STA International is a debt collection agency that specializes in collecting unpaid student debts for colleges. They have over a 55% collection success rate and collect over half of all debts within the first 12 months. STA uses amicable collection, tracing, and legal action to recover debts. They provide colleges with detailed online reporting of collection performance and costs to improve transparency. STA has over a decade of experience working with over 100 further education and higher education institutions in the UK and internationally.

1. Getting Colleges Paid
Presented by Neill MacKinnon
Further Education:
Student Debt Collection
We recover 55% of all your
unpaid student debts
55%

2. FE debt collection: The facts
For a college to use our services they will want answers to two questions. “What is your
collection success for colleges?” and “How quickly do you collect college debts?” Our answers
below include closed UK and international debts recovered from amicable collection, tracing
and legal action.
Figure 2 shows our speed of collection success in the first 12 months after placement:
Figure 1 shows our overall collection success for closed college debts:
Figure 1
Figure 2

3. T: 0844 324 0660 @staintl
W: www.stainternational.com
STA International has a dedicated student debt collection and customer service business operating
8 a.m. through 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more than 10 years we’ve collected tuition,
accommodation, library, research and commercial debts; today partnering more than 100 FE & HE
institutions, plus independent student accommodation businesses. In 2015, we collected >£11.4m of
UK and international debts and now we are pursuing c18k open debts worth >£44m.
Collector Accreditation
The Credit Services Association
(CSA) is the official watchdog
of the debt collection industry
and, as members, we support
its stringent Code of Practice.
STA has added CSA Corporate Accreditation
to its other professional awards. The Collector
Accreditation Initiative (CAI) assesses each
collector’s understanding of the regulatory, legislative
and compliance framework covering, among other
things, the following areas:
Guidance on Unfair Debt Collection Practice
Treating Customers Fairly
Lending Standards Board –The Lending Code
Dispute Resolution Guidance
Data Protection Act 1998
The Consumer Credit Act 1974
As part of STAs compliance strategy, ongoing training
ensures our collectors optimise their knowledge and
competency and achieve the CAI standard. To gain
Corporate Accreditation a company must have at
least 75% of its collectors meet the standard, and
STA have achieved this level.
LUPC Framework Supplier
In 2013, STA won Framework
SupplierstatusfromtheLondon
Universities Purchasing
Consortium, to provide debt
collection services to its
members, including many FE
colleges, 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.
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 customer. An organisation’s
‘Quality Management’ refers to the actions it takes to
ensure its products or services satisfy its customers’
quality requirements and complies with any regulations
applicable to those products or services.
Status&accreditations
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Status & accreditations

4. Clienttestimonials
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It’s most important that we understand the collection success STA gets, and that we know the cost of
their actions. Their web reporting tool “Your Debts Online” gives us this overall collection success and
the costs involved for each and every debt we place with them. Not only does this give us an audit of
past performance, but it also means we can forecast collection success, and cost, when placing new
batches of debt.
Treating Customers Fairly is as crucial to us
as recovering our unpaid accounts. That’s
why we expect full and timely follow-up on
the debts we place with STA. We’re pleased
that their collectors let us know quickly about
successes as well as any problems met;
whether by email, telephone or online, we are
always pleased with STAs communication,
and it certainly means we are kept in-the-
loop.
Further Education knowledge and experience
was a must in our choice of a Debt Collection
Agency, and STA impressed us with their
understanding of our business. More
importantly, this knowledge has extended
throughout their staff and, as a result,
they’ve become an important partner in our
credit control process. I have no hesitation
recommending STA to other FE colleges
seeking a trusted partner.
I have worked with STA for a short while now and I
really appreciate their consistent collection success
performance and their online performance reports
are transparent, reassuring and very easy to use.
Also the staff are very helpful, always on hand and
have great success.
Our reputation is most important to us,
not only in student teaching but in every
aspect of the student experience. This
cannot be prejudiced, even when it
comes to collecting unpaid accounts. For
this reason, we selected STA; their wide
experience of both FE and HE recoveries
ensures that our reputation is maintained.
Overdue accounts dent our cash flow so
as well as collecting our student accounts
quickly, we are pleased they also remit our
collected funds in full every two weeks. Even
better, they remit by BACS, giving us rapid
access to our recovered money and cutting
our costs at the same time.
I am impressed with the knowledge and
experience STA’s student collections team has
about the various funding arrangements and
other student issues. This means they engage,
discuss and resolve queries, expedite payment
and cut unnecessary delays.
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Ann Gregory, Financial Accountant, Lincoln
Tracy Bull, College Accountant, Isle of Wight
James Oram,
Accounts Receivable Assistant, West Kent & Ashford
Andrew Harris, Head of Finance, Calderdale
Julie Munro, Finance Manager, Tameside
Sympho Sakila,
Sales Ledger Controller, Aylesbury
Ashlie Archer,
Sales Ledger Supervisor, Sussex Downs
We haven’t needed to refer large numbers of students for debt recovery, but those that we do are always
worked very thoroughly ensuring the highest level of collection success and therefore minimising our
bad debt write-off. The service received has been really good throughout the time we have been working
together.
Jamie Stroud, Head of Finance, Tower Hamlets
“
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Client testimonials

5. Treatingcustomersfairly(TCF)
TCF demands a consistent, considerate and thorough collection programme be followed.
Figure 3 demonstrates our process for student debt collection:
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Figure 3
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© STA International
Treating customers fairly (TCF)

6. The final phase of recovery, legal action, affects just 2% of all FE student debts. Legal action requires up-front
costs be paid before a penny has been collected. STA cannot influence the college strategy on taking legal
action but we can provide cost: benefit evidence to prove it’s a successful tactic.
Figure 5 shows legal action collection success and costs by month:
How size of debt impacts its recovery:
The average size of FE student debt placed with us is under £1,000 and ranges from full-value tuition fees to
low value library fines. Whatever the debt type colleges ask about their cost outlay versus their cash return;
essentially, what is the return-on-investment? The cost outlay is a combination of commission for money
recovered in the amicable collection phase; the tracing of ‘gone-away’ students, plus legal issuing and
enforcement.
We recover most of the debt at the amicable stage where the commission is contingent on collected funds.
Better still, speed of recovery at the amicable stage is rapid, raising funds for colleges to invest in legal action for
the small minority that don’t pay at this stage.
Figure 4 shows collection success by size of debt, including the success in month one:
Amicable&legalcollectionstatistics
Figure 4
Figure 5
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Client testimonialsAmicable & legal collection statistics

7. Tracing
13% of FE student debts require us to trace a student
who either fails to respond to our collection efforts,
or results in mail being returned as ‘gone-away.’ Our
UK student tracing success is c65%; impressive
considering students are notoriously transient. 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.
B2B Debt Collection
Events, conferences and facilities hire are important
income streams for colleges, but they all involve credit
risk. That’s why we provide UK and international
B2B collections, adding Late Payment Act interest
and collection costs to all commercial debts. When
recovered, the collection costs will satisfy our
commission charge and you’ll receive the principal
amount plus interest.
UK Commercial Credit Reports
To minimise the need for B2B debt collection STA can,
on request, provide you with free-of-charge credit
reports on UK based businesses.
Online Discussion Forum
The Online Discussion Forum is a free-to-use password
protected message board designed for colleges and
universities to debate topics of common interest.
Reputationalrisk,securityandsupportservices
T: 0844 324 0660 @staintl
W: www.stainternational.com
Protecting your Reputation
Integrity of collection is as important to education
establishments as the speed and amount of money
recovered. Bad publicity in the digital age can quickly
undermine hard-earned reputations and potentially
damage recruitment. That’s why our collectors are
fully conversant with college enrolment procedures,
funding, withdrawal processes, and documentation
trails. This knowledge reduces misunderstandings,
overcomes objections, speeds up recovery, and
minimises the need for legal action. In addition, such
precise payment negotiation means we make minimal
requests for information to a college.
Every collection call, inbound and outbound, begins
with a security check to confirm we are speaking to
the student and not their representative. Balanced
call content seeks to get paid without applying undue
pressure and, when hardship or vulnerability exists, a
financial assessment calculates if an instalment plan is
valid and appropriate.
Speed and Accuracy
Our Touch-Star power-dialler telephony increases
collector contact rates threefold; call recording meets
mandatory compliance rules, monitors call quality
and advances training. SMS text messaging and
Caller Line Identification both enhance contact rates,
increasing the cash collected.
Payment methods include online, telephone, recurring
card processing, direct debit, standing order and all
traditional means. Our PCI DSS compliance controls
any security risks.
Remittance of collected monies is equally fast with
cleared funds remitted to you every two weeks via
BACS, with all your invoices available online.
Communication is key to cash collection and this
includes keeping you informed of our progress.
The next pages outline what Your Debts Online, our
performance reporting facility, will provide to you. In
addition, your collector will contact you with updates,
and customer services will seek your approval for our
recommendations as required.
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Treating customers fairly (TCF)Reputational risk, security and support services

8. Onlinereporting
Your Debts Online - Dashboard Report:
A graphical summary of our collection success
Your Debts Online -
Performance Report:
A report of our collection
performance by month and
by country
T: 0844 324 0660 @staintl
W: www.stainternational.com
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© STA International
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
T: 0844 324 0660 @staintl
W: www.stainternational.com
Aylesbury College
Ayrshire College
Barking & Dagenham College
Calderdale College
Canterbury College
Central College
Coleg Cambria
Coleg Sir Gar
Dundee & Angus College
Gateshead College
Glasgow Kelvin College
Grantham College
Isle Of Wight College
Kirklees College
Lincoln College
Loughborough College
Myerscough College
Nescot College
New College Durham
New College Nottingham
Northumberland College
Reaseheath College
South & City College Birmingham
South Tyneside College
Stockton Riverside College
Sussex Downs College
Tameside College
Tower Hamlets College
Waltham Forest College
West Kent And Ashford College
Wigan & Leigh College
Abertay University
Bangor University
Birmingham City University
City University London
Edge Hill University
Lancaster University
Manchester Business School
Newcastle University
The Open University
Plymouth University
Queen Margaret University
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
University of Aberdeen
University of Bath
University of Bolton
University of Cumbria
University of Dundee
University of Hull
University of Nottingham
University of Strathclyde
University of Sussex
University of Wales Trinity Saint David
University of Westminster
University of Wolverhampton
The following is a sample from our total FE & HE list of c100 clients:
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Our clients

12. Getting Colleges Paid
STA International is an award-winning debt collection agency, acting for more than 100 FE & HE
clients and over 1,000 B2B/B2C 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 and Shanghai.
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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