Updates to the PAL Process for 2025

Field Changes

For the 2025 PAL year, the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities (MCU) is requesting program information to be collected as part of the PAL request. These fields will be used for reporting only, and there is no indication that the fields will be included on the PAL letter. We are in the process of adding these new fields to the PAL Process. The fields will be optional as we continue to work with the MCU to determine what specific business rules need to be enforced in January.

We recommend collecting and sending these fields with your PAL letter requests.

PAL Excel Templates

Our next release will include an updated Excel template with these new columns, which you can download from this article.

December 2024:

• New program fields can optionally be included with PAL requests.

• You can continue to use the current Excel template that you are using today, or you can start to use this new template with the new optional columns.  

January 2024 (Date TBD):

• New program fields will be required for PAL requests. You must use the new PAL Excel template and include program information.

• The older PAL Excel templates will no longer be supported.

To assist with this transition, OCAS will start to collect and verify the new optional columns with the current PAL requests; however we will not send any of the new information to the MCU.  

We recommend you start to use the new Excel template as soon as possible, so that you are ready for when these fields become required from the MCU (likely mid-January 2025)

The new program level information is based on guidelines from the MCU. For more details on these fields, see the Colleges of applied arts and technology procedures for funding approval of programs of instruction page on the ontario.ca website.

Level of Study (Credential)

Currently this field is optional. For the 2025 PAL Period, this field will be required. Please select one of the following options:

• Baccalaureate Degree

• Certificate

• Diploma

• Masters Degree

• Ontario College Diploma

• Ontario College Advanced Diploma

• Ontario College Certificate

• Ontario College Graduate Certificate

• Not Available

Approved Program Sequence (APS) number

A unique 5-digit number assigned to an approved program of instruction by the Credential Validation Service and used for enrolment reporting to the ministry. If your program appears to have only 4 digits, you must include a leading zero in the APS code. For example, the program code 1234 is invalid; it should be indicated as 01234.

We recognize that not all programs have the APS code defined, so you can include 00000 as undefined.

MCU Code (formerly MTCU Code)

A 5-digit number assigned by the ministry to post-secondary programs of instruction and used to identify the provincial program category to which programs that are broadly similar in their vocational objectives and titles have been assigned.

We recognize that not all programs have the MCU code defined, so you can include 00000 as undefined.

Program Title

Currently this field is optional. For the PAL 2025 period, the field will be required.

PAL APIs

Our next release will include updates to the PAL APIs. The new fields will be part of the Program object in the CreateBatch endpoint. For more details on the new fields, see the API Reference - QA documentation.

We will release these changes to UAT in early December so that you can start your integration and testing. If you have any questions on these changes, please reach out to the OCAS team.

Partners using the OCAS IAS (International Application Service)

If you are using the OCAS IAS to send PAL requests, you do not need to make any changes.

We are working on updates to this workflow in IAS to include the program fields from the applicant’s Offer that you choose for the PAL request. These changes will be included in a future IAS release planned for December or early January.

Please ensure that your program APS and MCU codes are up to date in IAS prior to mid-January 2025.

Reports

In a future release, we will make updates to the reports in the DLI Portal. Please watch for further updates.

Next Steps

Important: Please monitor your email for the release notice about the updated version of the Ontario Attestation Letter Service. The next version will support sending these new fields, which will be optional.

• For the remainder of the 2024 period, continue to send PAL requests with no changes.

• In early to mid-January 2025, we will have another update to the Ontario Attestation Letter Service that will make those fields required.

• From that point forward, you must include the new program level data with your PAL requests.

If you have any questions about these changes, please reach out to our support team.