Verification of Study Online

1
Verification of Study Online

• Online Institution Interface (OII) Training for
  Secondary Schools

2
Introduction

• The Student Allowance is a weekly payment to help
  with students living expenses while theyre in
  full-time study. Most students receiving it are
  in tertiary study, but secondary school students
  can also be eligible if they are 18 or over, or
  16-17 with a partner and child(ren) in their
  care.
• Students must also be full-time
• Conventional 20 class contact hours a week
• Correspondence Four subjects at NCEA Level 1, or
  three subjects at NCEA Level 2 or 3
• To confirm the students enrolment details and
  whether they meet that full-time requirement,
  StudyLink issues a Verification of Study request
  to the school theyve listed on their Student
  Allowance application.
• This information can be sent to StudyLink over
  the Internet using VoS Online.

3
VoS Online

• VoS Online (also known as the Online Institution
  Interface or OII) is a website operated by
  StudyLink where VoS requests are loaded for easy
  access and completion by education providers.
  Using this system ensures the information entered
  is as correct as possible and can be processed
  swiftly, in order for us confirm an outcome for
  the student.
• To use VoS Online, you need to be nominated by
  your school as a VoS processor, and have
  submitted a VoS Online User Access form to the
  StudyLink Helpline. You can also elect to have an
  email sent to notify you when new VoS requests
  are ready.

4
Logging in to VoS Online

• The address for VoS Online is vos.studylink.govt.n
  z At the login screen, enter your allocated User
  ID and password. The first time you log in, your
  password will be a temporary one provided by
  StudyLink. The user ID and password fields are
  case-sensitive - if they contain uppercase
  letters, then each time you log in youll need to
  use them
• The first time you login to the OII site, youll
  be required to nominate your own new password,
  and be asked if you want to complete a Challenge
  Question and Answer. Completing this is
  important as it will allow you to reset your
  password if you forget it.
• Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the
  login process. If you do forget your Password,
  there is a link on the login page to allow you to
  reset it, as long as you have set up a Challenge
  Question and Answer. If you havent sent up a
  challenge question, you will need to contact the
  StudyLink HelpLine on 0508 885 885 for your
  password to be reset.
• Once logged in, youll be taken to the Home Page.
  

When navigating VoS Online, please DO NOT use
your browsers navigation buttons this can have
an adverse affect. Instead, click the links
within the site, or use the navigation buttons at
the bottom of some pages.
5
VoS Online Homepage
Within the Home Page screen there are a series of
navigation links

• Home Returns you to the homepage
• Reference Holds documents such as the
  Information Matching Agreement, Memorandum of
  Understanding and VoS Operating Manual.
• Contact Us Contains instructions on how to
  contact StudyLink
• Help A basic help guide
• Change Details Lets you change or nominate your
  password and Challenge Question
• Logout Logs you out of VoS Online

• VoS Processing here you can view VoS requests
  from StudyLink, and return completed VoS
  responses for them.

6
VoS Processing

• In this screen there can be multiple VoS requests
  waiting to be completed. The total number of
  requests is indicated at the top of the page.
• Requests will be displayed oldest to newest by
  default. However, the Sort and Filter button
  allows you to customise how the VoS requests are
  displayed (including ordering alphabetically and
  listing based on values such as surname) so you
  can find a particular student when there are
  multiple requests listed.

A VoS request
Number of VoS requests pending
Sort Filter button
7
VoS Requests
Reference Manual OII
Each VoS request from StudyLink contains the
following information

• The students full name and date of birth
• The students Client Number with StudyLink
• The year we are requesting study details for
• This information is read-only and based on the
  details we have for the student

8
VoS Responses
Reference Manual OII
To confirm the students details, we need you to
provide us the following
Whether they are full time This is displayed as
a drop down box with the values of Yes and No.

• Their enrolment status.
• If theyre fully enrolled, leave this field
  blank. If their enrolment hasnt been
• confirmed, select from
• Not Known The student isnt known to your
  school.
• Unregistered The student is known to your
  school, but not enrolled for the period we are
  requesting
• Pending The student is studying for the period
  requested but their enrolment is not yet
  complete
• Mismatch (e.g. Fullname, Mismatch) The students
  name or date of birth is incorrect on the VoS
  request, compared to your records.
• Withdrawn The student has formally withdrawn
  from your school for the year were requesting
• Note If their enrolment isnt confirmed and you
  enter a value into this field, you can leave the
  other fields in the request blank when submitting
  the response.

The start and end of their enrolment This is the
date the students enrolment for the year were
request started and its expected end date
The Year/Form theyre studying This is displayed
as a drop-down box with relevant Year / Form
options Select the relevant study level for year
the VoS request.
9
Submit

• Once you have completed the relevant VoS
  response(s), you can submit them to StudyLink.

• Click on the completed box located directly
  below the relevant response. This tells the OII
  system that the particular VoS record is ready to
  be submitted.
• Once all of the relevant responses have been
  ticked off as completed, you will need to select
  the Submit button at the bottom of the page.

10
Submit (The Checking Function)
In order to ensure the information received is as
accurate as possible, VoS Online carries out some
basic checking functions. Once youve clicked
the Submit button, the following messages may
appear under each VoS response
 
Submitted There are no issues with the
information, and your response has been submitted
to StudyLink
Unticked Changes The submit button was pressed
without the Completed box being ticked.
Errors Our system has identified a problem with
the information entered into the VoS response.
An error message will display next to the
incorrect information.
11
Submitted Responses

• Once you have submitted a VoS response for each
  of the VoS requests, a confirmation message will
  appear and the process is then complete.
• Submitted VoS requests will still be viewable in
  the VoS Processing screen, as read-only, while
  youre still logged in. The next time you login,
  those VoS requests will no longer be displayed.
• You can elect to have an email sent to you when
  new VoS requests have been loaded to VoS Online
  for you to complete this saves you having to
  continually check for new requests. You can
  nominate this option on the VoS Online User
  Access form.

12
Delete
In cases where StudyLink has sent out multiple
VoS requests due to not receiving a response,
once one of the requests has been returned, the
others may be deleted from the system by
selecting this button for each of duplicate
requests.
 
Clicking the Delete record button will bring up
a confirmation message box
If you select Ok the website will return you to
VoS Processing page, with the deleted request
displaying a black message box underneath. The
request will now be read-only and will not appear
in VoS Online the next time you log in.
13
Remember

• A VoS request is StudyLink asking for a students
  enrolment details. The information you provide
  in return is a VoS response.
• Keep your User ID and Password details safe set
  up a Challenge Question and Answer in case you
  ever forget your Password.
• Dont use your internet browser arrows to
  navigate click the links or navigation buttons
  within the OII site.
• Remember to logout of the OII site once you have
  finished.
• If you experience any issues or have any queries,
  please contact the StudyLink Helpline on 0508 885
  885.