06/05 - July

Dear Colleagues

2005/06 HESA STUDENT RECORD COLLECTION (REF: C05011)

This Circular contains links to documents and further guidance that are required for the C05011 data collection. Institutions should review the information contained in the following documents:

• Timescales for the Collection
• Validation Kit
• COMMIT Stage Validation Rules
• Check Documentation Template
• HESA Data Collection System Help

Previously announced changes to the Student Record for 2005/06

Institutions should ensure that they refer to the most recent version of the appropriate coding manual. Institutions have previously been advised of all changes to the relevant coding manual and these are also listed in the coding manual history zone.

Further Guidance

Field 227/209 Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Diploma WELBACC

The introduction of this new field is a requirement of the National Assembly for Wales (NAW) following the introduction of the new Welsh Baccalaureate qualification programme in September 2003. This field is compulsory for Welsh domiciled undergraduate students with a COMDATE after 31 July 2005 at institutions in Wales. For all other students the field must be included in the record structure but left blank.

Field 21 Highest qualification on entry QUALENT2

In the arts area students typically take A-levels and then complete an art foundation course prior to commencing HE study. Where this is the case, students should be returned with a highest qualification on entry as Foundation Course at FE level (QUALENT2=43). Students who follow this route will also typically have UCAS Tariff points for their A-levels, the points for these should also be recorded in the relevant fields on the HESA return.

Research degree qualification rates for institutions in England

As part of their web-facility HEFCE will be generating research degree qualification rates (RDQRs), which they intend to publish during 2007. Institutions will be required to sign-off these rates as suitable for publication when signing-off their C05011 Student Record. Therefore, institutions will need to submit their HESA Student Record to HEFCE's web-facility in order to check the RDQRs that HEFCE intend to publish.

TDA Performance Profiles

The TDA have produced a useful guide to the new process for validationg and signing-off performance profiles data for publication. This document, entitled ‘Performance profile data validation 2005/06’, will be available from the TDA website on 1 August (http.//dataprovision.tda.gov.uk/datacollection).

The advice below concerning late award of QTS and also the DATELEFT field is extracted from this document.

1. Award of QTS and Field 35 Date left institution or completed the programme of study DATELEFT
   In previous collections Field 35 DATELEFT has been completed with a date when the student successfully gains the QTS award, this is no longer acceptable. To maintain the integrity of the record the date returned in DATELEFT should be the date of completing the programme and not the date of award.
   Note that the Coding Manual states: “For the purpose of HESA returns, completing a programme of study is defined as being the point at which the taught or structured part of the programme of study, including any formal writing-up period, is completed i.e. once the student is no longer actively following the programme of study, and not any later stage such as, for example, final confirmation of award. This may mean that field 33, Reason for leaving, is completed using code 98 ‘Completion of course - result unknown’”.


2. Late award of QTS
   Last year providers were given the opportunity to update their student records with late awards via the Fixed database; this will no longer be possible. All awards will now have to be returned in the main data collection (1 August 2006 – 31 October 2006). Trainees who obtain a successful award up until 1 November will be counted in the profiles publication, award dates after this date will be picked up in the following year.

TDA amendments through the 2004/05 C04011 Fixed database

The Fixed database process is separate from the main data collection. Institutions should be aware that onward use of information, for example in HESA publications, will be based on the original data collected and not on any amended data. Therefore qualifications (QUAL1/2) that were returned through the 2004/05 C04011 Fixed database will have to be returned to HESA this year from a dormant mode (MODE=63, 64) if they were not included in the main HESA return last year. The DATELEFT for such records will be in the previous reporting period (1 August 2004 to 31 July 2005).

Test_Commit facility

A new transaction, the test_commit, has been added to the data collection system for the C05011 Student Record. This facility allows institutions to process a transaction, which if succesful will generate commit stage reports for scrutiny. However, these reports are for institutions’ purposes only and will not be checked within HESA.

Following a test_commit institutions can make changes to the submission by inserting and/or deleting files in the normal way. If no changes are required institutions can process a commit transaction which will generate the same commit reports produced following the test_commit, however these reports will then be checked by HESA and data quality issues fed back to institutions.

Note that:
· Instutions do not have to process a test_commit; the facility is optional.
· Institutions must however process a commit transaction by 13 October 2006 22 September 2006 (revised 18 July 2006) as detailed in the Timescales for the Collection.

Post-collection amendments to HESA return (Fixed database)

HESA and its Statutory Customers have recently renewed the formal agreements covering the collection of data from UK HEIs by HESA on behalf of the Statutory Customers. Currently the new agreements with HEFCE and HEFCW have been signed, those with the SE and DEL are nearing signature, and those with the government education departments are in preparation. (In addition, contracts exist for the supply of certain data by HESA to the Training and Development Agency for Schools, the Department of Health and the Research Councils). These new agreements alter the process for making post-collection amendments to HESA returns.

Previously any such exceptional amendments were handled by the appropriate Funding Council and only passed to HESA after they were agreed. From 2004/05 onwards such exceptional amendments are being collected via HESA. However this Fixed database process is separate from the main data collection and will only be available to an institution on the explicit instruction of the appropriate Funding Council. Institutions should also be aware that onward use of information, for example in HESA publications, or for TQI, will be based on the original data collected and not on any amended data.

The agreements with Statutory Customers provide for the costs of processing such exceptional amendments through the Fixed database to be recovered from institutions by HESA, with assistance from the appropriate Funding Council. It has been agreed that for the student record this charge should be set at 20% of the institution's annual subscription. For the 2004/05 collection, the first year of operation of this process (when institutions had had little notice of the change), HESA Board waived these charges, but institutions were forewarned that charging would be introduced for 2005/06. Use of the Fixed database in 2005/06 will thus be charged at 20% of the institution's annual subscription.

Who to contact during the data collection

Institutions should consider Institutional Liaison as a general first point of contact and in addition the team also cover specific areas as indicated below:

If you have any queries on the issues raised in this Circular please contact the Agency's Institutional Liaison team (Alison Berry, Marietta Nkweta, Janet Earl, Clara Elcocks or Helen Skitt) at HESA or email (liaison@hesa.ac.uk).

Yours sincerely

C. Jane Wild
Director of Operations