Estates Management Statistics

To access the data collection system you will need to register for the EMS collection (C10042) on the HESA submit website. For assistance with registration please view the Registering for the system help page.

Stages of data submission:

1. Sending and validating data

2. Committing data

3. Credibility checks

4. Sign-off

The diagram below demonstrates the data submission process. 

Stage 1: Submitting and validating data

A. Submitting data

1.	Select 'Enter data' in the 'What can I do now box?' section.
2.	For 2010/11 the webform contains an additional 'Pre' section. This contains a question which institutions should complete before entering data in sections 1-6. The question refers to whether or not the institution has residential space If the institution declares that they do not have any residential space the form will grey out the residential data items, completing them with zeroes, and mark as 'accurate'. Although this section can be updated at any time, please note that it may impact any data saved previously in the webform.
3.	The web form is divided into 6 sections and is pre-propulated with data from the previous three years for reference. Select the appropriate section name in order to begin completing data items for that section. The sections can be completed in any order and progress can be saved at any point.
3.	When entering data users should note that validation is built into the form and will be applied as the form is being completed. Errors will be displayed in the 'Notifications' column and these will need to be rectified before the institution is able to pass the Commit stage. However a TEST_COMMIT can be processed with errors in the form.
4.	When completing data items it is necessary to state whether the figure provided is accurate or is an estimate using the radio buttons. IMPORTANT: the system will default all data items to accurate so the user will need to change this setting where appropriate. Accurate is interpreted as being within a tolerance of 5% and estimate within a tolerance of 15%.
	When entering data please note the following icons and their meaning within the 'Notifications' column:

		Data item is mandatory and must be completed by institutions in England, Northern Ireland and Wales
		Data item will be supplied by HESA
		Data item has a validation error associated with it (hover over the icon to see rule description)
		Data item has a validation warning associated with it (hover over the icon to see rule description)
		Data item calculated total has been subject to a manual override

B.     Validation

i. What to do if there are errors in the webform

If the validation finds errors in the webform the error icon below will be displayed. You should review errors (and warnings if any). Make any necessary corrections to the data and save the changes.

This is the validation error icon. You will encounter this icon if a data entry fails validation. To pass validation you will need to resolve all errors listed within the report.

 

ii. What to do if the file passes validation

You should review any validations warnings relating in the webform to ensure that the submitted data is genuine or correcting and resaving the data where necessary.

This is the validation warning icon. You will encounter this icon if a data entry is not completed or where the validation raises a potential issue. To pass validation you will need to resolve all errors listed within the report. 

 

Stage 2: Committing data

To proceed to commit-level validation all of the mandatory data items must have been completed and any errors resolved. The data will then be classed as committable and the option to process TEST_COMMIT and COMMIT transactions will be made available in the ‘What can I do now?' box.  

A. TEST_COMMIT

The TEST_COMMIT facility, which is available for the majority of the data collection period, allows institutions to process a transaction which will generate the commit stage reports for local scrutiny. These reports are for institutions' purposes only and will not be checked within HESA.

Institutions are strongly encouraged to make use of the TEST_COMMIT facility as part of their data preparations. TEST_COMMIT serves as a useful interim facility in the data collection process. The facility enables institutions to view the commit reports and assess submitted data for anomalies before processing a full COMMIT to be scrutinised by HESA.

1. Select 'TEST_COMMIT this submission' in the ‘What can I do now?' section. The HESA data collection system assumes the submission represents the institution as a whole and runs COMMIT level checks.
2. Three reports will be produced following a successful TEST_COMMIT: 

The Exception Report will be produced after every passed and failed COMMIT transaction and will contain the following subset of reports:

		Section completion summary	Displays each section and percentage completed
		Mandatory data items summary	Displays mandatory data items in order and whether or not they have been completed
		Overriden calculated totals summary	Displays all data items that have had calculated totals overriden by user
		Validation errors report	Displays all COMMIT level validation errors in contained in the data
		Validation switched errors to warnings report	Displays all COMMIT level validation errors that have been downgraded to warnings
		Validation warnings report	Displays all COMMIT level warnings contained in the data
		Ratio percentage changes summary	Displays a list of ratios whereby there is percentage change of +/- 10% or greater between this year's ratios compared to last year's ratio
		Ratio divide by zero error summary	Displays a list of ratios whereby the total of the numerator or denominator used in the ratio equates to zero
		Ratio zero values summary	Displays a list of ratios whereby a compenent of the calculation equates to zero or null

	The Summary Report shows all the data entered into the web form for each section in a read-only format together with the percentage of completion for each section and the percentage of mandatory items completed. This report contains a 'download to Excel' option.
	The Ratio Report is broken down into sections and contains the ratios that have been calculated from the data submitted. This report contains a 'download to Excel' option.

i. What to do if the file fails TEST_COMMIT?

If the data fails the validation the system will show the below status and reports. You should review the reports produced, make any necessary corrections to the data and resubmit it.  

Transaction result	Reports

ii. What to do if the file passes TEST_COMMIT?

If the file passes TEST_COMMIT it will generate the suite of commit reports (See EMS report key for details). These reports should be reviewed to ensure that the submitted data is an accurate reflection of the institution's profile. 

Transaction result	Reports

B. COMMIT

Once your file has passed TEST_COMMIT and you are content with the data contained within, you should process a COMMIT transaction. This transaction will then send a copy of the submission to the HESA Data Quality Assurance team for HESA to undertake analysis of the return in parallel with the institution conducting their own analysis.

Transaction result	Result

The COMMIT option will only become available once the student and finance data has been incorporated by HESA.

Decommitting

A passed commit transaction will lock the system to prevent the data from being amended, in order to allow the HESA Data Quality Assurance team to undertake analysis of the submission. To unlock the system you will need to request a DECOMMIT transaction from HESA. This will reverse the current commit and allow you to reopen the webform and amend the data.

Stage 3: Credibility checks

Once HESA has undertaken their analysis of the committed return data quality queries will be posted onto the Minerva DQ database. Record contacts, and any others users signed up to Minerva, will be notified by email when these queries are available to view. The Minerva user guide provides help on using the database.

The number of outstanding queries will be displayed in the 'What can I do now?' box in the data collection system and Minerva can be accessed through this.

Stage 4: Sign-off

Once the data has passed all the stages of validation, and any issues highlighted during credibility checking have been addressed, HESA will set the return to CREDIBLE; this produces the sign-off form

 

A link to the sign-off form will automatically be emailed to the Head of the institution when data is set to CREDIBLE. The form should be completed and signed by the Head or Acting Head of the reporting institution and posted to HESA. This verification offers both the institutions and HESA assurances regarding onward use of the data. Sign-off completes the data collection process.