Verification of Study Online
Online Institution Interface (OII)
Training for Secondary Schools
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Introduction
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The Student Allowance is a weekly payment to help with student’s living expenses while they’re 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.
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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
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To confirm the student’s enrolment details and whether they meet that full-time requirement,
StudyLink issues a Verification of Study request to the school they’ve listed on their Student
Allowance application.
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This information can be sent to StudyLink over the Internet using VoS Online.
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.
Logging in to VoS Online
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The address for VoS Online is vos.studylink.govt.nz 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 you’ll need to use them
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The first time you login to the OII site, you’ll 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.
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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 haven’t sent up a challenge question, you will need to contact the
StudyLink HelpLine on 0508 885 885 for your password to be reset.
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Once logged in, you’ll be taken to the Home Page.
When navigating VoS Online, please DO NOT use your browser’s 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.
VoS Online Homepage
Within the Home Page screen there are a series of navigation links
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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.
VoS Processing
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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
VoS Requests
Reference Manual – OII
Each VoS request from StudyLink contains the following information:
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The student’s full name and date of birth
The student’s 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
VoS Responses
Reference Manual – OII
To confirm the student’s details, we need you to provide us the following:
Their enrolment status.
If they’re fully enrolled, leave this field blank. If their enrolment hasn’t been
confirmed, select from:
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Not Known:
The student isn’t 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 student’s 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 we’re requesting
Note: If their enrolment isn’t confirmed and you enter a value into this
field, you can leave the other fields in the request blank when submitting
the response.
The Year/Form
they’re studying
This is displayed
as a drop-down
box with relevant
Year / Form
options
Select the
relevant study
level for year the
VoS request.
Whether they are
full time
This is displayed
as a drop down
box with the values
of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’.
The start and end of their
enrolment
This is the date the
student’s enrolment for the
year we’re request started
and its expected end date
Submit
Once you have completed the relevant VoS response(s), you can submit them to StudyLink.
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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.
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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.
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 you’ve 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.
Submitted Responses
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Once you have submitted a VoS response for each of the VoS requests, a confirmation message will
appear and the process is then complete.
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Submitted VoS requests will still be viewable in the VoS Processing screen, as read-only, while
you’re still logged in. The next time you login, those VoS requests will no longer be displayed.
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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.
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 readonly and will not appear in VoS Online the
next time you log in.
Remember
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A VoS request is StudyLink asking for a student’s enrolment details. The information you provide in
return is a VoS response.
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Keep your User ID and Password details safe – set up a Challenge Question and Answer in case you
ever forget your Password.
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Don’t use your internet browser arrows to navigate – click the links or navigation buttons within the
OII site.
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Remember to logout of the OII site once you have finished.
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If you experience any issues or have any queries, please contact the StudyLink Helpline on 0508 885
885.