PeopleSoft upgrades SEVIS solution
Enhancement makes it a little easier for colleges to comply with reporting requirements
PeopleSoft Inc. has made it a little easier for colleges and universities to comply with reporting requirements for the foreign student tracking system.
The company May 27 announced an enhancement to its Student Administration suite, enabling schools to track nonimmigrant exchange visitors with J visas for the Student Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). J visa holders include exchange visitors, international research scholars and visiting professors.
SEVIS, a Web-based tracking system deployed by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS), requires schools to report on all foreign students and visitors with F, M and J visas.
PeopleSoft offers the Patriot Act SEVIS Solution (PASS) in its Student Administration product suite. More than 20 institutions use PASS — introduced at the end of 2002 to support reporting F and M visa holders — for SEVIS reporting. The J functionality will be available next month.
The Student Administration package enables schools to manage admission, financial aid, recruiting and administration records.
"We help get some of the anxiety and stress about SEVIS reporting to a manageable level," said Susan Beidler, the company's director of product strategy for Student Administration.
Beidler called the J enhancement a small but critical feature to SEVIS reporting software. The upgrade includes added fields for information input to support the new requirements. The software enables school officials to enter minimal amounts of student information and report the data directly to BCIS.
"It's not only the collection of the information, but the automation of sending the file," Beidler said.