10/01 - October

Dear Colleagues

2009/10 HESA Financial Statistics Return with HE-BCI Survey (Ref.: C09031)

This Circular contains links to documents and further guidance that are required for the C09031 Finance Statistics Return (FSR) with Higher Education-Business and Community Interaction Survey (HE-BCI) data collection. Institutions are therefore requested to review the information contained in the C09031 FSR with HE-BCI coding manual.

Key deadlines

Institutions are required to send complete data that has passed validation to HESA by 23 December 2010. HESA will advise Funding Councils of any institution not providing complete and valid data by this date. 

To meet this deadline institutions are required to submit all three components: 09031 FSR, 09032 HE-BCI Survey Part B, and 09033 HE-BCI Survey Part A. For those institutions in Scotland opting not to participate in the HE-BCI Survey a Nil Return form should be completed and returned to HESA.

The last submission of files must be made by 17 January 2011 - also the date the collection is to be signed-off.

Completion of the FSR (09031) and HE-BCI Survey Part B (09032) templates

Institutions must use the Excel templates provided for 09031 FSR and 09032 HE-BCI Part B. Please note that data must be returned to HESA using the most recent version of the template provided; the template version is detailed in cell D2 of each Excel spreadsheet.

Institutions are reminded to complete each template with the UK Provider Reference Number (UKPRN) and country code (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) in cells B3 and B4 respectively. The UK Provider Reference Number is the unique identifier allocated to institutions by the UK Register of Learning Providers (UKRLP) and you can find your institution's UKPRN from here.

Completion of the HE-BCI Survey Part A (09033) web form

The web form for HE-BCI Survey Part A will be made available to institutions when the data collection system opens at the beginning of December. In preparation for the completion of Part A institutions are advised to familiarise themselves with the following articles HE-BCI Survey Part A questions and options (pdf) and HE-BCI Survey Part A questions and guidance.

Nil return form

The completion of the HE-BCI Survey is not compulsory for institutions in Scotland. All institutions in Scotland that choose to opt out are required to complete a Nil Return form to indicate that they will not be submitting HE-BCI Survey Part A and Part B. This form will be made available to download from the C09031 coding manual webpage. All institutions in Scotland are required to complete and return this form to Institutional Liaison by 23 December 2010.

Previously announced changes to the FSR with HE_BCI Survey Collection for 2009/10

Institutions should ensure that they refer to the most recent version of the C09031 FSR with HE-BCI Survey Collection coding manual, as detailed in the C09031 Revision history. Institutions have previously been advised of all changes to the coding manual for the 2009/10 year; these are listed in the Summary of changes for C09031.

Additional Guidance

1. Maintenance element of studentships that are part of a research grant or contract (Tables 5a and 5b)

Since issue of the 2009/10 coding manual in June, two sentences of guidance have been removed from Paragraph 7 of Table 5a and 5b in order to avoid inconsistencies with institution's published accounts (ref. version 1.1). Therefore, institutions should include studentship income that is associated with a research grant or contract in the same way as previous years, and consistent with the accounting treatment in their published accounts. 

2.  Income passed onto other institutions and organisations as part of a collaborative project or sub-contracted work

The C09031 Revision history document gives details of a new heading and guidance in Tables 5a, 5b and 6 to identify the value of income passed onto other institutions and organisations as part of a collaborative project or sub-contracted work. This heading and guidance has been added at the request of HEFCE so that they can use data on research income to inform elements of their quality-related research (QR) allocations. Where institutions include income that is passed onto other institutions or organisations in their I&E account they should identify the value using this new heading. The SORP gives guidance on situations where institutions act as a principal or agent. If an institution accounts for collaborative income in their published accounts net of anything they pass on to partner institutions then they will have nothing to report in these new headings with regards to collaborative projects. 

3.  FRS17 pension credit

HESA is aware that the sector is awaiting Accounting Standards Board issue of an UITF abstract on the subject of representation of FRS17 pension credit arising due to changes in the inflation index.

Meanwhile it is necessary to give guidance in respect of completion of the HESA Finance Return.

Assuming an HEI has an FRS 17 liability, it is understood that HEIs can choose one of two options for reporting the FRS17 pension credit in their published financial statements. The FRS17 pension credit can either be disclosed through the STRGL or the I&E account.

The guidance that follows explains how the FRS17 pension credit should be reported in the HESA Finance Return. Note that this guidance is in respect of the exceptional credit relating to the index change only, not the entire FRS17 I&E transaction; the remaining FRS 17 transaction should be shown as in previous years.

•  If an HEI has chosen to report the FRS17 pension credit through the STRGL, the credit should be included in Table 2 Head 7 ‘Actuarial gain/(loss) in respect to pension schemes’ in the HESA Finance Return.
•  If an HEI has chosen to report the FRS17 pension credit through I&E account, the credit should be included in Table 1 Head 7 ‘Exceptional items’ in the HESA Finance Return.

The reporting of the pension credit through the STRGL in the HESA Finance Return will exactly mirror the reporting of the pension credit in an HEI’s published financial statements. It is recognised that this is not the case for the reporting of the pension credit through the I&E account. The pension credit is to be shown as an exceptional item in the HESA Finance Return but this may not be how the pension credit will be reported in published financial statements. In the published financial statements the FRS17 credit may be deducted from the staff costs figure on the face of the I&E account and shown as an individual line in the I&E account and not as an exceptional item.

HEFCE have also given guidance on the FRS17 pension credit for completion of their financial results and forecasts return that they collect from institutions. The guidance given by HEFCE is that if the institution agrees with its auditors that the credit will go through the I&E account in the published financial statements, then the pension credit should be included in the exceptional items heading of HEFCE’s return.

The consequence of this different reporting of FRS17 pension credit is that there may be divergence to be taken into account when HESA undertakes its three-way checks using the HESA Finance Return, the published financial statements and data submitted to HEFCE in the financial results and forecasts return.

Institutions are asked to pay particular attention to the data quality reports (check documentation) produced and to the queries raised during data collection. Institutions are requested to endeavour to resubmit data promptly in order to resolve quality issues where they arise.

The following specific checks are undertaken as part of the verification procedure:

1. Published accounts

HESA will be checking for consistency between the FSR and the published accounts.

Institutions are requested to send a copy of their published accounts to Institutional Liaison at HESA as soon as they become available but no later than 17 December 2010.

2. HEFCE Financial Tables (previously referred to as Electronic Accounts)

Institutions in England and Northern Ireland return financial tables to HEFCE as part of the annual accountability return. HESA will be checking for consistency between the FSR, the published accounts and the financial tables.

Colleagues responsible for completing the FSR should therefore refer to these financial tables before submitting data to HESA.

3. Check documentation

Institutions are advised to ensure that sufficient time is spent examining the check documentation produced through a successful commit to ensure that new errors have not been introduced which would cause degradation to data quality.

i. Cost centres

HESA will be checking for the consistent use of cost centres across all data streams, and as such, the distribution of student FTE, staff FTE, expenditure and research income by cost centre will be checked.

ii. Summary statistics

The check documentation contains a series of summary statistics taken from Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4 for institutions to verify. The check documentation also presents the Key Financial Indicators as published in the heidi web-based management information service.

iii. Year-on-year checks

The check documentation includes previous and current year comparative checks (including restated figures) using a combination of absolute values and ratios.

4. Comparative checks between 09031 FSR and 09032 HE-BCI Survey Part B

HESA will be conducting cross-checks between the data submitted in these two spreadsheet returns. Details of the checks that will take place are listed on the front page of the HE-BCI B template.

Access and PIN codes

HESA places a great deal of importance on the security of the systems that process HESA data.

Registration to the HESA Data Collection Systems (known as "Aardvark") requires both an Access and a PIN code to create new accounts and/or add permissions to existing accounts. The PIN code will be distributed by letter a few days in advance of the Access Codes which will be distributed by email. Both the Access Code emails and the PIN letters are sent to the nominated FSR with HE-BCI Survey Record contact at institutions. It is therefore imperative that any changes to contact details are notified to HESA immediately by contacting Institutional Liaison.

Minerva data query database

For the 2009/10 data collection cycle HESA is launching a new data query (DQ) database: Minerva. From C09031 onwards data quality queries raised by HESA as part of the data quality checking process will no longer be emailed to institutions. Instead institutions will be notified by email when queries have been logged on the Minerva database.

Institutions will then need to log into Minerva to view and respond to these data quality queries. Institutional record contacts have already been issued with a password to be used to enter the DQ database. Assistance on using the Minerva DQ database can be found at: Minerva user guide.

Sign-off procedure

This procedure is designed to increase awareness of the importance of the verification stage as an integral part of making the return.

It is required that the sign-off slip for this return is completed by the Head or Acting Head of the reporting institution. Once HESA has analysed submitted data, and this data has been deemed credible, an automated email will be sent to the Head of the institution. The sign-off slip will be attached to this email.

The deadline for completion and return of the FSR with HE-BCI Record sign-off slip is 17 January 2011.

Post-collection amendments to HESA return (Fixed database)

The 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 statutory customer e.g. Funding Council. Furthermore, statutory customers will only approve specific changes to the collection and so institutions will need to get approval for every field they wish to change. Institutions should also 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. This is because the availability of the Fixed database necessarily extends well beyond the publication date of information.

The formal agreements with statutory customers provide for HESA making a charge to institutions for use of the Fixed database. It has been agreed that for the Finance Statistics Return with HE-BCI Survey this charge is set at 10% of the institution's annual subscription, subject to a cap of £3,500. This charge does not attract VAT.

If you have any queries on the issues raised in this Circular, please contact the Institutional Liaison team at HESA, or email us at liaison@hesa.ac.uk.

Yours sincerely

C. Jane Wild

Director of Operations