KIS collection 2012/13

Version 1.5 Produced 2012-07-06

Key Information Sets (KIS) are required to be returned by all institutions in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales for all undergraduate courses (with the exceptions outlined below). Undergraduate courses are those in the HESA Student record with Course.COURSEAIM beginning H, I, J and C. Additionally, courses with a Course.COURSEAIM of M22 and M26 (integrated masters courses) should be included.

Welsh FECs reporting via the LLWR use the same coding frame in the HE14 field (details at The Lifelong Learning Wales Record (LLWR) Support Manuals page).

Undergraduate courses in the LAD/LARA are those with a Learning Aim Type of 0031, 0032, 0394, 1406, 1407, 1408, 1409, 9000, 9002, 9107, E007, 1449, 9110, 9111 or 9112 (code lists are available from LEARNING_AIM_TYPES.CSV at http://providers.lsc.gov.uk/LAD/downloads/LADdownload.asp).

The KIS collection 2012/13 should include records for all courses with start dates between 1 August 2013 and 31 July 2014.

For the purposes of KIS, a course is defined as a programme of study for which a student can apply to, either through UCAS or directly to the institution. Thus, if students can apply separately to courses in Physics, Chemistry and Biology, each would require a separate KIS. Whereas if students could only apply to a course in Science and later choose to specialise, then only a single KIS would need to be produced. The same guidance applies where courses have optional exit points - if it is possible for a student to apply solely for the lower award then a separate KIS would need to be produced, provided that the course met the FTE requirement given below.

For example, if a student can apply for either MEng and BEng then two separate KIS are needed. If all apply for MEng with a possibility of leaving with a BEng then only one KIS is needed.

Separate KIS must be produced for two presentations of a course if the fees differ.

KIS records for franchise courses must be provided by the franchising institution that is responsible for registering students and returning them to HESA.

Multiple KIS are not required for courses with multiple start dates.

Courses for which no KIS information is required

There are some courses at institutions for which no KIS information is required at all, these are:

• Courses where the total FTE of the course is one year or less when studied full-time (i.e.120 credits or less for its entirety)
• Courses where the total FTE of the course is equal to one year that has more than 120 credits
• Closed courses (as defined in Course.CLSDCRS) - courses that are not open to any suitably qualified candidate and will typically be courses offered only to employees of particular organisations
• Courses offered mainly overseas with a location of study mainly overseas, which the funding body has not specifically sanctioned as eligible for funding. A course is considered to be offered mainly overseas if, for all students, the majority (over 50%) of their study is overseas. Sandwich courses and courses incorporating a language year abroad will not typically meet this definition, as the time spent abroad will not be the majority of the course
• Intercalated degrees
• Part-time courses that are also offered on a full-time basis and a KIS is produced for the full-time course
• A course that is run in the UK but only for international and/or EU students.

Courses for which KIS information is required

There are three different types of KIS records (defined and identified by KISCourse.KISTYPE) that can be returned for any given course. A course can only have one KISTYPE, and this is dependent on the nature of the course.

There are three types of KIS and further descriptions of these are given below:

• KISTYPE 1 - Full course level KIS
• KISTYPE 2 - Multiple subject course placeholder KIS
• KISTYPE 3 - Subject level KIS

KISTYPE 1 - Full course level KIS

KISTYPE 1s are full KIS records required for specific courses.

The following courses require a KISTYPE 1 KIS submission:

• All single subject courses (those with only one JACS code recorded for the course on the HESA Student Record) regardless of intake size
• All multiple subject courses (those with more than one JACS code recorded for the course on the HESA Student Record) where the intake size is greater than 20* students
• All undergraduate teacher training courses (KISCourse.TTCID = 1 or 2) regardless of the number of JACS codes or intake size
• All medical programmes that contain a pre-clinical and clinical element and the distinction in JACS between the clinical and pre-clinical codes is the only reason why the course has multiple JACS codes.

* Institutions may choose to produce a KIS for a multiple subject course with an intake of between 15 and 20 students in the most recent year (which for 2012 KIS is the intake for 2011/12) where it is expected that the intake in future years will be more than 20. This is particularly encouraged where the intake in previous years was more than 20.

In addition to those courses that require a full KIS, institutions may choose to produce a full KIS for multiple subject courses with intakes of fewer than 15 students. This option is included following feedback from institutions in order to minimise the burden in producing subject level KIS for courses that have multiple JACS codes but are viewed by the institution as more akin to a single subject course. Institutions may only use this flexibility where the course is marketed and managed as a single indivisible entity. This will normally involve the course having a single programme specification. Examples of courses of this type might be a BA in Finance and Accounting or a BSc in Natural Sciences. Where these conditions are not met a multiple subject placeholder KIS (KISTYPE 2) must be produced. Institutions may still produce a multiple subject placeholder (KISTYPE 2) KIS for these courses if they wish.

KISTYPE 2 - Multiple subject course placeholder KIS

KISTYPE 2s are 'placeholders' for multiple subject courses for which a KISTYPE 1 record is not required i.e. the intake size is less than 20 students. The placeholders include links to the relevant UCAS course codes and to related KISTYPE 1 or KISTYPE 3 KIS records. Each KISTYPE 2 KIS record can be linked to up to three KISTYPE 1 or three KISTYPE 3 KIS records but not a mixture of both types.

Example

Poppleton University has a joint honours French and Music course with an intake of only 10 students and therefore completes a KISTYPE 2 KIS record. Poppleton offers a single honours French course (KISTYPE 1 KIS record) but does not offer a single honours Music course. The institution will therefore have to link the KISTYPE 2 course to KISTYPE 3 records as there are not the corresponding KISTYPE 1 records.

In some cases where the institution has appropriate course level KIS (KISTYPE 1) for multiple subject placeholder KIS (KISTYPE 2), it may still be appropriate to link to a subject level KIS (KISTYPE 3). This might happen where the institution is already producing a subject level KIS for at least one of the subjects, and hence students looking at other multiple subject KIS would see subject level information.

Example

Poppleton University offers the following portfolio of courses:

• English - offered as a combined and a single honours
• History - offered as a combined and a single honours
• French - offered as a combined subject only.

English and History will have type 1 and type 3 KIS.
French will have a type 3 KIS only.

The English and History programme will display a type 1 KIS for each subject.
The English and French programme will display a type 3 KIS for each subject.

In this case a student who is considering both of these programmes would look at two sets of different information for English as a combined subject. This could be confusing, and therefore using subject level KIS throughout might be preferable.

A placeholder KIS is not required where a full (KISTYPE 1) is produced.

KISTYPE 3 - Subject level KIS

KISTYPE 3 records provide information about a subject that forms part of a multiple subject course for which no KISTYPE 1 can be produced.

Subject level KIS should be produced for every JACS level 2 subject that is included within a multiple subject course except where a KISTYPE 1 KIS exists for each of the subjects that make up the multiple subject course.

A subject level KIS should also be produced for institutions in Wales where Celtic studies is offered as part of a multiple subject course and no KISTYPE 1 exists.

If there are KISTYPE 2 at different levels (first degree or other undergraduate) or modes (full-time and part-time) then a separate KISTYPE 3 KIS will be required for each.

Example

Whilst Poppleton University has a single honours French course (and a KISTYPE 1 for it) they do not have a single honours Music course and therefore are required to produce a KISTYPE 3 record for Music. As a result of there not being a KISTYPE 1 record for each of the subject areas, Poppleton will also need to produce a KISTYPE 3 record for European Languages & Area Studies (regardless of the fact that a KISTYPE 1 record exists for it).

The flow diagram illustrates the types of KIS required in each case.

Further examples

An institution offers a range of courses with intakes as follows:

Flow chart explaining KISTYPES

Optional components

For courses which are advertised as having significant optional components, such as sandwich placements and years abroad, the KIS should not include these elements. Therefore the learning and teaching methods, assessment methods and fees should reflect the course excluding the component. Conversely, where the course is advertised assuming students will undertake the component then it should be included.

Example

Where a Physics BSc is advertised as having an optional sandwich year, the sandwich year should not be included. If however the course is advertised as a 4 year programme including a year in industry, which students may opt not to take, then the KIS should reflect the sandwich year. The proportion of students taking up the option is not a factor in whether the component should be included.

This guidance should also be adopted for integrated masters degrees, where a student could apply for a BSc and and progress onto a MSc. The KIS is based on how the course is advertised.