Authority Relationships
Epic summary
The Authority Relationships workspace connects an external organisation to the tenant-owned entity or institute programme for which it has a defined role.
An external organisation answers who is the body? A relationship answers what authority or responsibility does it have here, for what scope, and during which period?
Examples include:
- NMC regulates and recognises an institute’s MBBS programme;
- a health-sciences university affiliates an institute and examines specified programmes;
- a state authority conducts counselling for specified programme families;
- an external hospital provides an affiliated clinical learning site.
Before you start
Both sides of the relationship must already exist:
- the external organisation, such as NMC or an affiliating university; and
- the institute, department, institute programme, or learning site to which it applies.
The source notification, order, recognition letter, or agreement should also be available.
Actors and access
| Access source | Access in this epic |
|---|---|
| Tenant member with Governance Registrar role | Prepares governance-wide and institute relationships |
| Institute member with Academic Registrar role | Prepares programme-specific affiliation, examination, and recognition details |
| Institute member with Authority Relationship Approver role | Approves institute relationships and material amendments |
| Auditor role | Reviews validity, evidence, versions, and reporting activation |
Screen structure and data captured
The workspace contains Relationship Details, Scope, Identifiers and Approvals, Obligations, Evidence, Reporting Activation, and History.
| Field | Required | Meaning and validation |
|---|---|---|
| External organisation | Yes | Published catalogue identity |
| Relationship type | Yes | Regulates, Recognises, Affiliates, Examines, Counsels, Funds, Provides Clinical Site, or another governed type |
| Target | Yes | Tenant entity, institute, department, institute programme, or facility/site as permitted by type |
| Programme scope | Conditional | Programme or family to which the relationship applies |
| Jurisdiction/scope | Yes | Geographic, organisational, academic, or reporting boundary |
| External reference number | Conditional | Recognition, affiliation, approval, or agreement number |
| Approved intake | Conditional | Intake authorised by the source relationship; not an admissions seat matrix |
| Effective and expiry dates | Yes | Business validity |
| Source evidence | Yes | Order, notification, agreement, or recognition document |
| Reporting obligations | No | Reports, frequency, recipient, and effective requirements activated by the relationship |
| Status | Yes | Draft, Under Review, Published, Expired, Superseded, or Terminated |
Use case 1: Record a regulatory or affiliation relationship
As an institute member with Academic Registrar role
I want to connect an authority to the correct institute or institute programme
So that recognition, affiliation, and reporting rules are applied to the correct scope.
Acceptance criteria
- The relationship type permits the selected target type.
- The source number, dates, authority, scope, and evidence are recorded.
- Overlapping active relationships are allowed only when the type supports concurrent authorities.
- The relationship does not create user access.
- A programme relationship cannot publish before the institute programme exists.
Negative cases and alternate flows
- Expired source: Preserve the record but block new effective publication.
- Wrong target type: Reject, for example, an institute-only affiliation against a room.
- Conflicting intake: Flag conflict with another current recognition record for review.
Use case 2: Amend or renew a relationship
As a tenant member with Governance Registrar role
I want to record a renewal, revised intake, or changed scope
So that future operations use the new authority decision without rewriting history.
Acceptance criteria
- The renewal creates a new version or successor relationship linked to the previous source.
- The user sees affected institute programmes, cycles, curriculum versions, reports, and cohorts before publication.
- Existing transactions retain the version effective when they were created.
- A future expiry warning appears in readiness before it becomes blocking.
Use case 3: Activate reporting obligations
As a tenant member with Governance Registrar role
I want to associate reporting obligations with an authority relationship
So that the applicable reporting functions become available only where authorised.
Acceptance criteria
- The reporting obligation specifies recipient, scope, frequency, data domain, effective dates, and governing source.
- Only supported report definitions can be activated.
- Activation does not expose underlying records to an external user without a separate access grant.
- Expiry disables future report periods but preserves submitted evidence.
Business rules
- Relationships are effective-dated and source-backed.
- One external organisation can hold several relationship types with the same target.
approved_intakerepresents the authority’s approval; Admissions owns cycle intake, quota distribution, and seat matrices.- Regulatory relationships activate rules, reports, and validations—not descendant access.
- Termination cannot erase historical submissions or the relationship version that governed them.
Technical design
Conceptual schema
| Record | Important fields |
|---|---|
org.external_relationship | external_organisation_id, relationship_type_id, target_type, target_id, scope, validity, status, version |
org.external_relationship_identifier | relationship_id, scheme, value, issuer |
org.external_relationship_programme_scope | relationship_id, programme_definition_id or programme_offering_id |
org.recognised_intake_version | relationship_id, programme_offering_id, approved_intake, validity, source |
org.reporting_obligation | relationship_id, report_definition_id, frequency, scope, validity |
Process-layer responsibilities
- Validate allowed relationship-target combinations and effective-date overlap.
- Resolve the relationship version applicable to an institute programme, cohort, or reporting date.
- Detect conflicts in identifiers, scope, intake, or authority precedence.
- Identify records that use the relationship and schedule expiry warnings.
- Activate supported rule/report capabilities without altering access grants.
Success outcome
The system can explain which external body applies to each institutional or programme scope, under which source, during which period, and with which operational consequences.