This field indicates the date of the student's initial commencement of studies for this student instance and may relate to a date prior to the current academic/financial year. Exchange-in students should have the date they commenced their studies at the reporting institution.

All students

To determine whether to include a student in any particular population definition; to calculate the duration of a student's education

This field is identical to the Instance.COMDATE field in the Student Record.

All date fields in this collection must be completed using the ISO8601 format of YYYY-MM-DD. The specification of this field falls within the scope of the MIAP Common Data Definitions project.

If a student transfers from one HEI to another, the date they entered the current HEI for this qualification aim should be returned in this field.

If a student completes any teaching experience prior to commencing studies at the institution, that is an integral part of the course, the date that this experience started should be returned in this field.

If a student withdrew from an ITT course in a previous reporting period and returns, or if a student transfers from a non-ITT course to an ITT course at the same HEI, then the start date of the original course should be returned in this field as long as the same instance is returned.

When a student transfers onto an ITT course after 01 August of the reporting period, provisional registration must be completed within 28 days of the transfer.