option individually:

     Specify or change the following values.

     Adjustment Code Assign a unique adjustment code to a Transaction Code. The Adjustment Code list displays Transaction Codes that are: - Active - Associated with campuses that are assigned to the refund policy - Bill Type is S (Student) or B (Both) Use N/A to remove any existing mapping. By default, Adjustment Code displays N/A for those transaction codes that have not been assigned. Administrative Fee Indicates whether an administrative fee will be charged for the transaction. Calculation Option Indicates whether the calculation is based on amount to refund or amount to retain. The options are: Calculate, Earn, Reverse or N/A.

     Fee Amount The administration fee that will be charged for the transaction. Transaction The transaction name.

   • To update all calculation options:

     1. Select the Update all Calculation Options button on the toolbar.

     2. Select a Calculation Option from the drop-down list.

     3. Select OK to update the calculation options across the items in the grid.

8. Take the appropriate action in Refund Order.

   • To change the order of the fund source:

     Select the field to select the fund source and drag up or down.

   • To exclude or include fund source:

     Select the check box next to the fund source to exclude or include fund sources.

9. The Program Version Credits/Hours Per Year tab is enabled when you edit a policy that was saved with the following Calculation Options:

   • Policy Unit = Hours Attended or Hours Scheduled
   • Time Period = Calendar Year.

   Take the appropriate action in Program Version Credits/Hours Per Year Indicates the total number of hours required or the total number of credits for each program version. It also enables the authorized user to set a number of hours or a number of credits for each year of the program. This grid is only displayed when the policy unit is set to Hours Attended or Hours Scheduled and the time Period is set to Calendar..

   • To specify the number of credits required in Program Version Credits Per Year or hours required in Program Version Hours Per Year:

     Review and specify the following values for each year of the program version.

     Active Specifies whether the associated record is active. Program Version The program version associated with the student or item. Program Version Code Code associated with the program version. Total Credits The total credits required for the enrollment.

     Year 1 Indicate the number of credits or hours for the first year of the specified program version. Year 2 Indicate the number of credits or hours for the second year of the specified program version. Year 3 Indicate the number of credits or hours for the third year of the specified program version. Year 4 Indicate the number of credits or hours for the fourth year of the specified program version.

     The total of the credits or the hours specified for each year must be equal to the total credits or total hours specified for that specific program version.

   • To hide inactive program versions:

     Select the Hide Inactive Program Versions button on the toolbar to hide any program versions with Active set to No.

10. To save and: 

    • Continue making changes, select the Save button

    • Continue to add another item to the list, select the Save & New button

    • Close, select the Save & Close button