Groningen Declaration Meeting 2016 Cape Town, South Africa The Fundamental Key to Global Interoperability: An International School Code List Presenter: W. Matthew Bemis, Associate Registrar University of Southern California Moderator: Janie Barnett, Associate Executive Director American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers

Presentation Overview Making the Business Case for an International School Code List A look into how USC has re-engineered the way in which International students provide verification of credentials and diploma information for prior learning instances A view into the life of a NACES member who is actively sending electronic data through the use of open standards and available networks Why this example illustrates the need for a School Code List, and why this is something that must be built by our community, for our community, and within our community. PESC Global Data Mobility User Group and its mission to drive the creation of this working School Code List Guiding principles Considerations for management, maintenance, and governance How we get this started NOW!

Background at USC USC is the largest provider of postsecondary education to the international students studying in the United States -- More than 10,000 international students attend USC each year 75% study at the graduate level Each graduate level student MUST have their credentials verified in order to study beyond one semester at USC International student credentials are verified from more than 900 institutions Difficulty in School identification in the admissions process continues to create overhead in data management

The 2012 International Degree Verification Project Decision to outsource the Degree Verification function Concern over document fraud Lack of in-house expertise Wanted to improve service provided to our students Evolving the method of Evaluation results into a consumable electronic medium – began this process early on with our vendor Began developing EDX data exchange with Vendor Identified PESC Standards Registered with the SPEEDE Server Provided “USC” index of international School IDs (manufactured set of IDs) Began sending/receiving EDI TS130,TS131 transaction sets

A Snapshot of the Student Experience on Graduate International Orientation Day

Began Exchanging EDI data in early 2013 International Education Research Foundation (IERF) was our vendor choice for degree verification services IERF quickly developed in-house expertise needed to generate EDI transaction sets Registered with the server as IERF but sends credentials verification as ‘override institution’ identifiers USC and IERF have been wildly successful with its exchange – More than 2600 degree verification transactions completed in 2015 Why the international school code sets (900+) used by USC and IERF only work for a single school – USC Most schools in North America create their own code sets for International institutions

Growth of International Graduate Applications for Fall Terms

IERF Feedback one year out from EDI launch “USC has teamed up with IERF to co-develop an exchange of information through the SPEEDE server. This offering has been instrumental in enhancing our customer service to our applicants, in that the information that is being relayed is immediate and specific to the fields in USC’s System” Susan Bedil, Executive Director, IERF

Manufactured School Code Lists Why most schools in North America create their own international school code IDs How the lack of standardized code sets inhibits vendors like IERF from being effective in its delivery of services Even standardized code sets have their issues OPEID, NCHELPID, IPEDS, ATP, FICE, ACT, CCD, PSS, CEEBACT, CSIS, USIS, ESIS, PSIS, DUNS, APAS USC has built more than 2000 ‘manufactured’ school IDs to accommodate internal processing needs. 2000 x 4000 North American institutions: 8,000,000 IDs have no value to anyone other than its authors

The PESC Global Data Mobility User Group and its Mission to Create an International School Code List Guiding principles: A pragmatic approach to getting this initiative launched Non-competitive in nature Formations of standardized school IDs provided by relevant parties Establishment of governance that will work into the future Inclusive group with broad representation Start small and build out Integration into existing standards vs. creation of new standards

How we can get started NOW! GDM Workgroup charge, scope, and execution Gathering working lists of standardized school IDs from authorizing parties Who in attendance at Groningen 2016 can help with this data campaign? Recommendations and support from the community stakeholders to get this effort moving

Questions? Email: wbemis@usc.edu