Regent Plan Business Process Analysis (BPA)
- Heather Smith
Introduction
This Business Process Analysis (BPA) document describes the Regent Plan interface provided in the Student Experience portal and outlines the various component options and configurations to facilitate the awarding processes.
This document defines the following associated with Regent Plan:
General Configuration & Layout
My Borrowing
Course Enrollment Estimator
Advisor Assist
Specifications for configuration of the following:
Data requirements
Communication
User Roles
Documents
Tasks
Additional Configuration
Process Overview
Regent Award provides a Student Experience for student self-service capabilities using Regent Plan. Regent Plan is accessible to students who have been created in Regent Award via the SBL import. If configured, students may access the Student Experience and Regent Plan utilizing Single Sign-On (SSO) after logging in to the school’s primary portal. Alternatively, students may be provided a direct link to the Student Experience portal, where they will create a unique username and password.
The Student Experience technology is a highly stackable responsive design allowing students to utilize the portal via computer, tablet, or mobile device.
Regent Plan is comprised of components that allows easy navigation throughout. The components are:
Dashboard
Glossary
“What If” Borrowing Options
“What If” Course Enrollment Options
Advisor Assist
Regent Plan
Regent Plan enables students to plan, forecast, and track their Financial Aid for both current and future Academic Years in the Student Experience portal. It provides students visibility into current and projected loan indebtedness as well as informs students of aggregate loan amounts and remaining eligibility to complete their program. Tools are available for both students and schools to effectively assist in planning, awarding, and encouraging smart borrowing decisions to help minimize student financial debt. A Regent Plan license is required to access the Regent Plan tools available.
Regent Plan Tab
The configuration is organized using sub-tabs that corresponds to a component of Regent Plan. A user must have access to the "View/Edit Portal Settings" permission to view any of the configurations documented below.
Publish Portal Configuration
A permission-based button is located on the portal Tab of Institution set up with the label "Publish Portal Configuration." A school may make modifications to the various configuration items, but those new settings will not be used by the Student Experience portal until they've been "published" using this button. Once the configuration items are published, they will be immediately available to the student without the need to re-login to the application. If a school makes changes to their Institution, Campus and or Site names, the "Publish Portal Configuration" button will also make those new names available to the Student Experience portal. There is no need to also choose "Reload RNA" from Enterprise Setup when publishing portal Configurations.
General Configuration & Layout
The Regent Plan Tab provides the user with the ability to enable Regent Plan and associated tools. It provides configurable options for the Regent Plan Landing page display within the Student Experience portal.
Schools can configure the naming convention they wish to have displayed to students (e.g. My Plan or My Financial Aid Plan). Schools can also configure to display the current program, include instructional messages, position the Loans & Repayment option, display Estimated awards, and choose Academic Year settings.
Schools also have the option to select Site and Program-level options make Regent Plan functionality presentable by Program and Site.
Academic Years
As configured by the school, the student’s Academic Years will display to the student to include direct and indirect cost, other FA, student loans, awards needed to cover direct costs, and awards that in excess of direct costs.
Students can expand the Academic Year tile to review the full details of cost items and awards as configured in Regent Award.
Loans & Repayment Options
The Loans & Repayment tile displays a summary of the student's current lifetime aggregate Federal loan usage. The data is as reported by NSLDS. The information informs the student how close they are to the Federal maximum limits.
A message reminds the borrower that the numbers are estimates. The system links to the Repayment Estimator (Loan Simulator) on StudentAid.gov.
NSLDS Data
Information displayed in the tile depends on having recent Financial Aid History (FAH) data from the National Student Loan Data System. Regent requests schools using this tile to update FAH files regularly - suggested at least twice a month.
Lifetime Aggregate Borrowing Limits
The Lifetime Aggregate Borrowing Limits tile assists students with an understanding of how much of their Federal lifetime aggregate loan limits they have already used. The aggregate usage is based on the student's current program level (undergraduate or graduate) in Regent Award. The two sources used in this calculation are Regent Award and NSLDS.
As students may have borrowed from other schools (loans with NSLDS data that have a different school code other than the Regent school), the tool calculates the difference between the student's NSLDS Aggregate Combined Outstanding Principal Balance (OPB) for their program, and the sum of the NSLDS loan detail data OPB, for loans with the Regent school code. Regent Award then uses the Combined OPB appropriate to the program level (graduate or undergraduate.)
Estimated Federal Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loan Repayment
The Estimated Federal Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loan Repayment tile displays an estimation of total amounts borrowed and estimated monthly repayment obligations.
Total Borrowed: Sum of the existing total borrowed amounts.
The Total Borrowed amount will also include Future Borrowing amounts if "Display Future Academic Year Borrowing" is enabled.
Total Interest: Estimated interest accrued with a ten-year repayment plan.
Total Amount to be Repaid: Sum of the Total Borrowed and Total Interest amounts.
Monthly Federal Loan Repayment: Calculated based on a ten-year repayment plan and 5.05% interest rate.
Future Borrowing amounts will be included if the "Display Future Academic Year Borrowing" configuration is enabled.
Glossary
The Glossary is a feature within the Regent Plan component that allows schools the ability to easily provide students with friendly Financial Aid terminology and definitions within the Student Experience portal. All glossary terms and definitions configured are also viewable within all of the Regent Plan screens when a student clicks the glossary term.
The Glossary can be configured under the Regent Plan configurations as well as at the Fund, Cost and Packaging Philosophy Setup levels.
My Borrowing
My Borrowing is a Regent Plan tool within the Student Experience portal intended to help students borrow only the amount of financial aid they need. It provides a comparison of financial aid packaging options such as Direct Costs versus Maximum Borrowing to assist students in better understanding the implications of each. The tool also assists student understanding of overall debt management for the financial aid year and program so they can make optimal borrowing decisions.
The My Borrowing page is accessible via:
My Borrowing tile in the Financial Aid component
Financial Aid tile on the Dashboard landing page
Regent Plan tile on the Dashboard landing page
General Configuration & Layout
The My Borrowing Tab provides the user with the ability to enable My Borrowing and associated tools. It provides configurable options for the My Borrowing tiles displayed within the Student Experience portal.
Schools can configure the tile to display as of a specific FAY, by Academic Year, or program. Schools can also configure to display instructional messages, require that students select a plan, require students to select a plan when there is a change in eligibility, and change My Borrowing amounts.
Packaging Philosophies
In addition to the school’s current default Packaging Philosophy, a second “Alternative Packaging Philosophy” must be configured in Regent Award. The “Alternative Packaging Philosophy” must mirror the priority order of the default Packaging Philosophy however the Direct Loans (or other aid) should be updated to reflect a ‘Package To’ amount for % of Direct Costs. Refer to the Funds BPA for additional details on Packaging Philosophy.
Select a Plan
Student will be presented with two borrowing plan options according to the configured Packaging Philosophies. This offers visibility into alternate financial aid packaging options to understand overall debt management for the year or degree program.
Below the Packaging Philosophy display name, 'Costs and Awards' section title display with the following listed beneath:
'Estimated Direct Costs' and amount (only displayed for Direct Cost Packaging Philosophy)
'Less Other Financial Aid' and the amounts
'Amount Needed for Direct Costs' and the amount
'Plus Estimated Indirect Costs' and amounts (this will only display for Borrowing Plans where the Packaging Philosophy Sub, Unsub, and Grad PLUS are not all configured as 100% of Direct Costs)
'<Packaging Philosophy Display Name> Amount' and amount
Below the Costs and Awards section, 'Annual Borrowing' title displays with the following:
'Amount Accepted' and amount
‘Amount Remaining’ and amount
Borrowing Tile Costs and Awards configuration messaging displayed:
In Regent Award, under Institution Setup>Regent Plan tab>My Borrowing>Academic Year Settings section, the user has the ability to select ‘Static’ or ‘Dynamic’ messaging via the ‘Messaging Logic for 'Select a Borrowing Plan' Tiles’ field.
When ‘Dynamic' is selected, if the total (offered) award amount > Direct Costs for the plan, then the ‘Over Direct Costs for Academic Year Text’ field text in Institution Setup is displayed for the plan tile. If the total (offered) award amount <= Direct Costs for the plan, then the ‘Under Direct Costs for Academic Year Text’ field text in Institution Setup is displayed for the plan tile. Users can enter '{OverUnderDirectCost}' within the text to populate the dollar amount by which the award is over or under the Direct Costs amount.
When 'Static' is selected, text entered in the 'My Borrowing Packaging Philosophy Display Order 1 Text' box in Institution Setup will display within the tile on the left (top for mobile). Text entered in the 'My Borrowing Packaging Philosophy, Display Order 2 Text' box in Institution Setup will display within the tile on the right (bottom for mobile).
From this tile, students can view details, select the appropriate plan, or decline loans. When decline loans is selected this will decline all loans for the Academic Year.
Once the plan is selected, students can elect to choose the maximum amounts or specify a lesser amount. Students must accept the full Subsidized loan eligibility prior to accepted the Unsubsidized loan. Refer to the Student Experience BPA for additional award actions.
All student actions taken on awards via the student portal will be reflected as an Activity Log Entry (ALE).
Change My Borrowing
The Change My Borrowing Amounts link displays on the dashboard tile in the Financial Aid component once My Borrowing is complete instead of the Change My Borrowing Plan Option. The Change My Borrowing Amount allows students to easily change their borrowing amounts and does not allow changes to the borrowing plan option unless eligibility changes and the 'Re-Require' configuration is set.
Students can increase loan amounts up to the remaining eligibility or reduce borrowing amounts. However, loan amount cannot be reduced below a paid gross amount.
Course Enrollment Estimator
The Course Enrollment Estimator tool allows students to project changes to their Regent Academic Plan in response to potential enrollment levels (e.g. Full-Time) for students who are in term-based programs. Through this tool, students can compare costs, estimate awards, and review borrowing amounts between their current Academic Plan and projected Academic Plan.
The tool is provided to students for estimation purposes only; changes to enrollment levels do not directly affect the student’s current Academic Plan in Regent Award. Students will need to contact the school if they choose to make changes to their enrollment.
General Configuration & Layout
The Course Enrollment Estimator tool provides two configurable messages. The first message displays at the top of the first page of the tool where the student selects the different enrollment levels and units for each term. A second message displays at the top of the second page of the tool where the results are provided to the student. The configurable messaging allows schools to tailor the messaging for their students.
The 'Allow Estimations for Registered Units' configuration allows a student to estimate the Enrollment Level and/or Units for an open term within the tool if the student has registered units in a current or future term. If this configuration is not enabled, students will not be able to estimate the Enrollment Level and/or Units for any term that has registration.
The tool utilizes the current enrollment level and anticipated enrollment level setup configurations used in Regent Award for packaging. The full-time maximum number of units may be inflated in the enrollment level configuration to account for a larger than normal enrollment level (e.g. Full-Time Maximum = 99). Therefore, the ‘Maximum Full-Time Units’ configuration is able to be set to be a more realistic maximum (e.g. 18 units) that can be used as a cap for the number of units the student is able to enter into the tool for estimation purposes. This configured value is also used as the Maximum Full-Time unit amount in the help text displayed to the students.
Enrollment Selection
Students can estimate enrollment for all terms or on a term-by-term basis. A drop-down menu is available for enrollment level selection (e.g. three-quarter time) or students can manually enter units (e.g. 9).
Note: Only ‘open’ terms can be estimated; terms that have been completed cannot be estimated in the tool.
The ‘Help’ icons display the school’s configured Enrollment Levels in Regent Award.
Estimation Results
When the student clicks on the 'Estimate & Compare' button, the estimation results will display. A summary of the results is listed to include:
Anticipated Graduation Date
Full Plan Costs & Financial Aid
Total Borrowing and Remaining Aggregate Loan Amounts
Estimated Loan Repayment Amounts
The Enrollment Selection tab is a non-editable user-friendly view available to review the Enrollment Selection that was provided on the first page.
Save Estimated Plan
Students can save the results of their Course Enrollment Estimation by clicking on the 'Save Estimated Plan' button at the bottom of the results screen and providing a Plan Name.
Advisor Assist
The Advisor Assist feature in Regent Award provides improved support to the student experience and can reduce call times by allowing a school user to view the student’s financial aid portal interface real-time to provide interactive guidance and resolution
School users can access the Student's view of the Menu and Dashboard directly in Regent Award. The school user can click on the student’s dashboard and menu items to access the various components. However, this is a view only tool for the school user. Actions cannot be taken on behalf of the student such as updating documents or accepting awards.
To enable Advisor Assist, schools must notify Regent Education of the intent to utilize the feature. Regent Education will work internally to establish the connection.
Configuration
Configuration Templates
Data Requirements
There is no data integration required for the Student Experience.
Communications Template
There are no new Communications related to the Regent Plan.
Users & Roles Template
Refer to the school’s Users & Roles_Setup Template for specific configurations related to Regent Plan permissions.
Documents Template
There are no new Documents related to the Regent Plan.
Tasks Template
There are no Tasks related to the Regent Plan.
Funds and Packaging Philosophy Template
Refer to the school’s Funds Setup Template for specific configurations related to Regent Plan at the fund level and packaging philosophy.
Cost of Attendance Template
Refer to the school’s COA Setup Template for specific configurations related to Regent Plan at the cost item level.
Programs and Terms Template
Refer to the school’s Programs and Terms Setup Template for specific configurations related to Regent Plan.
Additional Configuration
Regent Plan Template
Refer to the school’s Regent Plan_Setup Template for specific configurations related to Student Experience.