Collecting Student Fees

• DISCLAIMER: The following information and fee collection process has been provided by the Bursar's Office. For specific questions regarding required Bursar forms, deadlines, and processes relevant to your embedded program, please contact the Bursar's Office directly at feeassessor@psu.edu.

Once a budget is built for the program, the program leader must determine how to best collect the program fee from each participating student.  There are a couple of options for responsible collection of funds from students, and the best option for any particular program will depend on the timing of when the fee is confirmed, which academic unit is planning the program and the level of administrative financial coordination available within that unit, whether an outside partner is involved that can collect fees directly from individual students, and other factors.

Options for collection of fees include:

• Submitting the fee to the University Budget Office and Office of the Bursar for course fee approval and posting to student bursar accounts. 

  • Note that the timing of posting and collecting student fees via Bursar account may not align with timing of program leaders/department paying program expenses abroad.

• Program leader/academic department collects checks from students to be deposited into a University account. Please do not collect cash from any student or program participant.

• If using a third-party partner to assist with planning and running the program, students might have the option to pay that entity directly for the program fee.

There are two different ways to charge course fees on the student account: 1) If the same amount is charged to every student in the class, and 2) If the amount charged to each student varies or the fee is not charged to every student in the class.  The following documents the differences and the steps to request fees.

1. If the same amount is charged to every student in the class:

a. Unit/department will need to complete a LionPATH Course/Class Fee Request Form, BT06 Form, and Item Type Request Form for each new fee or increase to an existing fee.  BT06 does not need to be submitted for an existing fee or decrease to an existing fee. 

b. Central Bursar Unit will enter the fee into LionPATH and make any necessary changes. The class fee can be attached to the section of the class and assessed automatically during the Tuition Calculation process.  The class fee will display for students in schedule builder.  

c. The automated class fee displays to the student during registration, therefore, the fee will be considered a mandatory fee.

d. Unit/department receives income when the class fee is charged. 

Refund options for the automated class fee process:

a. Refundable – Refundable up to the end of the drop/add period

b. Nonrefundable –Once tuition is calculated, the fee is not refundable

Tuition will be calculated as follows:

• • • • • • • • Fall semester – July

              • Spring semester – January

              • Summer semester - April

Waiver options for the automated class fee process:

a. Yes – Gives the opportunity for units to waive the fee for specific students such as a teaching assistant

b. No – Fee is not waived for any students

If considering the option for a waiver of the fee, a secondary Item Type Request Form for the waiver will need to be submitted and the waiver Item Type will need to be set up.  

2. If the amount charged to each student varies or the fee is not charged to every student in the class:

a. Unit/department will need to complete an Item Type Request Form and the BT06 Form, for each new fee.  

b. The class fee is entered by the unit/department using the Student Post process in LionPATH.  At that time, the fee is assigned to a semester.  These can be entered individually or by group.  If the department does not have access to Student Post, this access should be requested through their Access and Security Representative (ASR).  The department will also need to request access to the newly created Item Type.  Central Bursar Office will provide details for the ASR when the Item Type is created. If this is an old Item Type, but the person posting is new, please provide the Item Type in question to the Bursar Office and they will let you know what you need to request from your ASR.

c. Changes are managed by the unit/department.  If the unit/department wants to have the fee removed or waived for a student, they will need to contact the Bursar’s office (tls5852@psu.edu, vjd105@psu.edu, and amf186@psu.edu).

d. Unit/department receives income when the charge shows paid on the student account.

Since the budget for the program is managed by the academic unit and program leader, the specifics of the financial arrangement will vary a bit from program to program. In most cases, the budget for the program is dependent on a minimum number of students attending. As such, when a student drops the course or chooses not to attend the international portion of the course, it can have a serious impact on the program budget.  

It is advisable for programs to have firm deadlines for commitment to travel and payment of fees as well as a requirement for students to sign a written financial commitment form/withdrawal policy indicating their agreement to pay a percentage (or full amount) of the program cost or all unrecoverable costs should they choose to withdraw after committing to attending the program. Consult with your finance office to determine the financial commitment and withdrawal process for your program.

In order to charge an embedded program fee to students’ bursar accounts (which will technically be a Class Fee in Lionpath), you must receive approval for the fee from the University Budget office.

*Note – When posting an embedded program fee to a students’ Bursar account, the College is actually posting what is known as a Class Fee.  This Class Fee, categorized as a “miscellaneous fee”, can be posted with a manual charge, which means that the charge will be posted to each individual student’s account separately. A Class Fee is not to be confused with a Course Fee, which is a fee that is calculated within the tuition and the College would not need to do anything with this.

1. 1. Check with your college or department financial staff about getting a cost center set up for your embedded course.  The cost center is not required on the BT06 Form, because the money cannot flow back from the Bursar to a specific cost center, but the college itself can move funds into/out of the cost center.

   2. Complete the BT06 Form for the Budget Office in order to request approval for a new class fee. 

   3. Create a Budget Estimate, which will be sent along with the BT06 Form to outline what is included in the cost. Alternatively, you could include a formal proposal from a program provider that outlines the cost.  See embedded course budget template (link) if you’re building your own.

   4. Obtain the appropriate signatures on the BT06 Form (and attached budget estimate) from the Budget Administrator (typically, Associate Dean or Director of Academic Affairs), Budget Executive (Dean/Director of Academic Affairs/Chancellor) and College/Campus Financial Officer. 

   5. Email the completed and signed BT06 Form & Budget Estimate to the Budget Office for approval. This can be sent to Andy Reisinger (agr1@psu.edu), the University Budget Officer, and Executive Assistant, Patty Tarbay (pam13@psu.edu).  Copy both Andy and Patty on the email and follow up with them regularly on the status of the approval process.

   6. Once the Budget Office has signed off on the BT06 Form, a copy will be returned and should be kept for your records and the records of your department financial staff.

   7. Forward a copy to the Bursar’s Office to Valerie Brighton (vjd105@psu.edu) and cc’ing Anna Schirling (amf186@psu.edu) and Theresa Kowalski (tls5852@psu.edu) for their records.

In order to apply the embedded program fee, or class fee, to students’ bursar accounts, you must use a Lionpath Item Type Number that is provided by the Bursar's Office. This number is associated with the fee label that shows up in students’ bursar accounts – for example, “Denmark Embedded Program” or “Cambodia Embedded Program”. However, the Item Type Number is not associated with a specific dollar amount – the fee amount is entered manually. (See more about the process below).

Contact the Bursar Office liaisons, Valerie Brighton (vjd105@psu.edu) and cc: Anna Schirling (amf186@psu.edu) and Theresa Kowalski (tls5852@psu.edu) with any questions related to the Bursar’s Office.

1.  Complete a LionPath Item Type Request Form and send it, along with the signed BT06, to Valerie and Anna. It is ideal to submit these forms by early October for Spring Break embedded course travel and by mid-January for Maymester travel.

2. The debit information on the Item Type Request Form may be left blank, and the Credit fields should include our budget information for the student fees to be transferred back to your department. Bursar does not need the cost center(s) information on the form, since they do not transfer back to specific cost centers. 

3. Bursar will respond via email with a 12-digit number. Regular follow-up may be required. It is recommended to keep track of all of these numbers and their associated fee information (see more below about organization).