At the University of Pennsylvania, all tuition is distributed through the tuition distribution system, based on the home school of the student, the teaching school of the course, the number of courses taken, and the amount collected. No tuition revenue is recorded directly in the schools’ accounts without going though the tuition distribution system. It should be noted that the tuition distribution system does not distribute fees or other charges, only tuition.

The Tuition Distribution process was revised and streamlined in 2006. The first distribution under the revised system will take place at the end of September for the Fall 2006 term. A summary of the changes to the Tuition Distribution process is provided in Appendix-B for reference.

More specific details of how the distribution of tuition revenues is calculated are included in Section 8 of this document. A glossary of terms is provided in Appendix-D for reference.

1.2 Tuition Distribution Methodology

In general, tuition for each term is distributed at Penn using the following methodology:

20% to the subvention pool as University tuition tax

20% to the home school(s) of the student

60% to the teaching school(s) of the course

When schools have shared responsibility for students or courses, it may be appropriate for Deans to negotiate agreements for multiple schools to share the home school portion, or the teaching school portion of the tuition.

For additional information on how schools share tuition revenue at Penn, refer to www.sfs.upenn.edu/TDPennProcess/How-Schools-Share-Tuition-at-Penn.htm

1.3 Process Overview

The following chart provides an overview of the flow of tuition into the Tuition Distribution process. A larger version of this chart is included in Appendix-I for printing purposes.

2.0 Instructional Programs

2.1 Identifying Instructional Programs

An instructional program is identified as a unique combination of division, degree and major, and an optional special program code. Students are admitted into these programs, as recorded in the Student Records System (SRS) in an Academic Program Summary (APS)

Students can be simultaneously enrolled in up to 2 instructional programs, for any given academic term. In such cases, one program is designated in SRS as the primary instructional program, and the other is considered the secondary instructional program. The primary program determines where the student is counted (if we’re only going to count them once), how the student is billed, and which school gets the home school portion of the tuition. Schools need to agree on which program is primary for each term, and can swap primary and secondary as needed using SRS screen 111. For more information on assigning Primary and Secondary APS’s, refer to www.upenn.edu/registrar/srs/aps/apsp.html

2.2 Grouping Instructional Programs

For reporting and analysis purposes, instructional programs are grouped into the following categories:

Traditional Undergraduate Degree Programs

Ph.D. Degree Programs

Professional and Other Degree Programs

Study Abroad and Non-Degree Programs

2.3 Special Program Codes

A special program code can be defined for each student each term (using SRS screen 111 in the Pgm field, see example above). Schools may specify separate billing rates for unique combinations of division, degree, major and special program code. Although special program codes can be used with any appropriate division, degree, and major, the tuition distribution system uses the special program code to distribute tuition separately (and calculate a separate distribution rate) only for Study Abroad and Non-degree Programs.

Be careful when flipping primary and secondary programs to make sure that the special program code is (or is not) associated with the new primary program, as desired. For example, when a College/Wharton student is accepted to study abroad, OIP will post the appropriate Bxx code in the special program code on the term record for the College program. If the schools subsequently flip primary and secondary programs, making the Wharton program primary, then the Wharton program will control the billing, but it does not automatically show study abroad. If the student is still going abroad, the school needs to post the appropriate Bxx code to the primary special program field.

3.0 Tuition, Fees & Other Charges

3.1 Tuition

Tuition is the amount charged for instruction. Tuition does not include the cost of books, fees, or room and board or other special fees. Tuition charges vary across schools and instructional programs

3.2 Fees

In addition to tuition, students may also be charged for participating in a particular program (like program fees) and/or for the special expenses associated with a particular course (like lab fees). Although these fees may be driven by the student’s instructional program or courses enrolled, fee revenue collected goes directly to the school that assessed them, and do not flow through the tuition distribution system.

3.3 Other Charges

Students may also be assessed various other charges (for example, for housing, dining, bookstore, and phone service). These are independent of the student’s instructional program or courses.

4.0 Payments

Payments include Personal Payments made by cash or check, wire transfer and electronic payments made through the Penn.Pay system. Payments also come through the Financial Aid system, such as university grants, departmental grants and 3rd party scholarships, as well as disbursement of loan funds from the Penn Loan System (PLS)

5.0 Student Billing Account

5.1 Student Billing Transactions & the Billing Process

The Student Billing Account is a reporting of all of the charge and payment transactions associated with a student, for purposes of billing and tracking student payments.

The Student Billing process generates monthly bills and reports for students on the Billing & Receivables System (BRS). Bills are produced monthly. An annual billing schedule is made available so that all department/school representatives know the cutoff dates to post transactions into BRS in line with the bill run date. The large majority of students receive electronic bills thru our Penn.Pay Service, an electronic billing service that delivers monthly Student Account Billing Statements online, as well as providing an option to pay them electronically.

5.2 BRS Subcodes

In the BRS system, all charges and credit transactions are assigned a unique 5-digit “BRS subcode”. Each subcode is associated with a unique transaction type (called the user-code in the BRS Detail warehouse) that identifies the general category of the transaction. For example, all tuition subcodes are coded with a type of “T “for Tuition, and this type is only used for tuition transactions.

5.3 BRS Data in the Data Warehouse

BRS data is available in the Data Warehouse in the “BRS (Student Billing and Receivables)” collection, for purposes of adhoc reporting by authorized individuals. For more information on this data collection, see Appendix-C.

6.0 Tuition Calc

6.1 Tuition Rates

The amount assessed for traditional undergraduate degree programs is determined annually for the University as a whole and presented for approval at the Board of Trustee’s meeting in March.

Undergraduate students in study abroad programs are charged the same rate that traditional undergraduates are charged when they are here.

The amount we assess for Ph.D. programs (known as the Graduate Group Rate) is also determined for the University as a whole each spring.

For professional and other degree programs, and for non-degree programs, schools may set their own rates, and must report them to the Budget Office for inclusion in the rate schedule by March 31^st each year.

Refer to www.sfs.upenn.edu/TDPennProcess/Current-Tuition-and-Fees.pdf to view current tuition rates. Historic tuition levels since 1900 are also available at www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/tuition/main.html.

6.2 Tuition Calculation

Tuition Calculation (referred to as Tuition Calc) assesses tuition and related fees to student accounts based on which students are enrolled, what courses (if any) they are registered for, and the rates for each division, program or course. Fundamental concepts are built into the Tuition Calc programs, but the rules for charging fees and special tuition rates that are dependent on a student’s division, degree, major, special program code, courses, class or other characteristics are defined by tables maintained by Student Financial Services for each term.

The Tuition Calc system is comprised of two components. The first component creates an extract of student registration and course data from SRS; the second part uses this extract to generate charge transactions that are posted to the Billing & Receivables System (BRS) which produces the student bills. The calculation programs run in 3 modes: the initial Tuition Calc, Financial Drop/Add and “Mini” Calc.

Tuition Calc was designed to assess tuition and then do initial term billing run(s) prior to the beginning of each new term, and to compute tuition charges based on anticipated enrollment for students in full-time programs. This facilitates the receipt of revenues to the university by the start of classes for each term. This approach does not require that students have actually registered for courses, but rather that they are enrolled in an academic program leading towards a degree. As part of the Tuition Calc process, registration eligibility determination (RED) logic is used to identify students who are eligible to register in full-tuition schools, with the exception of PDM, EPM and VTP.

The Financial Drop/Add mode of Tuition Calculation starts running up to 2 weeks into each term, and generates financial adjustments (credits and debits) for students whose registration data has changed since they were last assessed. As opposed to Tuition Calc, the Drop/Add process mode works only with actual registrations.

A “Mini” Calc is a selective mode that can be done in the Fall or Spring terms only, for one or more programs identified by a combination of Division, Degree, Major and Special Program Codes. This process facilitates posting and adjusting charges for special programs, or programs with non-traditional start/end dates.

6.3 Summer Calc

Summer Tuition Calc runs compute charges separately for each session, Summer-1 or Summer-2. The session indicator of each enrolled course is examined to identify students who are registered for each session. All 12-week courses are assessed in Summer-1. Special session courses (with non-standard start/end dates) are assessed for the session in which they begin.

Since SRS only contains a single term record to cover both Summer sessions, some SRS fields on Screen 111 that are typically used in the Tuition Calc process (such as the Calc-required flag and Special Program Indicator) cannot be used for summer calculations, since they do not relate to a specific summer session.

There are no Full-Tuition rates for the summer term. When calculating summer tuition, the charge could be assessed based on division, or based on the course taken. (In contrast to fall and spring where the tuition charge is based on primary division). The determination of the charge is established in the SRFS summer tuition calc tables, and historically has not changed from year to year. For divisions that are excluded from the summer tuition calc program, tuition charges must be entered manually using the Student Account Adjustment (SAJ) system of SFS-EASI. There is neither reduced Dissertation rate, nor any Artificial Registration process for the summer term.

6.4 Timing of Tuition Calc Runs

Refer to the BRS Operations Calendar at www.sfs.upenn.edu/TDPennProcess/BRS-Operations-Calendar.pdf for the schedule of Tuition Calc and Financial Drop/Add dates. Also, remember that after we run the automated process for the last time each term, we never go back. Therefore, any registration changes that require financial adjustments after the last financial drop/add of each term must be posted by the school/division manually to the students account using the Student Account Adjustment (SAJ) System. No one should post SAJ transactions during the term while we are running the automated process.

7.0 BRS Processing and the Interface with Accounting (BEN Financials)

7.1 How Charges & Payments Are Applied in BRS

Charges and payments are posted nightly, via batch processing, as individual detail transactions, using unique BRS subcodes to identify the source/type of charge or payment. Each subcode is mapped to a 26-digit BEN account number, though BRS still requires the old 9-digit legacy number. The 9-digit number is translated into the 26-digit number prior to posting the financial transactions into BEN Financials.

Once a legacy account number is established and mapped to a particular CNAC, ORG, FUND, PROG and CREF, it cannot be remapped. This is because the BRS Detail in the data warehouse cannot correctly report on mapping changes. If a new destination is required, a new legacy number must be assigned.

In BRS, when payments are recorded there is a hierarchy that applies the payment; first to the oldest unpaid transaction(s) and then to a pre-defined order of transactions within the same date and term
(e.g., in hierarchical order: Tuition, General Fee, Tech Fee, Health etc.).

7.2 The BRS Interface with Accounting (BEN Financials)

BRS financial transactions are fed weekly to BEN Financials (usually sent on Thursday night), posted by BEN on Friday nights, and appear in the warehouse on Monday. The schedule may vary before holidays or financial month-end, and because of changes to the Academic calendar.

Refer to the BRS Operations Calendar at www.sfs.upenn.edu/TDPennProcess/BRS-Operations-Calendar.pdf for a schedule of BRS and BEN Financials closing dates.

8.0 Calculating Tuition Distribution

In general, tuition collected is distributed for the current term as follows:

· to the University (20%, commonly referred to as the tax, which goes to the subvention pool)

· to the home school of the student (25% of the after-tax amount, or 20% of the total)

· to the teaching school of the course (75% of the after-tax amount, or 60% of the total)

8.1 Tuition Distribution for the Current Term

8.1.1 University Tuition Tax – 20%

The subvention pool normally receives 20% of the tuition collected from students in for-credit, degree programs. Historically, non-credit courses and non-degree programs (known as continuing education programs) have been exempted from this tax. Over time, schools have started to develop certificate and other non-degree programs based on for-credit courses. It was not always clear how these should be treated; some schools pay tuition tax on the revenue from these programs and some do not. In addition, in a very few cases, previous Provosts have made agreements to exempt particular programs from the tuition tax. A table in the tuition system controls which programs are non-taxable, and can be updated by SRFS as needed as directed by the Provost.

More recently, schools have begun to develop programs that blur the line between degree and non-degree, and to develop new programs that combine continuing education with degree programs. The Provost and the Deans will need to address the appropriate tax treatment of these programs.

8.1.2 Home School(s) – 20%

The home school is defined as the School associated with the primary instructional program on the student’s SRS record for a given term.

One way that schools can share the home school portion of tuition is to change the primary school of the student each term or year. For certain joint degree programs, the schools have agreed to share the home school each term, and effective FY2007 the tuition distribution system will implement these agreements. Students in these programs have a joint degree flag on their record for each term (set using SRS screen 119, see example below) and the home school tuition is then distributed by the tuition distribution system according to the terms of the sharing agreement between the schools.

Deans who wish to negotiate home school tuition-sharing agreements for new programs should document them in writing and notify the Budget Office, who will take them into account when calculating the Undergraduate Guarantee, and arrange for SRFS to make the appropriate table entries in the tuition system.

8.1.3 Teaching School(s) – 60%

The teaching school is the school that offers the course, and by default is populated based on the subject area of the course, which has an academic department and school associated with it.

One way that schools can share the teaching school portion of tuition is by cross-listing courses and directing the enrollment of students into the cross-listed sections as desired. Effective FY2007, schools can agree to share the teaching portion of tuition for any course section by specifying the relative percentages to each of 13 school values (representing the 12 schools plus Provost Interdisciplinary Programs). This information is located on SRS screen 132 and, like other course section information, will roll from like term to like term (fall to fall, spring to spring, and summer to summer) but can be changed as needed. See an example of screen 132 below, and refer to www.upenn.edu/registrar/pdf_main/srs-tuition-distribution.pdf for instructions on setting up the tuition percentages.

For courses offered by the College of General Studies and Summer Sessions, the section division (CGS or SS) should be entered in the “Div:” field on screen 132 for that course section. Any tuition that the School of Arts and Sciences receives will be posted to the CGS or SS accounts in the general ledger. Other values of section division (like BMP or WHG) may be used for operational reasons, but have no impact on the tuition distribution.

8.2 Distribution Rate Calculation

The distribution rate is the amount of tuition to be distributed per course unit. The rate is calculated by pooling similar students based on their primary instructional program and dividing all of the tuition collected from the students in that pool by the total number of course units taken by those students. Separate pools and therefore separate rates are defined as follows:

§ Traditional Undergraduate Programs: one rate for the entire University for Fall and Spring terms, and one rate per undergraduate school for the Summer term.

§ PhD Programs: one rate per school.

§ Professional and Other Degree Programs: one rate per combination of division and degree.

§ Study Abroad and Non-Degree Programs: one rate per combination of division, degree, major and special program.

See Appendix-E for Rate Calculation Examples.

8.3 Course Units

The course unit is the measure of the credit given for a course. Typically, one course unit is assigned for each student for each course that meets three hours a week for a term. Schools may assign particular courses or particular students in particular courses less than one course unit or more than one course unit based on amount of instruction offered by the course. Some schools measure their courses in semester hours (Law) or credit hours (Dental Medicine and Veterinary Medicine). A course worth one course unit would be worth three semester hours or six credit hours. All semester hours and credit hours are converted to course units in the tuition distribution system.

The course units that appear in the tuition distribution system are weighted for the tuition value of dissertations (67% for full-rate dissertation; 15% for reduced rate dissertation and masters registration), and for multiple home schools, multiple teaching schools, and multiple instructors.

See Appendix-F for Weighted Course Unit Examples.

8.4 Instructor Percent Load

For team-taught courses, multiple instructors and their percent load may be listed on the course section record in SRS on screen 132. Although this information will probably have some effect on how the schools agree to share the tuition, the schools of the instructors and their percent load has no direct effect on the teaching schools and is specified independently.

Dr. Staff is still teaching too many course sections. Please make sure your instructors are listed correctly so your faculty load reports will be meaningful.

Faculty Load reports are distributed to the Schools one week prior to the end of the Course Selection period each term and one week after the end of the Course Selection period, in order to update instructor information in SRS for the term.

Faculty Load Reports are located in the Data Warehouse, and can be retrieved from Corporate Documents under Tuition Distribution by selecting Faculty Load Report.

Refer to Appendix-G for examples of the Faculty Load Report.

8.5 Term-Based Processing of Tuition

8.5.1 Term

A term is the period of time within an academic year marking the beginning and end of classes.

In SRS, there are three terms defined each year: Fall, Spring, and Summer. For tuition distribution Fall runs from September to December, with a final distribution in January. Spring runs from January to April, with a final distribution in May. Summer runs from May to August, with a final distribution in September. The summer consists of two sessions, Summer-1 and Summer-2. In BRS, there are four terms defined each year, with each summer session counting as its own term.

SRS terms use the format yyyyt, where yyyy is the calendar year and t is the term, with A=Spring, B=Summer, C=Fall. Year is 4 characters (2006) in the warehouse, but only two characters (06) in the SRS online screens. For example, Fall 2006 is represented as 2006C in the Data Warehouse and 06C in SRS. Course offerings and registration for Summer is further broken down in SRS by use of a session code, to differentiate between Summer-1 and Summer-2 sessions.

BRS terms use the format tyy, where t is term, with 1=Fall, 2=Spring, 3=Summer-1 and 4=Summer-2, and yy is the calendar year. For example, Fall 2006 is represented as 106 in BRS.

Examples: Fiscal Year 2007 in SRS consists of session 2 of 2006B, along with 2006C, 2007A, and session 1 of 2007B. In BRS, Fiscal Year 2007 consists of 406, 106, 207, and 307.

8.5.2 Posting Tuition for the Current Term

A new preliminary distribution occurs at the end of each month of the term. Any previous month’s distribution for that term is reversed at the same time as the new monthly distribution is processed. A final distribution is made at month–end of the month following the end of the term: in January for the Fall term, in May for the Spring term, and in September for the Summer term. Note that there are two separate distributions in those three months: the first preliminary distribution for the term just starting and the final distribution for the term just ended.

The following chart indicates the way in which tuition distribution journals will appear in BEN Financials. The journal descriptions are appended with the term associated with that journal for clarity. For example the first distribution processed at the end of September 2006 will have on its journal line description TD_HOME_PRELIM_FALL06.

Journal Batch Name (begins with)	Journal Source Name	Journal Line Description
TD_CLR	TD_CLEAR_PRELIM	TD_CLEAR_PRELIM_termyy
TD_HOME	TD_HOME_PRELIM	TD_HOME_PRELIM_termyy
TD_TCH	TD_TEACH_PRELIM	TD_TEACH_PRELIM_termyy
TD_TAX	TD_TAX_PRELIM	TD_TAX_PRELIM_termyy
TD_RVRC	TD_REVREC_PRELIM	TD_REVREC_PRELIM_termyy
TD_BDBT	TD_BADDEB_PRELIM	TD_BADDEB_PRELIM_termyy
TD_CLR	TD_CLEAR_FINAL	TD_CLEAR_ FINAL _termyy
TD_HOME	TD_HOME_ FINAL	TD_HOME_ FINAL _termyy
TD_TCH	TD_TEACH_ FINAL	TD_TEACH_ FINAL _termyy
TD_TAX	TD_TAX_ FINAL	TD_TAX_ FINAL _termyy
TD_RVRC	TD_REVREC_ FINAL	TD_REVREC_ FINAL _termyy
TD_BDBT	TD_BADDEB_ FINAL	TD_BADDEB_ FINAL _termyy

In BEN Financials, an easy way to locate all of the Tuition Distribution journals posted for a particular month would be to enter ‘TD_%’ in the Batch Name field and indicate a particular accounting period on the journals query screen. The Batch Name is appended with the Journal Source Name when posted to BEN Financials.

Note that the tuition distribution system has the capability of creating the revenue recognition and bad debt journals, however at this time these journals will not be generated via the automated system. Both journals will continue to be calculated via alternate methodology and will be posted manually.

Posting to BEN Financials occurs monthly, after the BRS month end and prior to BEN Financials month end. See the BRS Operations Calendar at www.sfs.upenn.edu/TDPennProcess/BRS-Operations-Calendar.pdf for specific dates.

8.5.3 Possible Changes During the Term

Each distribution is based on the home school, teaching school, amount collected, and courses units enrolled at the time of that month’s snapshot. Any changes that occur after that snapshot will be reflected in the next distribution. This could include any of the following:

§ A student’s primary division, degree, major or special program code changes

§ A student is admitted into or leaves a joint degree program

§ Students drop or add courses

§ The course units assigned to an enrollment changes

§ A course’s teaching school changes

§ Tuition is billed, adjusted or collected

For examples of the impact of possible changes during the term, refer to Appendix-H.

8.5.4 Posting Tuition for Prior Terms

The final distribution for a term takes place one month after the term ends. Any money collected subsequent to the final term distribution will be distributed via manual journals on a quarterly basis. The tuition is first taxed, and the remaining 80% is then distributed to the school that collected the money (which is usually the home school, but may be the teaching school, as in the case of study abroad). Distribution of prior term tuition is expected to take place at the end of each quarter.

8.5.5 Tuition for Future Terms

Tuition that is collected for a future term remains deferred, and is distributed when that term becomes current.

8.5.6 What’s Special and Different in Summer

Although in many ways the summer term is becoming just another term, there are still some key differences:

§ Summer spans two fiscal years. Some courses are set up as part of Summer-1, which takes place in May and June and is included in the current fiscal year that is ending June 30. Some courses are set up as part of Summer-2, which typically takes place in July and August, and is included in the fiscal year that begins July 1. Some courses are part of the twelve week session, and span Summer-1 and Summer-2 but are billed as part of Summer-1. Some courses specify neither Summer-1 nor Summer-2, but are classified based on the start date of the course.

● For RCM purposes, any tuition collected and distributed by the June distribution counts in the old year.

● For GAAP purposes, tuition billed for Summer-1 is recognized as revenue in the old year and any tuition billed for Summer-2 is recognized as revenue in the new year.

● The division Summer Session (SS) only offers courses in the Summer term (not Fall or Spring).

● The Special Program Code is defined only once for summer, and is not available separately for Summer-1 and Summer-2. The special program code is not used in Summer Calc.

● Tuition Calc in summer is based on the specific course sections students are taking, and not their instructional program. Unlike the fall and spring terms when students are charged tuition based on their primary division, in the summer term tuition calc could be assessed based on division, or, based on the course taken. The determination of the charge is established in the SRFS summer tuition calc tables, and historically does not change from year to year.

8.6 Tuition Revenue Mapping by Instructional Program

The revenue and deferred income accounts in BEN Financials are described below.

8.6.1 Tuition Object Codes

In BEN Financials, all tuition is recorded centrally to a General University receivable when it is billed. As amounts are collected (Paid/Applied in BRS terminology) tuition is posted to the schools’ deferred income accounts in object codes 25xx. When tuition is distributed, it is cleared out of the 25xx accounts and posted to the revenue accounts in the 41xx series of object codes.

The tuition deferred income object codes are as follows:

2501 U/G TRADITIONAL TUITION

2503 PhD TUITION

2502 PROF & OTH DGR TUITION

2505 STDY ABRD & NON DGR TUITION

The tuition revenue object codes are as follows:

Fall and Spring Terms

4105 TUIT U/G TRADITIONAL

4106 TUIT PhD

4107 TUIT PROF & OTH DGR

4108 TUIT STDY ABRD & NON DGR

Summer Terms

4115 TUIT SUM U/G TRADITIONAL

4116 TUIT SUM PhD

4117 TUIT SUM PROF & OTH DGR

4118 TUIT SUM STDY ABRD & NON DGR

8.6.2 COA Combinations Used for Tuition Revenue

Each school has specified the CNAC, ORG, FUND, PROG, and CREF to be used for all their tuition revenue. There is one chart of accounts (COA) combination for each school and the Provost (PV), the College of General Studies (CGS) and Summer Sessions (SS). These combinations are stored in a tuition system table, and can be changed by SRFS if a school ever needs to change the combination.