Background for Refund Processing

Anthology Student can calculate: 

• Institutional refunds

• Return of Title IV funds

Anthology Student performs the Return of Title IV funds calculation based on the Department of Education's policy.

Your institution can configure some options for refund calculations. For example, your institution can: 

• Specify whether or not the calculation includes the Return of Title IV calculation

• Configure the system to use either the drop date or the last day attended date to perform the refund calculation. 

Your institution can also configure the refund policies Anthology Student uses to calculate institutional refunds.

Refund Policies and Hours

For refund policies based on: 

• Hours attended, Anthology Student calculates the sum of the student's actual hours attended

• Hours scheduled, Anthology Student includes dropped classes when calculating hours scheduled and hours attended

The refund calculation based on hours scheduled and hours attended reads data from the attendance table to find hours attended and hours absent. The procedure uses the enrollment schedule to calculate the total scheduled hours for the period.

When calculating the percentage of tuition to retain or refund, if the condition in the policy that matches the student has a Refund Percent Flag = P (indicating pro-rata), the percentage to retain will be the percent completed by the student.

Anthology Student uses the unit specified in the Refund Grid Attendance Unit instead of the Refund Policy Attendance Unit if the student's criteria match a Calculation Based on Length condition.

Refund Policies and Time Periods

Institutions can indicate whether tuition charges included in their refund policy’s institutional charges are derived from the values posted:

• To the student's ledger

• To the student fees folder

• From the total program charges configured on the Financial Aid (FA) Program Version when the Program is selected for the refund policy's time period

If Program is selected, the default option is to use tuition charges from the ledger card. Selecting Program displays the Tuition Charges text box with Ledger Card as the default. Other options are FA Program Setup and Student Fees Folder, which determine how the tuition component of the Refund Calculation's Institutional Charges are calculated if the institution bills by term; however, the refund calculation is based on the entire program.

The FA Program Setup and the Student Fees Folder options are only enabled if the refund policy’s selected time period is Program.

Anthology Student determines the tuition charges included in the institution charges based on the method selected by the institution:

• If Net Amount from Ledger Card is selected, the calculation uses the amounts posted to the student’s ledger.

• If From Student Fees Folder is selected, the tuition and all other institutional charges are derived from those populated in the Student Fees Folder.

• If Tuition from FA Program Version is selected, tuition that is included in the institutional charges is determined as follows:

  • The tuition amount used is the same value populated in the Tuition column of the grid on the Program Costs tab of the FA Programs Code Setup form.

  • The effective date is used to determine which tuition amount to use if there are multiple tuition amounts configured for the program version by comparing the student’s start date to the effective date that applies to that student’s start date.

The current method for determining other components of the institutional charges such as fees is preserved, that is, only the method for determining the tuition component of the institutional charges is being discussed.

Rounding for Fund Sources

Anthology Student provides functionality that automatically rounds Direct loan funds per Common Origination and Disbursements (COD). It also allows configuring Pell and other COD grants to be rounded as defined in the FSA Handbook. Anthology Student makes the appropriate adjustments when posting the refund calculation.

• Configuring rounding to be activated within the refund calculations for refund amounts, and for it to be applied when the results from the refund calculation are posted. The refund calculation results may show a particular fund with cents, but when the results from the refund calculation are posted and refunds are scheduled, the rounding logic is applied rounding the amount to the nearest dollar.

• Ensuring the rounding percentage that is used is within the refund calculation for refund amounts per the percentage guidelines as defined in the FSA Handbook, so that rounding percentages are applied correctly when a refund amount is created. The Round All Disbursements to Whole Numbers If you selected Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant, Pell Grant, or TEACH Grant in the Type list, select the check box to specify that refund amounts are rounded for Return of Title IV Funds (R2T4). Anthology Student rounds Direct Loan funds per COD requirements and allows Pell amounts to be rounded as defined in the FSA Handbook. Anthology Student makes the adjustments when posting the financial aid refund calculation. When selected, rounding is activated within the refund calculations for refund amounts, and it is applied when the results from the refund calculation are posted to the student ledger. For example, the refund calculation results may show a particular fund with cents, but when the results from the refund calculation are posted to the student ledger, the rounding logic is applied to round to the nearest dollar. This is effective for refunds that are done from the time of implementation of Anthology Student version 15.0. There is no retroactive handling of rounding of any existing refunds that have not been posted. option your institution specified when it configured the fund source is used for disbursements and refunds to determine if the amount is to be refunded in whole dollars (selected) or not (not selected).

• Allowing the refund amount that is created from the refund calculation to be visible to the user and clearly explained so that the user understands any rounding implications, such as the specific amounts that will be used across all forms and processes in Anthology Student. For example, the Scheduled Refund Report will reflect the rounded amount so that clients can review the result of the rounding.

• Posting a refund calculation for the refund amount that is created (Select the Processes tile > expand Student Accounts > select Refunds/Stipends.) in Anthology Student to be the rounded amount, so that the amounts posted through the wizard are accurate.

Auditing and Tracking

Anthology Student audits the information for refund calculations. For example, it audits changes to the payee for refunds and stipends, including subsidiaries.

• Payee information for a stipend can be edited regardless of the fund source associated with the stipend

• Changes are audited only for the fund sources that allow the payee to be changed

Auditing occurs from the time the refund or stipend is scheduled to the time the refund or stipend is processed. The date changed, the time changed, and the user who made the change are audited. Anthology Student stores the user ID of the user who scheduled the stipend so that it does not get overwritten by the user ID of the user who posted the stipend.

Anthology Student also saves the name of the payee on each refund record, stipend record, and subsidiary refund so that it can be retrieved for reporting purposes.

A Student Accounts Administrator can:

• Define that the reference information is printed on the check (below the address), on the stub, or in both places

• View the ID of the user who scheduled the refund or stipend on the Ledger Card page for the student (Select the Students tile > select the name in the Students list > expand Student Accounts > select the Ledger Card tile.)

For information about tracking non-degree-seeking (NDS) students, refer to Tracking Non-Degree-Seeking (NDS) Students.