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Importing Student Data

Raj
  • Updated

Importing student data is a vital step in implementing Handshake. It's the most efficient way to ensure you're populating accurate student information. Imported accounts are automatically confirmed in Handshake and won't require verification from the student.

Data in Handshake helps Career Services users with outreach, filtering, analytics, and populating necessary student job qualifications.

Use this article to upload your initial student data file into Handshake.

Topics:

Getting Started

1. Review the list of available student data fields, listed below - Explore the basic formatting requirements and example content to understand the type of data you'll be bringing in.

2. Outline your workflow requirements and identify any questions - Importer: Student Data Formatting FAQs Work as a team (both Career Services and IT) to identify the key fields to support the Career Services team's workflows. Explore the linked doc to determine how you'll handle edge-cases and formatting for particular populations.

3. Download the Student CSV Example (located at the bottom of this article) - Each field has its own column, and the headers must match exactly. Copy and paste from the example file to ensure your headers are correctly formatted.

4. Access the Importer to upload - Anyone who uploads data into Handshake will need access to the Importer, refer to Importer: Gaining Access. If you don't have access yet, review the brief training and contact Handshake Support so they can add you to the tool!

 

Uploading Your Student File

  1. Once your file is prepared, delete any instructions so that the header fields are in the top row.  
  2. Click File -> Save As -> UTF-8 encoded CSV.
  3. Use the Importer to upload your file:
  •  

Iterating on Your Feedback

The Importer should give you detailed automated feedback on the formatting of your file. It can take a few uploads to perfect the formatting, so if you're encountering warnings or errors, there are a few things to check:

  • File Type: make sure you have a valid file type (we require a UTF-8 encoded .csv file)
  • Headers: confirm all headers and fields match the exact formatting requirements (The Importer will notify you if it finds data that we don't map).
  • Missing Fields: determine if values in your file aren't registering. If they don't register, they'll fail to import.
  • Gut Check: conduct a quick gut check on the data you are importing:
    • How many students are you bringing in? How many are you archiving? Etc.
    • Are you planning to create new accounts or update existing accounts?
    • What new courses, colleges, and/or campuses were found? Should this create new ones or could these be duplicates/typos?

Available fields for importing a Students file

Download an example Students CSV file

The fields listed below should be formatted as shown and saved as a CSV. Column headers are case sensitive and should be in all lowercase. If any of your headers differ from the formatting included below, the Importer will not identify it and it will be skipped. We recommend reviewing the example file linked above to ensure correct header formatting.

Required Fields: The column headers marked as required are necessary in the file. The column values marked as 'can't be blank' must contain values. Column values that aren't required can be left blank - this will not erase any existing data in that field.

Options fields: You can leave out any headers or values that are not marked as required - this will not erase any existing data in that field except for system_label_names. If you include the system_label_names column header in the file and leave the column values blank, this will clear all system labels in Handshake for that respective student.  

 

Column header Column value

email_address

*Required

*Can't be blank

 The basic identifier for each user in Handshake. This must be unique for each user — meaning that the same email cannot be tied to two student accounts. As a security measure, the institution domain must belong to your institution. If your students do not use institution emails, you can use a generic (.gmail.com, etc) address.

username

*Required

*Can't be blank

 

This MUST be unique and should never change for each student. This serves as the “anchor” in imports so that other sensitive fields (such as email) can be updated around this value. Most institutions will use a student’s institution ID number. This should NOT match any part of a student’s email_address, or their cardID, as both fields are subject to change (due to last name changes, lost ID cards, etc.).

 

 
auth_identifier
*Required

Required if using SSO. This will be used to check against the returned attribute from SSO systems to authenticate students. Students will not enter this value on login; this is a background identifier attribute. This value CAN match their email_address value, or part of it, if necessary.

Learn more about Setting up SSO in Handshake

first_name

*Required

*Can't be blank

Student's first name. 50 character limit.

You cannot include numerical characters (0-9) in this field.
institution_year_name
*Required

This field is where you can enter the exact level of study that a student is currently in. here are the different values you can include in this field. Please note the capitalisation and spelling must match exactly.

Foundation year
Bachelor 1st year or equivalent
Bachelor 2nd year or equivalent
Bachelor 3rd year or equivalent
Bachelor 4th year or equivalent
Master 1st year or equivalent
Master 2nd year or equivalent
Doctorate
Postdoctoral Researcher
Masters of Business Administration
Alumni
Certificate Program
Further education
Placement
Gap Year

Learn more about Level of study Options in Handshake

primary_education:major_names

*Required

 This is the name of the course(s) that this student has declared, and will populate the "courses" field on a student's profile (note: there's a limit of 255 characters per course). The formatting for these courses must be capital case, with all caps used only for abbreviated program designations (i.e., BS Physics; BA Art History). You can upload more than one course for a student by separating each course with a semicolon (i.e. Biology;Chemistry). This is the only field that can be used to populate courses in Handshake via the Importer.
primary_education:education_level_name
*Required

This will describe the degree/education level of a student. It appears on student profiles to tell people what level of education they're currently pursuing.  here are the different values you can include in this field. Please note the capitalisation and spelling must match exactly.

Certificate
Undergraduate
Postgraduate
Doctorate
Postdoctoral Researcher
Non-Degree Seeking
Secondary Education
Further Education
middle_name

Student's middle name. 50 character limit.

You cannot include numerical characters (0-9) in this field.
last_name

Student's last name. 50 character limit.

You cannot include numerical characters (0-9) in this field. 
preferred_name

Student's preferred name. 50 character limit. Any value added in this field will show up first on the student's profile. If this field is left blank, we'll display the student's First name. This field needs to be updated in your student system. If not, then any changes made in Handshake manually will be overwritten on the next import. 

You cannot include numerical characters (0-9) in this field.

Learn more about Preferred Student Names
additional_email_addresses

Any additional email addresses that your students have been assigned that are not their main email_address. You can upload more than one additional email address by separating each email address with a semicolon. These emails can be associated with your institution email domain or they can be personal email addresses (.gmail.com, etc).

Personal email addresses added via the additional_email_addresses column will be connected to the account immediately to prevent other accounts from using it, but the student will be required to perform email verification. If the student is not receiving the email, refer to Contacting Handshake Support to open a ticket with our Support Team.

Learn more about Additional Email addresses for Students
primary_education:primary_major_name The Primary Course field will not show up on a student's profile and is primarily used for FDS. It is the student's primary course, if they have multiple courses. Only 1 course can be uploaded in this field. The course name must be included in the primary_education:major_names field for the primary course to upload to the student's account.
primary_education:primary_college_name This is the student's primary college, if they have multiple colleges. The primary college field will not show up on a student's profile and is primarily used for FDS. Only 1 college can be uploaded in this field. The college name must be included in the primary_education:college_name field for the primary course to be updated to the student's account.
primary_education:college_names This can be multiple colleges that the student belongs to (i.e., 'Trinity College' & 'Cambridge Judge Business School' at the University of Cambridge). You can upload more than one college for a student by separating each college with a semicolon. (i.e. Trinity College;Cambridge Judge Business School). Note: Due to the nature of CSV files, you cannot include multiple college names for one student if one of those college names contains a comma.
primary_education:start_date The date when a student started their current education at the institution. It must be in the format "yyyy-mm-dd" for automated Student data syncs. For Manual student data uploads, you can format a Students file in mm/dd/yyyy and can check the box "Use mm/dd/yyyy format" in the importer job settings when uploading a new Students CSV. This is incredibly useful when it comes to searching students, qualifications for jobs, and knowing when to shift students to alumni. 
primary_education:end_date

The date when a student is expected to graduate. Please note that it has to be included in the format yyyy-mm-dd, unless otherwise specified in the job! This is incredibly useful when it comes to searching students, qualifications for jobs, and knowing when to shift students to be alumni. There is now an option on the importer to use a mm/dd/yyyy format. If you choose this option for formatting, please make sure you check the box next to "use mm/dd/yyyy format' when loading your file to the importer.
Note: Student accounts won't automatically update to "Alumni" after the given primary_education:end_date.

Learn more about Updating Graduating Students to Alumni
primary_education:currently_attending

This denotes whether the student is currently enrolled or has graduated. It's used for reporting to differentiate between students who are currently active on campus and those who might be on some sort of official absence from institution. By assigning TRUE, this will set the user to attending, while FALSE will set them to not attending. Must use boolean values (case sensitive):

TRUE
FALSE
card_id

This field is where you can include student ID numbers that correlate with student card IDs. This string must be contained in a card swipe output. If you want to use a card swipe to check students into events, career fairs, or other kiosks, make sure you include this field.

Learn more on How to Enable Card Swipe Check-in for Students
campus_name Institutions that have multiple campuses as part of their Handshake setup can use this to designate a specific campus for students. (i.e., 'Main')
ethnicity

The ethnicity of the student. This is a custom field that can include any text you wish to upload.

Note: The ethnicity and gender field is for internal reporting purposes only. This information won't be available to employers or used by employers for outreach. The information that's imported by your institution is different from the ethnicity and gender data that students can voluntarily share.

Learn more on Interpreting Gender and Ethnicity in Handshake
gender

The gender of the student. The field is custom where you can include any text that you wish to upload.

Note: The ethnicity and gender field is for internal reporting purposes only. This information won't be available to employers or used by employers for outreach. The information that's imported by your institution is different from the ethnicity and gender data that students can voluntarily share.

Learn more on Interpreting Gender and Ethnicity in Handshake
disabled

Used to archive or reactivate student accounts. By assigning TRUE, this will archive the student, while FALSE will unarchive the student. Must use boolean values (case sensitive):

TRUE
FALSE

Learn more about Bulk Archiving Students
system_label_names

This section can be used to import any outside information that you would like to sync from your SIS that might provide more nuanced information about your students in a semi-colon separated list of label names. Some example values that we see imported here are things like Attending Part time. Basically, this could be any type of additional information that you might want to use to organise, categorise, or parse out your students. 

Note: leaving this field blank in your import will clear all system labels in Handshake for that respective student. This is not a required column header and we recommend using the field primarily in automated student data uploads. 

System labels are added or removed in every student sync that includes this column, based on exactly what you have in this field. 

Learn more on How to Change System Labels to Normal Labels
mobile_number The student's mobile number. We can accept any numerical string in this field without special characters such as () or - (but you can include an optional '+' at the beginning of the string).
assigned_to_email_address Email address of the Career Services user that the student is assigned to. 
hometown_location_attributes:name The address or location of a student's hometown. Additional formatting can be found by searching an address here using mapbox. For maximum accuracy, please use full names instead of abbreviations.
eu_gdpr_subject

If the student is a GDPR Subject. Must use boolean values (case sensitive):

TRUE
FALSE

Passing TRUE indicates this student is a GDPR Subject. This field is required if you want to be GDPR compliant.

For more information, review our article on GDPR.

 

Exploring Additional Resources

Check out these links to learn more about the student data import: