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Student Awards Administration Procedure

Ref. No. Executive sponsor Policy steward Approval authority First approved Last reviewed Effective date Next review
28.02 Vice President, Campuses and Communities Director, Student Supports Executive Council     October 2, 2026  
  1. Purpose
    1. The purpose of this procedure is to identify general administrative processes undertaken by the Student Awards office in order to fulfill its’ mandate, as outlined in the Student Awards policy.
  1. Definitions

    Key definitions are found in Appendix A - Definitions. Additional definitions may be found in the Glossary of Terms.

  1. Procedure
    1. Award Creation
      1. When new awards are established by NSCC Foundation, a gift processing form (GPF) is provided to the Student Awards office.
      2. The GPF is a summary document that provides all award details so that awards can be created in the Student Awards Portal.
      3. GPF’s are sent through to the Student Awards Office by the NSCC Foundation via NSCC’s ticketing platform and retained for reference.
      4. Once the award is created, the Student Awards office schedules and publishes the award during the appropriate award application period (fall or spring/summer).
    2. Application Submission
      1. Awards are posted through NSCC’s Student Awards Portal which is powered by Blackbaud Award Management. Students apply for all institutional aid via the Portal. All workflow leading up to the disbursement of funds is managed through this system.
      2. The workflow differs by award depending on its type and criteria.
    3. Preparing Awards for Selection - Pre-screening
      1. Upon the conclusion of the application period, award applications move into the pre-screening phase in which all applications are reviewed and verified against the award criteria to confirm eligibility.
      2. The Student Awards office analyzes all awards to determine whether the minimum number of eligible applicants has been met for each award.
      3. If the minimum number of eligible applicants has not been reached, the Student Awards office will pursue one or more of the following options:
        1. The award is reposted with an extended deadline to increase the applicant pool. This may include adjusting the award posting to reflect the remaining number of awards available (in instances where an award is to be given to multiple recipients).
        2. The award is distributed to those who are eligible and the remaining awards are offered in the following award application period or the following academic year.
        3. When it has been determined that no eligible applicants can be found, the award requirements are reviewed by NSCC Foundation, in consultation with the donor, and award eligibility criteria may be broadened to reach a larger applicant pool.
    4. Preparing Awards for Selection - Shortlisting
      1. If the number of eligible applications exceeds the number of award disbursements available the Student Awards office shortlists the applications.
      2. Shortlisting is only required for those awards which include qualitative criteria and therefore involve some objectivity.
      3. Awards are shortlisted based on several factors, which may include:
        1. Specified award allocation requirements (i.e. prescribed number of awards per program, per campus, or by another demographic).
        2. A comparison of the application against the donor’s prescribed assessment criteria as outlined.
        3. The applicant’s current student status (waitlisted, confirmed, matriculated).
      4. How much funding the student has already received via student awards; knowing the Foundation’s intention to broadly support as many students as possible.
    5. Award Recipient Selection
      1. Awards move to selection in order of category as follows:
        1. Academic merit – applications received for awards with 100% academic assessment criteria are determined through the calculation of average marks for specified term(s)/year(s)/previous educational transcript(s).
        2. Mixed criteria – this category of awards can include assessment criteria in the areas of leadership, community involvement, career dedication, financial need or any combination thereof. Shortlisting and selection of recipients are done by two separate staff members to ensure impartiality.
        3. Financial Need – applications received for awards with 100% financial need assessment criteria are determined through a needs assessment process which considers amount of unmet need combined with other attributes including:
          1. The reported gap in funding and whether it can be adequately addressed by the award funds.
          2. The personal circumstances which would impact the student’s situation such as living arrangements, employment income, marital status, and dependent status.
          3. Award decisions consider a broader financial context rather than being made in isolation. When possible, students are evaluated first for higher-value awards before being considered for lower-value ones, so applicant pools overlap rather than remain separate.
    6. Notification of Award Outcome
      1. Students can view their application results in the Student Awards Portal. Selected recipients receive an offer through the Portal and must accept within 10 days, or the offer will be withdrawn and extended to another student. Accepting an offer normally consists of the offer itself, as well as additional questions and tasks which may vary by award. All supplementary questions must be answered for an award offer to be considered accepted.
    7. Applying Service Indicators and Award Credits
      1. The Student Awards office applies service indicators to the recipient’s student record so that pertinent disbursement information, which may impact the student’s account, is available to campus staff.
      2. The following table outlines the types of indicators that are used and what information must be included:
        Service Indicator Code Type Description
        EXT External Award Scholarships/bursaries not funded by NSCC.
        TWA Tuition Waiver Costs covered by NSCC for tuition only; not refundable to student.
        AWD Student Award Awards funded through NSCC Foundation.
      3. The application of a student award service indicator must include the following:
        Service indicator code (as per above noted table);
        1. Start term – the term in which the award is intended to be applied;
        2. Start date – the date in which the service indicator is applied;
        3. Amount – the value of the current term disbursement.
        4. Comments – should include the name of the award and the installment number and a reminder of how the funds are issued to the student account.
      4. Student award credits are applied to accounts on a regular basis during the notification period, once final requirements are provided by the recipient.
      5. For student award recipients who withdraw from programs or no longer meet the eligibility requirements for a student award, the following process shall be followed by the Student Awards office:
        1. Award related service indicator(s) are released from the student's PeopleSoft account.
        2. Revoked Award service indicator(s) are added to the student’s PeopleSoft account.
        3. The Student Awards Office works with Central Student Finance to remove award funding from their NSCC Student Account, should the student withdraw or are found no longer eligible for the award prior to that term’s add/drop date.
        4. Any pending future installments of the award are cancelled in the Student Awards Portal.
        5. Identify an alternate ranked recipient (depending on award category). If there are no suitable alternate recipients from the applicant pool, award is moved to the next award application period.
    8. Refunds
      1. Student award recipients are eligible to receive refunds in accordance with the student awards policy.
  1. Appendix A - Definitions
Term Definition
Award Application Period NSCC has two main awards application periods (Fall and Spring/Summer), which is also called the awards business cycle. Awards posted within each application period launch at the same time but have various deadlines for application.
Award Attributes The individual characteristics or elements that describe each award and detail eligibility and evaluation criteria. E.g. award name, award amount, award description, renewable or non-renewable, eligible campus, eligible programs(s), etc.
Award Disbursements The process to distribute awards to recipients.
Award Posting The publicly shared details of the awards opportunities either online or in print.
Completed Application An award application that has met all the necessary eligibility criteria.
Eligibility Criteria Conditions that must be met by the award applicant in order to be considered for the award.
Evaluation Criteria Conditions that are utilized in the assessment of an award submission to determine an award decision.
Final Requirements Refers to the processes that must be completed/data that must be collected in order to finalize acceptance of the award and complete disbursements – these may include providing a photo of the recipient, thank you statement, academic transcript, and/or social insurance number.
Funds (named award) An award with a specific title, eligibility criteria, evaluation criteria, application dates, disbursement rules, evaluators, final requirements and other attributes. Each fund may have one or more awards associated with it.
Gift Agreement Established between an award donor and the NSCC Foundation which outlines the intentions of the fund including eligibility, assessment and application criteria.
In Progress Awards Student awards that are open for application/submission.
Notification The electronic delivery of a message to an individual recipient or applicant.
Pre-screening The process by which the Student Awards office confirms an applicant is eligible for a specific award before moving on to the next step in the evaluation process.
Ranking The process to review and order student award submissions.
Refund Disbursement made to a student when their financial account is in overpayment.
Scoring/Rubric Scoring guide used to evaluate the quality of student applications. These typically contain evaluation criteria, quality definitions for those criteria and scoring strategy.
Service Indicator Values used in PeopleSoft that are applied to student award recipients' accounts to communicate award payment details to campus staff. These are also used in statistical analysis and reporting.
Shortlisting The process by which all eligible applications are reviewed to arrive at a list of selected submissions from which award decisions are made. This process is typically utilized for awards that are proceeding to committee evaluation and/or where there is a large volume of submissions.
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