Surplus Balances in Study Abroad Accounts

While the hope is to keep student charges to a minimum, there are times when student payments made via student accounts for study abroad program costs exceed actual expenses, and thus a surplus is left in the account after all expenses have been reconciled.  This policy is to provide campus-wide direction on how to handle such positive balances when they arise.  

In the event that any student paid to their student account an excess of $250 or higher above actual trip expenses after all program expenses have been reconciled and have been confirmed as being reconciled by the program leader and unit business administrator, a refund of all such overages for each relevant student shall be requested of Student Accounts by the unit business administrator.  It is the responsibility of each unit running a study abroad program to verify if an overage has occurred and how much that overage ended up being.  

Refund requests should be submitted and processed within two weeks of the completion of all expense reconciliations.  Email notifications should also be sent to each relevant student by either the program leader or unit business administrator explaining that fees paid exceeded program expenses by at least $250, thus a refund is being processed.

If any student paid an overage less than $250, the excess funds should be kept in the shortcode to help defray expenses for the next iteration of the study abroad program (either going toward student scholarships or paying for program expenses).  If a program will not be run again or if it is unknown if the program will be run again, a full refund of any overage made to a student account should be refunded.  If a program is unexpectedly retired later on, and for whatever reason, still has a balance in the shortcode account, it will be up to the unit overseeing the shortcode to determine the best use of funds.

Funds in study abroad shortcode accounts that are the result of direct student payments should only be used for student refunds or to fund future iterations of that particular program.  The only exception to this would be if a program were to be unexpectedly retired at a later date. 

Posted 10/18/2023