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Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education record 2015/16

Back to C15018

Notification log

This document summarises all communications associated with the 2015/16 DLHE collection, from first publication of known changes to the record through to collection closure in May 2016. Please refer to the Revision history document for full technical list of changes to the specifications.

HESA issue regular communications during the life of a collection:

  • Circulars: announcements to interested parties concerning or issues relating to the collection. Circulars are always made available on the HESA website for later reference, and emailed out to the mailgroup for the collection.
  • Coding manual release overviews: these document iterative changes to the technical documentation that define the form of the data to be submitted, as well as being a place to host resources associated with collecting that data.

2017-03-02 Coding manual release - version 1.11

Version 1.11 of the coding manual includes the first release for the following documents:

2017-02-22 Communication - Information on Q17

Dear Colleagues,

We have discovered a difference in the wording used between the paper survey and the online survey made available in Bristol Online Surveys (BOS) for the 2015/16 DLHE survey (c15018) which is soon to close. This issue affects both the April 2016 and January 2017 census dates and impacts all responses received through BOS. This email details the issue and explains the actions we have taken. There is no action for you.

Question 17 – Difference in wording

Question 17 of the DLHE survey asks ‘How did you find out about this job?’. The paper version of the survey includes, among other possible responses, the following two options (valid entries 10 and 11):

  • (10) Your university/college Careers Service
  • (11) Other university/college source (e.g. lecturer, website)

The online version of the survey in BOS contains an incorrect version of these options:

  • (10) Your university/college (e.g. Careers Service, lecturer, website)
  • (11) Other university/college source (e.g. lecturer, website)

The other possible responses to this question are correctly presented in both the paper and online surveys.

This incorrect phrasing makes the difference between the two options unclear and makes analysis of the responses to this question subject to inaccuracies.

Our response

To allow for analysis of responses to this question, we will create a new field called Employment.JOBFOUND_2 in our datasets that will aggregate these two options. This field will be provided to Statutory Customers and HE providers, and will also be used in all supply of the data. We will not make the unaggregated data (Employment.JOBFOUND) available in any outputs, except for the data we send to HE providers and Statutory Customers. Statutory Customers have been made aware of the issue and our approach to this.

This issue will not affect the upcoming 2016/17 DLHE survey (c16018) which uses the correct phrasing in the options for the BOS survey.

We would like to apologise for the difficulties this will cause.

2016-10-20 Coding manual release - version 1.10

Version 1.10 of the coding manual includes:

2016-10-20 Coding manual release - version 1.9

Version 1.9 of the coding manual includes:

2016-09-01 Coding manual release - version 1.8

Version 1.8 of the coding manual includes:

Under 'Information specific to the collection' section

Under 'Submission process and quality assurance' section

2016-06-20 Coding manual release - version 1.7

Version 1.7 of the coding manual includes the HESA XML data entry tool and accompanying guidance How to use the HESA XML data entry tool to assist HEPs in producing XML data in the format required for submission.

Guidance added to the BOS DLHE User Guide document, under the heading 'Setting up Student Number/PIN access controls'.

2016-04-11 Coding manual release - version 1.6

Guidance has been updated in both the DLHE BOS online survey user guide and the Text for covering letters and emails.

2016-04-04 Coding manual release - version 1.5

Text removed from the DLHE BOS online survey user guide regarding tracking respondents using the survey access control respondent list.

2016-03-24 Coding manual release - version 1.4

The following documentation has been updated and added to the coding manual:

2016-02-25 Coding manual release - version 1.3

The full technical specification of the record for the 2015/16 reporting period has been released. The schema, field specifications, valid entries, and guidance are all now available. Also in this release you can find the Data collection schedule as well as the Questionnaires and Text for covering letters and emails for the April survey.

2015-12-11 Circular 15/04 - update

Online DLHE File Layout

In December 2015, HESA published the online DLHE file layout, with an accompanying circular 15/04. This circular set out a change to the output specification where: For providers who do not offer teacher training provision, Section C (Newly qualified teacher status only) will not be included in the questionnaire, and therefore will no longer show in the output file. Therefore for these providers, the following columns will no longer be included in the output file:

  • NONQTS
  • Q20 Teaching.EMPLDTEACH
  • Q21 Teaching.GTCSTIS
  • Q22 Teaching.TEACHFUND
  • Q23 Teaching.TEACHPHS
  • Q24 Teaching.SEEKTEACH

After further analysis at HESA we are now publishing an amendment to this. It has been established that this change is not necessary, as it will be possible to include these fields in the file layouts as in previous years. Therefore, regardless of whether your HE provider offers teacher training or not, these columns will exist in the survey output file in CSV and fixed length format.

If your HE provider does not offer teacher training provision, your graduates will not be presented the questions in Section C, therefore these columns will be left blank as in previous years.

The benefit of including these fields in all file layouts is that it maintains one file layout specification for all HE providers, avoiding confusion and maintaining consistency with previous years.

2016-01-07 Coding manual release - version 1.2

Additional wording added to Online DLHE file layout to highlight that HESA will only maintain the output specification for CSV and fixed length format.

2015-12-11 Circular 15/04

The 15/04 circular provides the detail of changes to the output file format for the DLHE online survey system for C15018.

2015-12-11 Coding manual release - version 1.1

The Online DLHE file layout has been released to give providers sufficient notice to make any required changes to the output as the online survey will be supplied through the newly replatformed Bristol Online Surveys (BOS).

2015-11-03 Circular 15/03

The 15/03 circular provides information about changes to the output file format for the DLHE online survey system for C15018.

2015-09-17 Circular 15/02

From 2015/16 (April 2016 survey onwards) HESA will be using a new platform for the online DLHE survey. The new online survey system will provide a range of improvements to the DLHE, including a more user-friendly survey which is optimised for mobile devices. For more details about this new platform please see circular 15/02 - DLHE online survey platform.

2015-09-17 Coding manual release - version 1.0

This is version 1.0 of the 2015/16 DLHE record coding manual, which exists to publicise the Summary of changes for 2015/16.. The full technical specification will be published in February 2016.

2015-09-17 Summary of changes

Changes for the 2015/16 survey include additional guidance for the Employment.EMPHOURS and Employment.EMPPAY fields.  Also included is a change to Q10 within the questionnaire. Further information can be found within the Summary of changes 2015/16.

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