1. Getting Universities Paid
Presented by Neill MacKinnon
Higher Education:
Student Debt Collection

2. Student Debt Collection - the facts and figures

3. Status&Accreditations
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© STA International
LUPC Framework Supplier
In 2013, STA won Framework
Supplier status from the London
Universities Purchasing Consortium,
to provide debt collection services to
its members, and members of other
Consortia in the UK.
With this access to approved debt collection
partners, members can make their choice without the
need for an expensive and time-consuming tender
process.
Treating Customers Fairly (TCF)
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorised and
regulated for accounts formed under the Consumer
Credit Act 1974 (amended 2006) – STAs Consumer
Credit Licence number is: 635875.
The FCA defines the debtor as the ‘customer’ and
mandates 6 TCF outcomes that we must adhere to.
Indeed, its number 1 outcome states: ‘Consumers
can be confident that they are dealing with firms
where the fair treatment of customers is central to
the corporate culture.’ Our full-time training manager
keeps staff up-to-date on all related compliance
issues.
STA International has a dedicated student debt collection and customer service
business operating 8 a.m. through 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. For over 10 years
we have collected tuition, accommodation, library, research and commercial debts;
today partnering more than 80 universities and independent student accommodation
businesses. In 2015, we collected c£11.5m of student debts and today we have c18k
open student debts worth >£44m that we are pursuing.
Status & Accreditations
Credit Services Association (CSA)
The CSA is the official
watchdog of the debt
collection industry and, as
members, we support
their stringent Code of
Practice. In 2013, STA achieved the CSAs Company
Accreditation when it exceeded the 70% threshold
of collectors attaining their Collector Accreditation
Initiative; a process that assesses each collector’s
understanding of the regulatory, legislative and
compliance framework.
ISO9001: 2008 Quality Accreditation
STA has ISO 9001
accreditation: certificate
number FS591695.
This internationally
recognised standard is for
an organisation’s internal Quality Management. The
term ‘quality’ refers to all those features of a product
or service required by the client. An organisation’s
‘Quality Management’ refers to the actions it
takes to ensure its products or services satisfy its
clients’ quality requirements and complies with any
regulations applicable to those
products or services.
Insurance Cover
To fulfil its obligation of membership to the Commercial Law League of America, STA International has posted
a surety bond of $1,000,000 to protect the creditors it serves.
We also have £5m insurance cover on each of: Professional Indemnity, Public Liability and Product Liability.

4. Testimonials
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Client Testimonials
“
...I appreciate STAs consistent collection success performance over the 10 years we’ve been using
them; and their online performance reports are easy-to-use, transparent and reassuring.
Greg Wray, Income Manager, City University
“
...I particularly like STAs extended
opening hours, and their latest
telephone technology; together,
these give a high level of student
contact that increases the money
they collect for us.
Joanne Mills, General Ledger
Accountant, University of Glasgow
“
...QA Business School deals only with overseas students,
and STA collect from many of these themselves. When
they can’t, their extensive network of local agents
has collected from students in Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan,
Malaysia, Kenya and Nigeria etc., much impressing me.
Marcus Stoneham, Credit Manager
QA Business School
“
...I am always conscious of protecting Manchester’s reputation, so STA’s specialist knowledge and
understanding of the HE market gives me great peace of mind when referring our student debts.
Michelle Bailey, Head of Transactional Services, University of Manchester
“
...I really like the regular performance reviews
with Neill, STAs account director, arming me
with the information needed for my VC to prove
the cost effectiveness of using STA.
Carl Gibson, Finance Director, Edge Hill University
“
...I am impressed with the knowledge and
experience their collection team has with
regard to various funding arrangements
available to students. They are able to engage,
discuss and resolve queries to facilitate payment
on a regular basis.
Marilyn Fletcher, University of Wolverhampton
“
...mostly, I like the way they meet our
challenges with solutions; recently
we needed some help with current
accommodation students, but didn’t want
a full debt recovery service. Neill, their
account director, devised a very simple,
but very effective “passive solution” of a
letter/email service that generated a 40%
collection success within 10 days.
Doreen Bailey,
Head of Student Management,
Aston University
“
...As the leading student accommodation provider, our needs are different, and STA has adapted
its service to give us dual collection: with student and guarantor equally liable, they contact them
simultaneously, speeding up our chances of payment. In addition they have customised their reporting
to suit our management information requirements.
Kelly West, Account Support & Collections Manager, Unite Group

5. Adutyofcare
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© STA International
Location, location, location
Our UK student tracing success is c65%; impressive
considering students are notoriously transient.
Undelivered mail, and lack of contact, creates the
need to trace the student to a new address. The
tracing team is in-house, with access to all of the
credit reference agency data needed to locate an
electronic footprint.
With the unconfirmed address available, the
validation process begins; making contact with near
neighbours to legitimise the database findings. Once
validated to a new address, or a living as stated
address, the collection process resumes or begins.
Collection & Protection
On receipt of a debt, segmentation will consider:
type, age, value, area, and data provided. With 70
workflows available, the selected workflow optimises
collection success rates using the weighted value of
each segmentation element.
Each workflow starts in the same way; regulations
require us to send our letter of instruction, and make
our first payment demand. This instruction letter,
followed by other letters, emails and SMS, each
escalating in demand and outcome, meet regulatory
requirements, and satisfy harassment rules, with
careful scheduling. The collector will re-schedule or
Overview
Cost, collection success and customer care rank highest for university buyers; as seen at consortia, tender
and user level. That’s why we maximise amicable recovery and minimise the need for legal recovery; reducing
costs. Our 14 strong student collection team operates a shift system to cover 8 a.m. through 8 p.m. Monday
through Friday; increasing collection success. Fully conversant with HE funding; the UKBA; Access to
Learning Fund, withdrawal processes and documentation means universities receive minimal queries from
STA; protecting goodwill and reputation.
Supporting the team is a Touch-Star power-dialler: telephone technology that increases contact rates
threefold; Caller Line Identification that delivers a ‘local and familiar’ number to the student debtor, and SMS
text messaging with its instant and friendly feel. Recording calls – except when taking debit and credit card
details – is mandatory to meet monitoring and training requirements.
Multiple payment methods include online payment gateway, telephone card and recurring card processing,
direct debit, standing order and all traditional means of payment. Our PCI DSS compliance means prevention,
detection and appropriate reaction to security incidents. We remit your collected funds every two weeks via
BACS.
rescind these dependent upon the results of our most
successful and frequent collections tactic: telephone
contact.
Each call – inbound and outbound - starts with a
security check to confirm we are speaking to the
debtor and not their representative. Balanced call
content seeks to get paid without applying undue
pressure on the student. When a call reveals hardship
or vulnerability, it transfers to our trained specialists
to handle. A financial assessment is undertaken,
advice given and, where appropriate, we set up an
instalment plan that is revised regularly.
When all else fails
Legal action involves up-front costs and takes time,
so we recommend it only as a last resort; less than
15% of student debts placed with us end up in any
form of legal action. When it is necessary, our partner
solicitors firm Hadfield & Co will issue a claim via the
County Court Bulk Centre (CCBC) in Northampton,
where charges are lower and they need less
paperwork.
Unless contested, the claim will reach Judgment
stage and, if the student still doesn’t pay, then we
may recommend using High Court Enforcement
Officers to settle the account. We may recommend
other forms of enforcement on a case-by-case basis.
A duty of care

6. Whatwecollect
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Collection success rates
Collection success rates are different for home based students than for students based overseas. We have
collected c£54m or 45% of £122m placed from over 87k closed debts at UK addresses; c£15.6m or 34% of
£46m placed from c19k closed debts at international addresses. These are the averages of our combined
clients and vary from client-to-client depending on the age, location and profile of their student portfolio.
Overseas students
Much the way legal action is a last resort for UK-based students, so overseas agents are a last resort for
international based students. In 2015, we collected from 125 countries and, of all the monies recovered, we
collected 79% of it from the UK, saving clients the cost and delay of using an overseas agent in the local
market. Below, you can see the share of collection by continent, and three league tables of the Top 10
countries that we collected from for our HE clients:
What we collect
TOP 10 BY COLLECTED VALUE
1 Nigeria
2 China
3 United States
4 India
5 Germany
6 Pakistan
7 Greece
8 France
9 United Arab Emirates
10 Cyprus
TOP 10 BY # OF DEBTS PLACED
1 China
2 Nigeria
3 United States
4 India
5 Spain
6 France
7 Germany
8 Cyprus
9 Pakistan
10 Greece
TOP 10 BY PLACEMENT VALUE
1 Nigeria
2 China
3 United States
4 India
5 Malaysia
6 Pakistan
7 France
8 Greece
9 Cyprus
10 Germany
125
The top 10 countries where we collected student debt in 2015
countries collected from
79%
Africa & Middle East,
29%
Asia & Australia, 29%
North & South
America, 10%
Europe (exc. UK &
Ireland), 32%
Africa & Middle East
Asia & Australia
North & South America
Europe (exc. UK & Ireland)
In 2015, we collected 79% of all international
student debt from the UK; saving you the
additional cost of using overseas agents.
The share of our student
collections by continent

7. RespondingtoHEmarketconditions
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© STA International
Non-academic student debts
With the OFT ruling that academic sanctions cannot
be used to recover non-academic debts, universities
must leverage payment in a different way. For current
students, our 10 day third-party demand letter will
often generate payment: when it does, it’s at little
or no cost to the university; when it doesn’t, then it
switches to our standard collection but at lower than
usual rates of commission.
Early-out arrears
The sooner that a student pays the less time
university finance resources need to commit to them
in the future. That’s why we provide extended hours
telephone calls to current students in the university’s
name.
This transparent service benefits from high contact
rates thanks to the accuracy of the data provided
for current students. With our evening collectors and
telephone technology we can take on a minimum
file of 300 students, completing the project in just
3 nights, charging £5 per student. We ask students
to pay the university, not STA, and we report any
queries, disputes and misunderstandings.
Post-Judgment Surveillance
Designed for students with a County Court
Judgment (CCJ) served on them by STAs solicitor,
the university itself, or its solicitor. CCJs have a
shelf-life of 6 years; time for student circumstances
to change; typically they seek employment, or try to
open a credit line. Both could result in negative credit
checks on the student, whose only recourse is to pay
the Judgment debt.
Understanding and responding to new HE challenges
Six annual regional discussion forums plus our 24/7 online message board reflect the changes and challenges
impacting our university clients. Knowing what challenges users have is the best way to find a solution and
that’s what we did when the OFT stopped universities using academic sanctions to recover non-academic
debts. It’s why we partner Finalysis to offer universities its full range of banking and treasury services. In 2016
we introduce credit control training to universities.
STA is not simply a debt collection agency but a shared service centre with resources to respond to university
needs: Out-of-hours calling; Post-Judgment surveillance and confidential credit control on demand.
Every two years we retrace the student and, where
we track them down, we start amicable collection
that can lead to enforcement, if required. The only
charges are for the tracing, plus commission on
monies collected, plus any enforcement action taken.
Commercial Debt Collection
Events, conferences and facilities hire are income
streams for universities, but they involve credit risk.
STA provides UK and International B2B collections,
adding Late Payment Act interest and collection
costs to all commercial debts; recovery of principal
debt, interest and collection costs means a free-of-
charge collection service for HE clients.
UK Commercial Credit Reports
Minimising the need for B2B debt collection means
assessing credit risk; that’s what our free-of-charge
commercial credit reports do for HE clients.
University Discussion Forums
Six regional forums a year let HE customers meet
with fellow universities to discuss the challenges
and changes impacting their work. 71 different
universities have attended the forums with a total of
748 delegates present.
Online Discussion Forum
Supplementing the six annual meeting forums is the
online message board where HE clients login
to exchange questions, answers and opinions on
subjects of their choice.
Responding to HE market conditions

8. Onlinereporting
Your Debts Online - Dashboard Report:
A graphical summary of our collection success
Secure password protected access to web-based reports, costs and charges
Your Debts Online -
Performance Report:
A report of our collection
performance by month and
by country
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Online reporting

9. Onlinereporting
Your Debts Online - Closed Debts Status Report:
A report of debts closed (a similar report is available for open debts
showing your debts that are still being pursued)
Your Debts Online - Debt Detail:
A report of an individual debtor, a ‘drill-down’ facility from the
Performance and Open Debts Status Reports , including the facility for
you to submit electronic comments to your collector
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10. Onlinereporting
Your Debts Online - Fees by Debt Report:
This report shows the net and gross debt, the amount collected and
any collection, tracing or legal costs that you have incurred
Your Debts Online - Fees by Period Report:
This report shows all the costs you’ve incurred by your chosen time period
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11. OurClients
Abertay University
Aberystwyth University
Arts University Bournemouth
Aston University
Bangor University
Birkbeck, University of London
Birmingham City University
Brunel University, London
Cardiff Metropolitan University
Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, London
City University London
Cranfield University
De Montfort University, Leicester
Edge Hill University
Fresh Student Living
Glasgow School of Art
Glyndŵr University
Imperial College London
Keele University
King’s College London
Kingston University, London
Lancaster University
Liverpool Hope University
Liverpool John Moores University
London School of Economics and Political Science
London School of Hygiene And Tropical Medicine
London South Bank University
Alliance Manchester Business School
Newcastle University
Newman University, Birmingham
Northumbria University, Newcastle
Norwich University of The Arts
Nottingham Trent University
Plymouth University
QA Business School / University of Ulster
Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh
Ravensbourne College
Regent’s University London
Royal Academy of Music
Royal Agricultural University Cirencester
Royal College of Music London
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Royal Holloway, University of London
SOAS, University of London
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Southampton Solent University
St George’s University of London
St Mary’s University, Twickenham London
Staffordshire University
Swansea University
The Open University
The University of Manchester
The University of Nottingham
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music And Dance
Unite Group Plc
University Campus Suffolk
University College London
University for the Creative Arts
University of Aberdeen
University of Bath
University of Bedfordshire
University of Bolton
University of Brighton
University of Bristol
University of Central Lancashire
University of Cumbria
University of Derby
University of Dundee
University of Exeter
University of Glasgow
University of Gloucestershire
University of Hertfordshire
University of Hull
University of Kent
University of Lincoln
University of London
University of Roehampton London
University of South Wales
University of St Andrews
University of St Mark & St John
University of Stirling
University of Strathclyde Glasgow
University of Surrey
University of Sussex
University of The Arts London
University of Wales Trinity Saint David
University of West London
University of Westminster
University of Winchester
University of Wolverhampton
Our clients

12. Getting Universities Paid
STA International is an award-winning debt collection agency, acting for more than 100
H&FE clients and over 1,000 B2B clients. For its Confidential Credit Control clients, STA
operates in the client name providing transparent ledger management or outsourcing
services on a UK and International basis. STA also locates ‘gone-away’ debtors in its skip-
tracing division.
STA International is in second-generation family ownership and founded in New York in
1955, still the group HQ. The group has other international offices in Chicago, Mexico City,
Shanghai, and Maidstone.
Neill MacKinnon BA (Hons)
Client Services Director
T: 0844 324 0660
M: 07946 649981
E: neill.mackinnon@staonline.com
W: www.stainternational.com
STA International is a trading style of STA International Limited, registered in England & Wales (registered no. 2893487)
Registered and trading address: 3rd Floor, Colman House, King Street, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1DN
VAT no. 646003171. Data Protection no. Z7268646. Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority
for accounts formed under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (amended 2006) Consumer Credit License No. 635875
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