Student Awards Administration Procedure

Ref. No.	Executive sponsor	Policy steward	Approval authority	First approved	Last reviewed	Effective date	Next review
28.02	Vice President, Academic	Director, Student Awards and Experience	Executive Council

Purpose
1. The purpose of this procedure is to identify general administrative processes undertaken by the Student Awards office in order to fulfill its’ mandate, as outlined in the Student Awards policy.

Scope

Term	Definition
Award Application Period	NSCC has two main awards application periods (Fall and Spring/Summer), which is also called the awards business cycle. Awards posted within each application period launch at the same time but have various deadlines for application.
Award Attributes	The individual characteristics or elements that describe each award and detail eligibility and evaluation criteria. E.g. award name, award amount, award description, renewable or non-renewable, eligible campus, eligible programs(s), etc.
Award Disbursements	The process to distribute awards to recipients.
Award Posting	The publicly shared details of the awards opportunities either online or in print.
Award Scorecard	A document used by a selection committee which includes the donor's prescribed criteria and assigned weighting, the list of applicants requiring ranking and a notes section.
Award Summary	The official application information and eligibility details for a named award.
Award Recipient Tracker	The tool used to capture award recipient data, confirm eligibility requirements have been met and share information with NSCC Foundation and Central Finance.
Completed Application	An award application that has met all the necessary eligibility criteria.
Eligibility Criteria	Conditions that must be met by the award applicant in order to be considered for the award.
Evaluation Criteria	Conditions that are utilized in the assessment of an award submission to determine an award decision.
Final Requirements	Refers to the processes that must be completed/data that must be collected in order to finalize acceptance of the award and complete disbursements – these may include providing a photo of the recipient, thank you statement, academic transcript, and/or social insurance number.
Funds (named award)	An award with a specific title, eligibility criteria, evaluation criteria, application dates, disbursement rules, evaluators, final requirements and other attributes. Each fund may have one or more awards associated with it.
Gift Agreement	Established between an award donor and the NSCC Foundation which outlines the intentions of the fund including eligibility, assessment and application criteria.
In Progress Awards	Student awards that are open for application/submission.
Notification	The electronic delivery of a message to an individual recipient or applicant.
Pending	The status of an award for which a recipient has been tentatively selected but final requirements have not yet been completed.
Pre-screening	The process by which the Student Awards office confirms an applicant is eligible for a specific award before moving on to the next step in the evaluation process.
Ranking	The process to review and order student award submissions.
Refund	Disbursement made to a student when their financial account is in overpayment.
Scoring/Rubric	Scoring guide used to evaluate the quality of student applications. These typically contain evaluation criteria, quality definitions for those criteria and scoring strategy.
Service Indicator	Values used in PeopleSoft that are applied to student award recipients' accounts to communicate award payment details to campus staff. These are also used in statistical analysis and reporting.
Shortlisting	The process by which all eligible applications are reviewed to arrive at a list of selected submissions from which award decisions are made. This process is typically utilized for awards that are proceeding to committee evaluation and/or where there is a large volume of submissions.

Definitions

Award Creation
1. When new awards are established by NSCC Foundation, an awards summary is provided to the Student Awards office.
2. This summary document provides the full details required to populate the awards SharePoint form, the system used to generate the online award posting.
3. New awards summaries are filed and retained for reference.
4. Once the award is created, the Student Awards office schedules and publishes the award during the appropriate award application period (fall or spring/summer).
Application Submission
1. When student awards are in progress and live on NSCC's website, the Student Awards office is responsible for downloading, logging and processing award applications daily.
2. Applications submitted during the awards application period are registered and verified for completeness against the specific award eligibility requirements.
3. An application is coded as "incomplete" if it:
  1. Does not include a required reference;
  2. Does not include the correct type of required reference (General, Community Service, letter, etc.); or
4. The reference was not completed by the appropriate individual as outlined in the reference document.
5. Only awards with reference requirements are verified for completeness at the application stage. All submissions that do not have a reference requirement are automatically coded as complete.
6. Students with incomplete applications can update their awards application during the awards application period by resubmitting their application online or by emailing missing documentation to the Student Awards office.
7. No further documentation or applications will be accepted after the awards application deadline has passed.
Preparing Awards for Selection - Pre-screening
1. Upon the conclusion of the application period, award applications move into the pre-screening phase in which all applications are reviewed and verified against the award criteria to confirm eligibility.
2. The Student Awards office analyzes all awards to determine whether the minimum number of eligible applicants has been met for each award.
3. If the minimum number of eligible applicants has not been reached, the Student Awards office, in consultation with NSCC Foundation, will pursue one or more of the following options:
  1. The award is reposted with an extended deadline to increase the applicant pool. This may include adjusting the award posting to reflect the remaining number of award disbursements available.
  2. The award is distributed to those who are eligible and the remaining award disbursements are offered in the following award application period or the following academic year.
  3. When it has been determined that no eligible applicants can be found, the award requirements are reviewed by NSCC Foundation, in consultation with the donor, and award eligibility criteria may be broadened to reach a larger applicant pool.
Preparing Awards for Selection - Shortlisting
1. If the number of eligible applications exceeds the number of award disbursements available by a number greater than ten, the Student Awards office must shortlist the applications.
2. Shortlisting is only required for those awards which include qualitative criteria and therefore must be evaluated by committee.
3. Awards are shortlisted based on several factors, which may include:
  1. Specified award allocation requirements (i.e. prescribed number of awards per program, per campus, or by another demographic).
  2. A comparison of the application against the donor’s prescribed assessment criteria as outlined.
  3. The applicant’s current student status (waitlisted, confirmed, matriculated).
  4. The applicant’s current standing against the award cap as outlined in the Student Awards policy.
4. Once the pool of applications has been narrowed closely to the desired number of shortlisted applications, each individual applicant is again verified for eligibility before moving to selection.
Award Recipient Selection
1. Awards move to selection in order of category as follows:
  1. Academic merit – applications received for awards with 100% academic assessment criteria are determined through the calculation of average marks for specified term(s)/year(s)/previous educational transcript(s). Selection of recipients is conducted by the NSCC Student Awards office.
  2. Mixed criteria – this category of awards can include assessment criteria in the areas of leadership, community involvement, career dedication, financial need or any combination thereof. Selection of recipients is conducted by volunteer committee. The Student Awards office supports recipient selection by shortlisting applications and preparing the award scorecard for distribution to the selection committee.
  3. Financial Need – applications received for awards with 100% financial need assessment criteria are determined through a needs assessment process. Consideration begins with the highest amount of need demonstrated for each award. Selection of recipients is conducted by the NSCC Student Awards office.
2. For awards that require committee selection, volunteers will be asked to independently review, assign scores, rank and make notes on every shortlisted applicant. Scorecards will be considered incomplete without all fields filled in.
3. Once complete, scorecards are returned to the Student Awards office, where staff will:
  1. Add volunteers’ scores together to determine recipient(s).
  2. Provide an update to the committee on the outcome(s).
  3. File all scorecards and keep record of tabulated scores in case back up recipient(s) are required.
  4. Coordinate selection meetings with committee members in the event of ties in application ranking. These meetings will have documented notes outlining the committee's rationale for final candidate selection.
Notification of Award Outcome
1. Once a recipient has been chosen, a named award file is created which includes:
  1. A copy of the recipient’s award application;
  2. A copy of the recipient’s donor thank you letter (upon submission); and
  3. A copy of the recipient’s photo (upon submission).
2. The recipient’s name, student number and campus are added to the award recipient tracker and final eligibility is confirmed.
3. Once the recipient has been confirmed, the Student Awards office will contact the recipient using the primary contact information listed on their award application. This notification will include all pertinent award details (e.g. name of award, $ value, donor name) as well as the final requirements that must be completed by the student in order to accept the award.
4. Once an award has been accepted by the recipient, an email notification is prepared by the Student Awards office and sent to all unsuccessful applicants, advising them that the award selection process for the named award has concluded.

Applying Service Indicators and Award Credits

The Student Awards office applies service indicators to the recipient’s student record so that pertinent disbursement information, which may impact the student’s account, is available to campus staff.

The following table outlines the types of indicators that are used and what information must be included:

Service Indicator Code	Type	Description
EXT	External Award	Scholarships/bursaries not funded by NSCC.
TWA	Tuition Waiver	Costs covered by NSCC for tuition only; not refundable to student.
ICB	In-Course Bursary	Awards funded through NSCC Foundation. [Applied in fall and winter terms].
ENB	Entrance Bursary	Awards funded through NSCC Foundation. [Applied in spring and summer terms].
ENR	Entrance Renewable	Awards funded through NSCC Foundation. [Applied in all terms for awards with pro-rated disbursements].

The application of a student award service indicator must include the following:
1. Service indicator code (as per above noted table);
2. Start term – the term in which the award is intended to be applied;
3. Start date – the date in which the service indicator is applied;
4. Amount – the total value of the award or, for those awards with pro-rated disbursements, the value of the current term disbursement.
5. Comments – should include the name of the award and a reminder of how the funds are issued to the student account.
6. Status - awards are considered pending until all final requirements have been fulfilled by the recipient. "Pending" should be added as a status at the end of the comments section and removed once the recipient fulfills all final requirements.
Student award credits are applied to accounts on a weekly basis during the notification period, once final requirements are provided by the recipient.
Only recipients who have fulfilled all student award final requirements can be credited. Final requirements must be submitted within 30 days of notification.
For student award recipients who withdraw from programs or no longer meet the eligibility requirements for a student award, the following process shall be followed by the Student Awards office:
1. Award related service indicator(s) are released from the student's PeopleSoft account.
2. A request is sent to NSCC Central Finance to reverse credit(s) from the student account (when possible) and adjust T4A information as required.
3. Student information is updated in the award recipient tracker to indicate that the award has been discontinued.
4. The student recipient information included in the named award file is deleted.
5. NSCC Foundation is notified of student’s discontinued status.
6. Identify an alternate ranked recipient (depending on award category). If there are no suitable alternate recipients from the applicant pool, award is moved to the next award application period.

Refunds
1. Student award recipients are only eligible to receive a refund if their student account is paid for the full academic year and, due to an award disbursement, their account is in overpayment.
2. The first date to obtain a refund for students receiving an award during the spring/summer award application period, is October 1st.
3. The first date to obtain a refund for students receiving an award during the fall award application period, is February 1st.
4. Students may choose to carry any award credits to a future term/year of study as long as it meets with the overall requirements of the individual award disbursement criteria as outlined in the award posting.