1. Tier 4 UCL HR Tier 4 Student Visa Timesheet
Sessions:
3 July 2017
11 July 2017
21 July 2017
25 July 2017
Sarah Danzie
Head of Employment Policy
Emma Beauchamp Senior HR Policy Advisor

2. Purpose Tier 4 (Student Visas)
In response to feedback received from DAs, the HR Policy team have developed a tool to help departments manage their T4 student workers to avoid visa breaches.
To ensure the timesheets are fit for purpose as an interim measure, they have been piloted with a number of departments. The feedback has been used to improve the design and process.
Tier 4 (Student Visas)
Undergraduate: a max. of 20 hours paid or unpaid work per week during term time and full time during vacations.
Taught Masters students and Postgraduate Research students: required to be in continuous attendance – therefore they will continue to be restricted to 20 hours work per week throughout the year.
A “week” in this regard is considered Monday to Sunday.
Guidance on Immigration and Visas website
The Tier 4 Timesheet is UCL’s due diligence to demonstrate compliance with UK Visas and Immigration’s (UKVI) requirements for Tier 4 Students who are working during their studies. (Bartlett, Dept of Economics, Neurology) – Libby, Frank, Liz
Pilot - Bartlett
Tier 4 Students who are casual workers at UCL must complete this form in order to be paid.

3. A recent case which points to the seriousness of any breaches to UKVI rules.

4. Volunteering and unpaid employment
There is a difference between unpaid employment (voluntary work) and volunteering
Tier 4 students should always check with the organisation which offers a volunteering opportunity whether it can be regarded as unpaid employment - unpaid employment counts towards the maximum number of hours of work a week.
The Tier 4 policy guidance confirms that Tier 4 students can volunteer and explains how the Home Office differentiates between 'voluntary work' and 'volunteering'.
If you are a Tier 4 (General) student you can do voluntary work if you are permitted to work, but this work and any other (e.g. paid) work that you do must not exceed the number of hours you are permitted to work during term time. For example, if you can work for 20 hours during term time and have paid work of 15 hours a week during term time, you cannot do more than 5 hours voluntary work per week. If you are not permitted to work you cannot do voluntary work. Tier 4 (Child) students aged 16 and over can undertake voluntary work.
Factors that may be taken into account when considering whether it is voluntary work or volunteering are:
Voluntary workers will usually have contractual obligations to perform the work (e.g. to attend at particular times and carry out specific tasks) with the employer being contractually required to provide the work – the contract does not have to be written. The worker is usually remunerated in kind.
Students who are volunteering do not have a contract, they must not be a substitute for an employee and they must not be doing unpaid work – i.e. receiving payment in kind (although they are sometimes reimbursed for reasonable travel and subsistence expenses). Volunteers usually help a charity or voluntary or public sector organisation.

5. Procedure for the Student worker
Student workers should submit their timesheet daily to their Supervisor/Line Manager. Your Supervisor/Line Manager must review your timesheet to ensure any work commenced with them will not cause you to work in excess of the 20 hour limit.
Once you have completed your work, complete the number of hours worked in the timesheet for your Supervisor’s/Line Manager’s authorisation.
If you also work outside UCL or in other UCL departments then you must record all hours that have been worked for each employer and department on the timesheet.
You and your supervisor will need to sign to confirm that the 20 hour limit has not been exceeded in the working week, which is now defined as from Monday to Sunday.
Timesheets should be submitted to your Departmental Administrator (or delegated authority) by the timesheet  deadline as agreed by the department date each month.
If you work for more than one department then you will need to submit your timesheet to each relevant department administrator.

6. T4 Timesheet Electronic version
Box
Information required
Student Name
The name of the student worker
Employee number
The student’s employee number as listed on their payslip
Department
The department the student works for
address
The student’s address
UCL student number
The student worker’s student number as identified on their UCL ID card
Supervisor
The person who mainly supervises the student’s work
Student type
The student’s status, e.g. Undergraduate, Postgraduate (Taught), Postgraduate (Research).

7. T4 Timesheet Electronic version
Week (Monday to Sunday) Commencing
The date of the Monday at the start of the week the work was completed
UCL Department Work Completed For
The name of the UCL department that the student worked in that day
Hours worked for UCL department
The number of hours the student worked on a given day for the UCL department
Hours worked for external employer
The number of hours the student worked for an external employer on a given day
Total weekly hours worked calculated automatically by formulas

8. T4 Timesheet Electronic version
Student declaration

9. Notes Print and electronic version available
Electronic version comes complete with drop downs lists and formulas
You may submit your timesheet to your Supervisor/Line Manager by if a wet signature is not practicable.
The onus is on you to provide the relevant authorisation in absence of a signature when presenting your timesheet to all Supervisors/Line managers*.
*this will be applicable for those working for more than one UCL department

10. Procedure for Supervisors/Line Managers
Supervisors/Line Managers must review hours worked on the timesheet by the student worker before the student commences work with them.
Supervisors / Line Managers must not schedule or allow work for Tier 4 student workers without full visibility of their timesheet.
This is to ensure the student worker is not permitted work that will cause them to exceed the 20 hour limit.
Student workers will submit their timesheet after completing work, the timesheet must then be authorised daily.
The timesheet should be handed back to the student worker for submission to their department administrator for payment.
Report breaches of visa conditions by contacting

11. Notes
The timesheet supports student workers who have more than one supervisor/Line Manager
If there is more than one Supervisor/Line Manager, each will be required to confirm the hours worked by the student in their department.
Supervisors may authorise timesheets by if a wet signature is not practicable
The onus is on the Student worker to provide the relevant authorisation in absence of a signature when presenting their timesheet to their Supervisor/Line manager*.
*applicable to those who work for more than one UCL department

12. Procedure for DAs
Upon receipt of the fully authorised timesheet, the Departmental Administrator (DA) in the department must review the form to verify that the student has not worked more than 20 hours in any given week.
Any breaches must be reported to ECA
Submit the Form 6 payment request on SIP, confirming the worker has not exceeded the 20 hour limit
Submit the Form 7 payment request on SIP, uploading the relevant right to work documents for the student worker confirming that the worker has not exceeded the 20 hour limit.
The student workers T4 timesheet should then be stored locally.
If there are visa breaches in your department, you may be asked by the ECA team to demonstrate how your department were being compliant.
Therefore we suggest DA’s keep copies (online and print) for 12 months.
Timesheets should be held securely - only accessible by those who need the data.

13. T4 Timesheet Print version
Review the total weekly hours worked
Electronic version will highlight in red weekly hours worked above 20
review

14. Notes Reject timesheets that have not been fully authorised
If the student worker works for more than one department, the supervisor for each department will authorise the date for which the student worked
DAs must have sighted, copied and retained a copy of right to work documentation (including any visas) before any work is carried out

15. Next Steps… Plan Expectations Roll out across UCL from 31 July 2017
Monitor and review feedback by December 2017
ECA team will perform spot checks periodically
Ensure use of the timesheets by T4 student workers
Colleagues should familiarise themselves with timesheets and process
Ensure all line managers / supervisors review timesheets prior to allocating hours

16. Additional Resources Tier 4 Timesheet and Guidance Immigration & Visas
HYPERLINK

17. template
Helpful template to communicate the Launch to your student workers and their supervisors
Dear all
As you will be aware students on tier 4 visas who are studying in the UK are able to undertake paid/unpaid work but are limited to the number of hours (20 hours maximum typically) that they can work in a rolling 7 day period (Monday to Sunday). While responsibility to ensure visa compliance lies primarily with the student worker, UCL as an employer also have a responsibility when allocating work to student workers on tier 4 visa’s and in monitoring how much work is being undertaken.
It is vital that both our tier 4 student workers and UCL can demonstrate compliance with the visa regulations set by UKVI.
The consequences for anyone found to be breeching the working hour restrictions are severe (fines for the Department up to £20,000 and possible revocation of visa for the student worker). To mitigate the risk of any student being allocated or working more than their allowed hours UCL has developed timesheets as an interim solution to increase the ability of UCL to monitor compliance.
Workers will need to complete a weekly time sheet detailing hours worked, this will be signed off by the supervisors who allocated the work (i.e. [xxxxxxxxxx] in most cases) to confirm the hours and will need to be submitted to the Departmental Manager (or delegated authority) for payment.
Thanks
HYPERLINK

18. Implementation plan
Training & Comms
Monitoring and Review

19. Training & Communication strategy for implementation
1. Initial comms will be heads up to introduction of the T4 timesheet
Relevant networks SHARE, DEOLOs network, UCL Immigration web pages
Maybe necessary to identify the appropriate networks to target students
2. to all T4 student workers, DAs and faculty managers identified by reporting team advising of timesheet launch and expectations.
3. HR Policy/ECA team to put on a number of briefing sessions* for Student workers, DAs, DAMs, Module convenors (other relevant groups).
4. Timesheet and supporting guidance documents available from HR website with users given opportunity for feedback (submit comments)
5. Further targeted comms to Student workers, DA/Ms and Supervisors/Managers etc around the launch of timesheets
Drop in ?

20. Monitoring and Review of process
Following launch and training we would expect full compliance across UCL.
ECA/Policy will carry out spot checks across the University.
Feedback from users will be used to continuously improve the process and feed into requirements for a permanent online solution.