Studentship Projects

The Research Accounts Studentships and Departmental Projects team is responsible for the following:

• Provision of advice to departments and divisions on managing studentship projects, including:
  • Studentship project structures/formats
  • Budget and expenditure inquiry/reporting methods
• Setting up studentship projects on the Oracle projects module
• Maintenance of studentships projects on Oracle, inclusive of the following:
  • Adding new tasks
  • Updating existing tasks
  • Amending budgets (either between tasks or as uplifts/reductions to the project as a whole)
• Billing, including raising invoices/claims to external sponsors
• Expenditure reporting to external sponsors
• Project closures, reconciliation and associated processes

Departments and Divisions are responsible for the following:

• Processing, managing and controlling expenditure on studentship projects
• Adhering to all funder terms and conditions, both financial and non-financial
• Reporting on studentship projects to local departmental/divisional committees/management boards
• Ensuring timely notification to Research Accounts of any events that may impact awards managed through projects
• Providing authority/sign-off on expenditure reporting prepared by Research Accounts, to be submitted to external funders

The structure of studentship projects on Oracle can vary depending upon individual departmental/divisional requirements, however the following basic attributes are common to the vast majority of studentship projects:

• For every agreement with a funder, we will set up a single project (mandatory for all externally funded studentship projects). Multiple funders/agreements/contracts are not possible on a single externally funded project
• Total value of project is equal to the stated value as per the contract/award letter
• Top task: normally represent the allocation of funds to department(s) – purchasing/approval hierarchies are assigned to and are effective at this level. A department may, depending on reporting requirements, own more than one top task on a given project
• Sub task: normally represent individual students or specific funds/activities - budgets are assigned at this level using categories; purchasing/approval hierarchies cannot be assigned at this level and are inherited from top task level
• Expenditure is posted at sub task level, using the expenditure types available on Oracle (see here for a list of the expenditure types available)
• Unallocated funds can be managed through a separate holding task if required
• Budgetary controls are set by default to “absolute” at sub task level in order to ensure that the budget for each studentship or holding pot is not exceeded when actual costs are incurred

Project numbers for studentship projects contain eight characters, as per the following example:

In order to further enhance reporting capability it is recommended that the sub task description has a consistent format, including the Student Systems ID number, e.g. 123456 Alan Smith.

Project structure example of a project owned by Medical Sciences, with a set of Biochemistry students managed by the Department of Biochemistry:
 

Use of ‘Holding Pot’ - “Holding pot” tasks can be made non-chargeable, where the budget can be ringfenced until activity has been identified for which the funds can be allocated.

A department may wish to fund studentships (whether as co-funding or standalone awards) from internal sources. In Oracle, this is managed using a separate project type, referred to as ‘studentship internal’.

This allows for the funds to be managed in a manner consistent with the management of externally funded studentships, in addition to the benefits that come with the use of the projects module (e.g. setting distinct budgets on tasks, funds checking, ease of reporting, etc).  

This allows for greater financial visibility of the income and expenditure associated with the funding of studentships, whether from internal or external sources.
The set-up mirrors the externally funded studentships project structure, i.e. top-task, subtask.

Budgetary control is set by default to sub-task level, consistent with externally funded studentship projects.

The coding structure for projects using the Studentship Internal project type is identical to that which is used for externally funded studentships, and contains eight characters as per the following example:

The Studentship Internal project structure is identical to externally funded projects, for example:

In Oracle projects, accounting rules are project-type specific. 

Externally funded studentships

Consistent with other externally funded non-research activity managed in the projects module, studentships funded from external sources are managed through the A2 ledger.Given the importance of the activity within the university, studentship projects post transactions to their own xx9986 cost centre, with revenue auto-accounting to natural account 43750.

Internally funded studentships

Consistent with other internally funded activities managed through the projects module, studentships funded from internal sources are managed through cost centre xx9981 on the A1 ledger. Please note that the projects module does not accrue revenue on costs managed through internally funded projects.

Please see the General Ledger Auto Accounting diagram (PDF) for a comprehensive overview of the auto-accounting structure used for projects within the university.

The following instructions provide an overview of the steps/documentation required in order to set up a studentship project, in addition to highlighting points to consider throughout the process.

Forms

DPF1 - Departmental Project Setup Form 

This is the form used to request for a new studentship project to be set up on the Oracle R12 Projects Module. For externally funded studentship projects, please ensure that you also include a copy of the fully signed/executed award letter/contract.  No externally funded studentship projects will be set up without a fully executed agreement or award letter.

The DPF1 form is available for download here (XLSX).

Please ensure that you read the DPF1 guidance notes before completing the form, available here (DOCX).

Required documents

Completed DPF1 form (see ‘forms’ section above)

Fully signed/executed contract/award letter (for externally funded studentship projects)

Note on contracts

Research Services is the office designated by the University of Oxford to review all research-related contracts and to ensure that such agreements are acceptable under the University's policies and consistent with its position as an educational institution with charitable status.

Only the Registrar and Senior Officers within Research Services have been granted authority by Council to sign research-related agreements on behalf of the University. Please seek advice from Research Services at as early a stage as possible when such a contract is being considered. Common examples will be for studentship funding with an industrial sponsor, ‘top-up’ funding or a collaborative training award.

In order to protect the interests of the University and its members, individuals may not sign research-related agreements on behalf of the University.

To find out more about contracts, please see the Research Services Contracts pages.

A significant volume of research studentship funding at Oxford comes from the following Research Councils:

• Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
• Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
• Medical Research Council (MRC)
• Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
• Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)

Details of awards from any of the above councils are available on Joint Electronic Submission System (Je-S). For Je-S access, please contact Research Services in the first instance.

If sponsorship of a studentship project is being offered by a sponsor where no standard Terms & Conditions exist, a contract is required between the University and the sponsor (most commonly industry or government). The purpose of a contract is to establish the agreement that the parties have made and to fix their rights and duties in accordance with that agreement.

The following information to be clearly defined in the contract:

• Project start and end date
• Clarity on the nature of work
• Total contractual amount
• Billing frequency – how often to invoice
• Funder detail – who to invoice

Other considerations

VAT treatment (including the application of the ‘med/vet research’ tax activity purpose)

The VAT treatment of projects consists of the following elements:

a.    Output tax type 

Applies to whether VAT is charged when billing out to sponsors

b.    Tax recovery type 

Applies to whether VAT is recoverable on applicable purchases/expenditure

c.    Tax activity purpose 

Defines the purpose of the project from a tax perspective - primarily used for the application of the med/vet research status, which provides VAT exemptions for certain items from relevant suppliers

If any combinations of VAT treatment are selected by the department on the DPF1 that indicate any VAT recoverability, charging or exemptions, the set up documentation (including the completed DPF1 form and fully executed contract) must be forwarded to the tax team for confirmation of the VAT treatment, before submission to Research Accounts. The VAT team can be contacted at vatenquiries@admin.ox.ac.uk.

Foreign currency contracts/agreements – exchange rates

Please note that when requesting for a foreign currency agreement/contract to be set up as a studentship project, the university’s hedging rates for the currency in question should be used for the conversion to GBP (which is the functional currency used on the Oracle projects module at the university).

For USD and EUR agreements/contracts, please use the current X5 rate (available here)
For all other currencies, please obtain the hedging rate directly from the Treasury team, who can be contacted at treasury@admin.ox.ac.uk.

Budgetary controls

By default, all new studentship projects (whether internally or externally funded) will be set up with budgetary controls at sub task level. It is strongly recommended that budgetary controls remain on at sub task level in order to reduce the risk of overspend at the level of the individual studentship.

Budgetary controls can be relaxed to either top task or project level, or on individual top tasks or sub tasks. To do this, please notify the Studentships and Departmental Projects team by entering the request into the notes section of the DPF1.

Authorisations

For all set up requests and amendments to existing projects, a person of delegated authority within the department requesting the set up must be, at the very least, copied in to the request upon submission to Research Accounts. Please see the relevant section of the DPF guidance notes for further details.

Submission to Research Accounts

Completed forms and accompanying documentation should be submitted to the Studentships and Departmental Projects team in Research Accounts (studentships-ra@admin.ox.ac.uk) for setup on the Oracle R12 Projects Module.

Project Set Up

The Studentships and Departmental Projects team will create the project/task structure in Oracle Financials.
When this has been done, Research Accounts will notify you by email that the project is available for use.

Validate setup 

It is essential for departments to verify that the setup of the project is in line with their understanding and to liaise promptly with the studentships team over any issues. The use of the Project and Budget report is recommended for this purpose. For more information please see the relevant Reports Library page.

At this stage you should advise the project details, including the funding code to be quoted for expenditure to individuals working on this project, in order to prevent any misallocation of costs.

Notification to Student Bursary Payment

The Student Bursary Payment team should be notified (using the relevant forms) to ensure student bursary payments are made under correct project and subtask number.

For further information, please check with your Graduate Studies Administrator/Graduate Funding Officer.

Irrespective of the grant funding mechanism, management of a project throughout its lifetime will encompass cost allocation, invoicing and financial reporting (performed by Research Accounts), budgetary control and reconciliation activities. These tasks will require, and be informed by, the following:

All of these activities will require significant departmental input. The following key activities continue over the lifetime of the project.

1. Reviewing the financial position of the project
   Cost allocation should be regularly monitored to ensure that sponsor terms and conditions can be met, and that costs have been posted to the correct project.
    
2. Submission of deliverables
   Project deliverables, such as formal progress reports and work packages, must be submitted in line with agreed timescales. At all times it is essential that sponsor terms and conditions are strictly adhered to.
    
3. Regularly run reports
   Oracle Financials reports are available to support the financial management of research projects. Key reports are:

• UO Project and Budget Report – It is strongly recommended that this report is run upon set up, in order to ensure that the Oracle set up is consistent with the award letter and DPF1.
• UO Project Management Overview - This report summarises in separate sections, expenditure within specified GL periods, and expenditure since inception and the budget held.  Useful report for month End or quarterly reviews.
• UO Project Portfolio report - Highly recommended as a management information tool. This report gives a useful overview of budget and expenditure, and can be used to provide a summary of each project’s top and subtask, task-owning organisation (i.e. your department), remaining budget left against budget.
• UO Actual Expenditure report - provides detailed transaction information on actual project expenditure within an accounting period. This is a useful report for finance officers who want to run an enquiry into expenditure against a particular project.
• UO Project Index - Provides an overview of project set up including Funder detail, Billing address, Grant reference number, Requisition approver.
• UO Projects Billing Activity – Provides a list of invoices/credit notes raised on a project.  Useful if you wish to know when an invoice was raised, for how much and whether the invoice has been paid or still has an outstanding balance.
• UO Project Status and Activity – Designed for Principal Investigator (PI) reporting, which provides a summary of costs and commitments as at a particular point in time. The report also includes a list of transactions incurred in a given accounting period.
   

4. Validate expenditure against projects

When processing purchase orders and supplier invoices it is important to ensure that the correct VAT treatment is applied. For further information regarding recoverable and non-recoverable VAT in relation to studentship projects, contact the VAT team in the Finance Division.

Actual expenditure should be regularly reviewed and compared against budget. This is necessary for cost management and to ensure that claims are only being made against allowable expenditure categories. Significant variances against budgets should be promptly investigated.

Any mis-posted costs should be transferred or journaled between GL/Project accounts as necessary. You should maintain a full audit trail and supporting documentation for any journals. 

5. Consideration and awareness of risks to project completion

If at any stage you become aware of potential threats to the project's successful completion, or believe that the funder may be in financial difficulties, please advise the Head of Research Accounts immediately.
 

The following instructions provide an overview of the steps/documentation required in order to maintain/amend a studentship project, in addition to highlighting points to consider throughout the process.

Forms

DPF2 - Departmental Project Adjustment Form

This form is to be used for any adjustments that are required to be made to an existing studentship project, including:

•    New task set ups
•    Movement of budget between tasks
•    Date changes
•    Project-level uplifts/reductions to budget

Please note that for any project-level uplifts/reductions or project-level date changes to externally funded studentship projects, formal written confirmation from the funder, or a fully signed/executed supplementary award letter or contract addendum, will be required to be submitted along with the completed DPF2 form.

The DPF2 form is available for download here (XLSX).

Please ensure that you read the DPF2 guidance notes before completing the form, available here (DOCX).

Required documents

• Completed DPF2 form (see ‘forms’ section above)
• Formal written confirmation from the funder (if a project-level change to an externally funded project)
• Confirmation of the task tax activity purpose (if necessary – see VAT section of ‘other considerations’ below)

Other considerations

• Tax activity purpose at task level
  The tax activity purpose defines the purpose of an activity from a tax perspective – this is primarily used for the application of the med/vet research status, which provides VAT exemptions for certain items from relevant suppliers.

  It is possible to apply a tax activity purpose to specific tasks on a studentship project. This is useful in instances where some students on a given studentship project may be working on topics that could be considered as eligible for the med/vet research status, while other students may not.

  If any new or existing tasks are requested to have this status applied to them, the DPF2, along with a brief explanation of what the activity is that is being undertaken by the student(s) funded by the task(s) in question and how it can be considered as eligible for the med/vet research status must be forwarded to the tax team for confirmation, before submission to Research Accounts. The VAT team can be contacted at vatenquiries@admin.ox.ac.uk.
   

• Budgetary controls
  By default, all new tasks will be set up with budgetary controls inherited from the project set up (which, for studentship projects, is normally at sub task level). It is strongly recommended that budgetary controls remain on at sub task level in order to reduce the risk of overspend at the level of the individual studentship.

  Budgetary controls can be relaxed to either top task or project level, or on individual top tasks or sub tasks. To do this, please notify the Studentships and Departmental Projects team by entering the request into the notes section of the DPF2.

Authorisations

For all set up requests and amendments to existing projects, a person of delegated authority within the department requesting the set up must be, at the very least, copied in to the request upon submission to Research Accounts. Please see the relevant section of the DPF guidance notes for further details.

Project amendment

The Studentships and Departmental Projects team will update the project/task structure in Oracle Financials.
When this has been done, Research Accounts will notify you by email that the project has been updated.

Validate setup 

It is essential for departments to verify that the setup of the project is in line with their understanding and to liaise promptly with the studentships team over any issues. The use of the Project and Budget report is recommended for this purpose. For more information please see the relevant Reports Library page.

At this stage you should advise the project details, including the funding code to be quoted for expenditure to individuals working on this project, in order to prevent any misallocation of costs.

Notification to Student Bursary Payment

The Student Bursary Payment team should be notified (using the relevant forms) to ensure student bursary payments are made under correct project and subtask number.

For further information, please check with your Graduate Studies Administrator/Graduate Funding Officer.

Prepare claims and invoices

All claims must be accurately and promptly made, within the terms of the funding award, by Research Accounts. A monthly list of claims/invoices due will be compiled with reference to the ‘billing cycle’ system data entered during project setup. Each claim/invoice will be generated on one of the following bases:

• actual costs incurred; or
• event-based defined charge or profile payment; or
• a combination of the two above.

In some cases, departmental review or clarification may be required before a claim can be released.

For Research Council awards, as part of the final claim process:

The Studentships and Departmental Projects team will populate Final Expenditure Statement (FES) financial figures using information from the Oracle projects module before passing a draft FES to the project owner – please see the FES section for research council awards on in the 'funder specific guidance' section of this webpage.

• For the few awards that are managed outside Oracle project module; the award owner will be prompted to complete a FES template form so that the Studentships and Departmental Projects team can populate financial figures on their behalf.

Participation of external organisations

Where external organisations participate in a studentships programme managed by Oxford, the lead department in Oxford should ensure that the organisations are aware of the sponsor terms and conditions, that any claims received are in compliance with these, and that the Oxford department can meet the University’s reporting obligations to the sponsor. For example, we may be required to provide detailed transaction listings for all collaborators to the funder at the end of the project.

Check draft claims and invoices

The Studentships and Departmental Projects team will liaise with departments as necessary to resolve any queries prior to the production of formal sponsor claims/invoices. Departments should review these to verify that only eligible expenditure has been claimed, and that all eligible costs have been charged to the grant.

Research Council final expenditure statements and other detailed final claims/invoices are always sent to departments for review prior to final sign off and submission.

Provide grant owner with reports

UO Project Status & Activity reports should be distributed to grant owner at least quarterly and ideally should be distributed every month. It is recommended that these reports are retained on file electronically or in hard copy until the project has been completed, as the University’s auditors and sponsor auditors will seek evidence that expenditure against budget is regularly monitored.

Sponsor queries on claims

Sponsors will occasionally raise queries on claims, and Research Accounts will sometimes have to seek departmental input in order to resolve the queries for the sponsor on a timely basis.

Submit final academic report

For Research Council funded students in particular, each student must be recorded in the studentship details section of Je-S, and within the student record, attached to any Research Council grants from which they receive studentship funding – this can be done in the ‘research organisation’ section of the record, and is the responsibility of the relevant grant owning departments/divisions. For further information on using this section of Je-S, please see the Je-S help section here.

Please note that all current Je-S registered students are also included on ResearchFish. Certain aspects of the data held in ResearchFish will have been imported from the data held in Je-S. . Students are asked to complete their return themselves as it is their data and they will therefore need to submit it themselves. Grant owning departments/divisions are asked to ensure that they remind students to do this by the relevant deadlines.

For more information visit the UKRI website.

Many other sponsors will require submission of an academic report or student details once the project has finished. Academic reporting remains the responsibility of the department.

Other deliverables may also be required under the terms and conditions of the project. Failure to meet these could lead to under-recovery and a financial write-off to be met by your department.

Final Expenditure Statements (FES) for Research Council funded training grants

The vast majority of research council funded studentship grants will require a Final Expenditure Statement (FES) to be submitted to the research council via Je-S within three months of the end date of the grant. 

Research Accounts has overall responsibility for the final sign-off and submission of FESs to the research council, and works in conjunction with departments to ensure their timely submission.

Departments are notified by Research Accounts that a studentship grant has ended normally within a week of the end date of the grant, and are sent a pre-prepared excel FES template to complete (example here (XLSX)), containing information and expenditure data specific to the grant in question. The worksheets included are as follows:

• ‘Summary’ worksheet, which Research Accounts populate based upon the transaction listing as of the date when exported.
• ‘Details of expenditure’ worksheet, into which departments are required to enter expenditure data and other attributes (e.g. UK/EU student, start/end date of funding from the grant being reported, etc) relating to individual students.
• Raw transaction data exported from Oracle.
• Pivot of the raw transaction data.
• List of outstanding commitments (e.g. open purchase orders, etc).
• Summary of the income received for the grant to date.

Manage debt effectively

Where a sponsor fails to pay a claim/invoice by the due date, approved debt-management procedures will be implemented by Research Accounts. Departments will be asked to assist where necessary to maintain good business relationships.
Where claims/invoices remain unpaid for more than 180 days without due cause, Research Accounts, in conjunction with the department, need to review the outstanding position and put in place required measures that limit financial exposure. If a department becomes aware that a sponsor is in financial difficulty or there is likely to be a dispute over payment, they should alert the Head of Research Accounts immediately.

Project closure report

Research Accounts will run a project closure report on a monthly basis to identify when a project is due to be closed. All outstanding issues must be resolved before the system status in Oracle Financials is set to ‘Closed’. A project will not be closed until costs, revenue generated and sponsor incomes on Oracle are all equal.

A periodic review of ‘Active’ projects where the end date has been exceeded will be performed, to ensure that such projects are correctly recorded and billed, and to take any remedial action.

Pre-closure review 

If costs, Oracle-generated revenue and sponsor income are not all equal, Research Accounts will liaise with the department to resolve any outstanding issues.

• If the customer has disallowed expenditure and there is an overspend, the department will be contacted to discuss whether a) further discussion is required with the sponsor or b) the costs should be journaled out by the department.
• If the sponsor has paid cash in excess of expenditure, the department has verified that all costs have been charged to the project and there is a requirement to return any unused funding to the sponsor, Research Accounts will arrange a refund.
• If there is an underspend against income received, all costs have been charged to the project and the University is contractually entitled to retain the balance (e.g. there was a fixed price contract), Research Accounts will contact the department to arrange for clearance of the residual balance to the department.

When billing is complete and the project has been fully reconciled (i.e. costs, revenue and income all match), Research Accounts will change the system status of the project to 'Closed'.

Review performance 

Where appropriate, a review may be required to compare achieved outcome with original scope and to identify any lessons learnt. This will largely be the responsibility of the grant owner.

The Departmental Administrator has overall responsibility for ensuring that new studentship projects are effectively reviewed, started and communicated and that expenditure is charged promptly and coded accurately in line with sponsor terms and conditions.

When managing studentship projects, staff should ensure that the following controls are in place and adhered to:

• The department has formal procedures in place to ensure that all Start Certificates (where required) are submitted in good time.
• The project set up as per the studentship forms is checked against the set up as per Oracle to ensure it is consistent with expectations. This should be the case for all projects, irrespective of size or value.
• Following validation, the grant owner and relevant colleagues should be notified promptly that the project has been set up and is provided with the codes to be used for expenditure.
• All codes for eligible expenditure on specific studentship projects are clearly defined and advised to staff responsible for charging expenditure to projects.
• Monthly reports are provided to grant owner to enable them to actively manage the financial aspects of their studentship projects. Reports are reviewed periodically (at least twice a year) on a risk-assessed basis by administrative staff, and any issues arising are addressed as appropriate.
• Project journals and transfers are appropriately reviewed, authorised and actioned on a timely basis. A full audit trail is maintained.
• The grant owner and administrative staff have a good knowledge of the terms and conditions relating to the grant, and actively monitor transactions for compliance.
• Suspense account balances are always cleared at each month end.
• Where required by sponsors, accurate purchase orders are provided for invoices

Research Councils

Additional funding notifications (Research Councils specific)

The Research Councils may periodically add funds to existing training grants for a range of reasons (e.g. stipend/fees for incoming cohorts) by awarding ‘additional funding streams’, rather than issuing the funds under a completely separate grant/agreement. 

The notifications for such additional funding streams are issued via the Research Council’s grant management system, the ‘Joint Electronic Submission System’, commonly known as ‘Je-S’. 

The studentships and departmental projects team within Research Accounts receive these notifications directly from Je-S, and will forward them on to project owning departments, requesting for a DPF2 form to be completed and submitted to us. Upon receipt of a completed DPF2, the team will then uplift the budget on the project, and allocate the new funds to tasks on the project as instructed by the department.

Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) (Research Councils specific)

Following the additional funding streams/notifications process described above, the Research Councils may provide funds under the budget heading of Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) for students funded by studentships under their grants, for coverage of appropriate costs. Further, more detailed information on DSA provision by the research councils is available on the UKRI website at https://www.ukri.org/skills/funding-for-research-training/.

The research councils’ process for DSA is such that expenditure is incurred by institutions in the first instance. The costs incurred during the previous academic year are reported to the research councils via Je-S in October each year, by submitting a ‘grant maintenance request’. If the research councils agree to fund the costs incurred, funds will be added to the training grant to cover the DSA by way of an additional funding stream.

The university’s Disability Advisory Service (DAS) manages the vast majority of this process, incurring the DSA-related costs for the relevant students in the first instance, and also submitting the grant maintenance request to report the costs to the research councils annually.

Upon receipt of a DSA related additional funding notification, the studentships and departmental projects team within Research Accounts will forward the notification on to the project owning department, requesting for a DPF2 form to be completed and submitted to us, with the additional caveat that a new sub task should be set up for the relevant student under a top task with a department code for DAS, i.e. ‘GT’. This is required so that DAS can access the task and manage the funds accordingly.

Upon receipt of a completed DPF2, the team will then uplift the budget on the project, allocate the new funds to the relevant GT tasks on the project, and copy in relevant colleagues in DAS to alert them to the fact that the funds are available.

Industrial Awards and Co-Funding

Funds are often provided to the university by either industry sponsors or other entities, such as the Oxford Colleges, as co-funding against existing studentship awards. Although contracts will likely govern such awards for industrial sponsors, some funders may be more informal. These arrangements often have no formal financial reporting requirement in respect of studentships. An agreement is, however, still required, outlining billing frequencies, terms and conditions and other relevant information where possible.

For any such awards, a separate project is required to be set up. If desired, for ease of reporting, etc, departments/divisions can request that such arrangements are set up with a project number such that it is readily identifiable as relevant to an existing project (from which, as an example, a student receives research council funding), i.e. the main award of C0T00010, and the industrial award C0T00011.