05/01 - February

Dear Colleagues

2004/05 HESA Non-Credit-Bearing (NCB) Record Collection (Ref: C04015)

Following review of the NCB record, the sector was consulted about proposals for a replacement NCB return (ref NCB Circular 04/02 issued in November 2004).

The purpose of this Circular is to provide detailed information about the new record, which is to be collected for 2004/05.

Optionality and Nil Returns

HESA together with its Statutory Customers have identified that requirements for data about NCB provision are very limited. There is no requirement for data from Statutory Customers in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland although Statutory Customers in Wales require monitoring information on the numbers of students enrolled on Welsh for Adults programmes at institutions in Wales.

All institutions in Wales are required to provide information on 'Welsh for Adults' provision in Table 1. Return of the information requested in Table 2 is optional (voluntary) for all institutions.

HESA is aware that the Copyright Licensing Agency Higher Education Photocopying Licence (UUK/SCOP) has been amended (for implementation 1 August 2004) to permit multiple copying by HEIs of extracts of licensed copyright material for students on NCB programmes. The calculation of Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) licence fees for students on credit-bearing courses is based on FTE from the HESA Student Record. In order to support the amendment and to underpin the calculation of licence fees for students on NCB programmes, a measure of NCB activity in institutions will be needed.

Despite return of the information requested in Table 2 being optional for all institutions, if multiple copying by HEIs of extracts of licensed copyright material for students on NCB programmes is envisaged, then this will have to be a licensed activity. Information about NCB activity will therefore be necessary to underpin the calculation of licence fees for students on NCB programmes.

Despite return of the information requested in Table 2 being optional for all institutions, it would be helpful if institutions that do not intend to make an NCB return indicate this to HESA. There are two possible cases:

1. The institution does not have any NCB provision and is therefore making a NIL return, as in the previous NCB record,
   or
2. The institution does have NCB provision but is electing not to make a return.

Onward use of NCB data would be greatly assisted if institutions not making a return were to indicate to HESA which of the two categories (1 or 2) they fall into by emailing Institutional Liaison (liaison@hesa.ac.uk).

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Table 1 Welsh for Adults

Institutions in Wales are required to provide a single headcount figure for the number of student enrolments on non-credit bearing 'Welsh for Adults' programmes of study.

The following qualification aims comprise what are considered to be Welsh for Adults programmes of study. Welsh for Adults students returned on this record will be on programmes of study that correspond to these qualification aims but who are taking them on a non-credit bearing basis.

1. OCN Welsh for Adults programme Levels Entry, 1, 2 and 3
2. NVQ Welsh Language Units Levels 1-5
3. Welsh Joint Education Committee Examinations:
   Use of Welsh - Entry
   Use of Welsh - Foundation
   Use of Welsh - Intermediate
   Use of Welsh - Higher
   Use of Welsh - Proficiency

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Table 2 NCB Contact Hours by Cost Centre

Table 2 - General Definition

The purpose of Table 2 in the NCB record is to complement the Student Record so indicating the totality of teaching provision in UK HEIs. Return of the information requested in Table 2 is optional (voluntary) for all institutions. Table 2 provides a vehicle to record the volume of NCB activity by cost centre. Following consultation the preferred volume measure is contact hours, as in the previous NCB return.

The operational documentation to support the NCB data collection in 2004/05 will soon be available from the HESA website. However, and for ease of reference, details relevant to Table 2 are given below, i.e. on coverage, cost centres and contact hours.

Coverage

Included:

Institutions should return in this record information about all students who are registered/enrolled with the reporting institution or a subsidiary company on programmes of study that do not lead to a qualification or institutional credit. 'Registered' for the purposes of HESA's data collection is to be interpreted as being identical to the definition of registered adopted by each institution's funding council.

In addition this record should also cover those students who are studying on credit-bearing programmes of study but on a not-for-credit basis. The record will therefore include all students who do not come within the scope of the HESA individualised student return. 'Institutional credit' is to be interpreted as a credit which can be carried forward and ultimately count towards the award of a qualification, for example, credit points which can be accumulated towards the award of a degree.

Some programmes of study give rise to a credit for some students but not to others. All students for whom it is an option to decide whether or not to gain the credit should be included in the individualised student record. Where it is clear that the student cannot get a credit from the programme, they should be included in the aggregate return of students on non-credit-bearing programmes of study (NCB).

Some short programmes of study lead to certificates which, it might be felt, would be better described as 'certificates of competence/proficiency' or perhaps just as 'certificates of attendance', rather than as academic qualifications. In such cases it is for institutions to decide whether or not students are on a programme of study or a programme of study that leads to a qualification or institutional credit, and hence whether the students should be included in the individualised student return or in the NCB return.

Students on programmes of study which, at the time that they are taken, are not regarded as leading to a qualification or institutional credit, should be included in the NCB return. This applies even in cases where a student may later receive credit for the programme (for example, as part of an Assessment of Prior Learning process), because the programme of study was not regarded at the time it was taken as leading to a certain number of credit points at a particular level. Students on such programmes of study should be included in the NCB return, because, at the time they are taken, they are not regarded as credit bearing.

Students on all programmes of study run in the UK should be included. Programmes of study may be offered within institution premises or in premises elsewhere.

Employees attending in-house programmes of study run by institutions should be included provided that they are registered as students at the reporting institution.

Programmes of study run collaboratively with another HEI should either be returned by only one collaborating institution, or the contact hours divided appropriately in separate returns by each institution.

Excluded:

The record should not include any information on:

• conferences
• consultancy work
• secondments from industry
• taster days for sixth formers
• the production and sale of computer assisted learning packages (without individual support of the student by a member of staff)
• students on programmes of study aimed at young people under 18 and still in full-time education
• students on programmes of study of other institutions validated by the reporting institution
• students on programmes of study run outside of the UK.

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Cost Centres

Students should be allocated to the principal cost centre to which the income and expenditure of the programme of study on which they are registered is attributed in the HESA Finance Statistics Return. Institutions are not required to apportion provision across multiple cost centres.

It is recognised that in some institutions, separate specialist departments of Continuing Education, Adult Education or Extra-Mural Studies may exist. In cases where these departments exist and the institution wishes to identify them separately, for resource attribution purposes, code 41 should be used.

List of valid cost centres:

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Student Contact Hours

The volume of activity should be shown in terms of student contact hours, irrespective of the number of staff involved, and should include lectures, tutorials, field study and supervised small group study periods. For example, a programme of study of 20 two-hour meetings will be recorded as 40 contact hours per student and the total hours included in the template as 40 multiplied by the number of students registered on the programme of study.

Where a programme of study lasts more than one year, only those hours given during the reporting period (1 August – 31 July) should be recorded. Short programmes of study, lasting less than one year, but overlapping from one reporting period into the next should be recorded as being given entirely during the reporting period in which they start.

Contact hours do not include individual study periods outside the class or periods of practical work which are not supervised by staff involved in the running of the programme of study. For example, a programme of study of 20 one-hour meetings and 20 hours of unsupervised practical work with be returned as 20 contact hours multiplied by the number of students registered on the programme of study.

In the case of open/distance learning programmes of study, it will be necessary to estimate a number of contact hours, using one of the following methods (which should be attempted in the listed order):

a) Where a programme of study has an equivalent directly taught version, or is modelled on such a programme of study, the length of the open/distance learning programme of study should be assumed to be the same as that of the equivalent directly taught programme of study.

b) Where there is no such equivalent, then the contact hours should be assumed to be the same as the contact hours for a similar taught programme of study having similar coverage, content and objectives and requiring a similar amount of study.

c) Where neither of these methods is possible, the number of contact hours should be calculated by dividing the total number of expected hours of individual study by four, and then adding any direct contact time, e.g. day schools, tutorials.

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Layout of Tables

The NCB data collection will be made as a spreadsheet return. HESA will provide a downloadable template (in .xls format) for institutions to complete and return using the data collection system. Record contacts will be informed when the template is available to be downloaded from the HESA website. However, the layout of the tables in the template is shown below for reference.

Download NCB Template (.xls)

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Timescales for the NCB Collection

The NCB data collection in 2004/05 will be made to a similar schedule as in previous years. That is, the return date will be 30 September 2005; institutions in Wales are required to send complete and valid data for Table 1 to HESA by 30 September 2005, and all institutions electing to return Table 2 should send complete and valid data to HESA by 30 September 2005.

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Who to Contact During Data Collection

Institutions should consider Institutional Liaison as a general first point of contact for any HESA issue.

Yours sincerely

C Jane Wild
Director of Operations