Where more than one NSI record exists for the same student, a provider can ask that the two (or more) records be merged into one, so that the student has one NSN. This process will assist the Ministry of Education in maintaining a central database of verified student details, and will make it easier for providers to ensure that they have the correct NSNs for their students when they submit SDRs.
The existence of multiple records for one student may become apparent when you do a name-based search when the student is enrolling.
If you believe that a student has more than one NSI record and you would like the Ministry to merge them together, you need to tell them the NSNs of the records which should be merged. This process can be initiated in one of two ways: either select "Merge" from the menu at the top of the screen, or perform a name-based search and click on "Merge" (follow the steps provided on the screen).
NOTE:
It is important to be aware that just because a provider submits a merge request, it does not necessarily follow that the Ministry will merge the records together. Where two (or more) records are sufficiently similar for there to be little doubt that they are indeed for the same student (e.g. they are for a very uncommon name with the same date of birth), the merge may be automatically processed.
However, in many cases the Ministry will wish to contact providers to establish which details on which records are correct, so that a merge can be processed as accurately as possible.
Submitting a merge request when you know the NSNs
1) If you already know the NSNs of the records which you would like to be merged, select "Merge" from the menu. This will display the Merge Entry screen, into which you can enter the NSNs.
2) Selecting "Add Record" will add a field to the screen into which you can enter a NSN. So, if you have two records you want to be merged together, click it twice. Then enter the NSNs into the fields which have appeared on the screen, and select "Retrieve Data". The screen will now display the details of the records for which you’ve entered numbers:
3) You should now check to make sure that the student details displayed on the screen are indeed for the same person. If you still want to proceed and submit a merge request, the check boxes in the "Merge" column at the very beginning of each line must be highlighted before you click "Request Merge".
4) Click "OK" to the displayed message to submit the merge request.
5) When a request is submitted with the system you’ll see a message to confirm this:
Note: If at any point you find that you’ve entered the wrong number and retrieved the wrong data, click "Reset" to clear the fields on the screen and start again.
Submitting a merge request via a name-based search
The other way to submit a merge request is to perform a name-based search to obtain a list of similar names.
1) Click on "Merge". This will take you to the Merge Entry screen, in this instance the screen will display your first 20 search results (note that they are displayed in order of NSN rather than search result score):
2) Having the data already on the screen means that you don’t have to enter the NSNs and retrieve the data, instead you just select the check boxes of the records you want to merge, and click "Request Merge".
3) Click "OK" to the displayed message to submit the merge request.
4) Once your request has been submitted successfully, a message similar to the following will be displayed:
If you wish to go to another module please use the appropriate tab on the menu bar above.
If you wish to go to another part of the "The National Student Index (NSI)" module, please select the part from the left hand menu.