PIs 2006/07: Non-continuation rates (including projected outcomes) -definitions (tables T3, T4, T5)

Coverage

Higher education (HE) students are those students on programmes of study for which the level of instruction is above that of level 3 of the National Qualifications Framework, i.e. courses leading to the Advanced Level of the General Certificate of Education (GCE A-levels), the Advanced Level of the Vocational Certificate of Education (VCE A-levels) or the Advanced Higher Grade and Higher Grade of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) Advanced Highers/Highers).

The data used in constructing the indicators have been taken from the HESA database. The HESA Student Record contains information about individual enrolments, which, because a student can be enrolled on more than one programme of study, will exceed the number of students. Postdoctoral students are not included in the HESA Student Record.

All students included in the tables are those whose normal residence is in the United Kingdom, excluding the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man. This information comes primarily from the HESA POSTCODE field, with the DOMICILE field used if there is no valid postcode supplied. If neither field supplies valid information, it is assumed that the student is resident in the UK. Incoming and visiting exchange students and students studying for the whole of their programme of study outside the UK are excluded from the tables.

Age

Many of the tables are split between young and mature students, defined as follows:

• Young students are those who are aged under 21 at 30 September of the academic year in which they are recorded as entering the institution.
• Mature students are those who are aged 21 or over, also at 30 September of the academic year in which they are recorded as entering the institution.

Students whose date of birth is not given, or whose date of birth suggests that they are under 10 years, are allocated to age group ‘unknown’. For tables which provide information about young students, mature students, and all students, this means that the numbers under ‘All students’ are not necessarily the sum of ‘Young students’ and ‘Mature students’.

Mode of study

• Full-time students are those recorded as studying full-time at an institution, or on thick or thin sandwich courses, provided that the length of the course is at least 24 weeks.
• Part-time students are those recorded as studying part-time, or full-time on courses lasting less than 24 weeks.

Level of study

The level of study is taken from the qualification aim of the student. Only undergraduate students are included in Tables T3 to T4 at present. First degree students are those studying for any type of first degree; other undergraduate students are those studying for foundation degrees, diplomas, certificates and other undergraduate courses. The codes for qualification aims (HESA field QUALAIM) used to define the level are shown below.

Entrants (applicable to tables T3 and T4)

Tables T3 to T4 provide information about entrants to an institution. These are defined as students who started a programme of study at that institution during the academic year of interest. This is based on the commencement date of the student’s study (HESA field COMDATE). While most entrants go into the first year of a programme of study, some will start on the second, or later, year of programme, for example if they transfer from another institution. Entrants who are recorded as leaving before 1 December (HESA field DATELEFT) have not been included in the calculations, unless the record contains important information such as a qualification. It has been agreed that students leaving this early in their studies should be disregarded for the purposes of the performance indicators.

Starters (applicable to table T5)

Table T5 is based on starters at an institution. The concept of a starter has been used to be consistent with the method of projecting outcomes. Students at a particular institution are defined as starters if they are full-time degree students who have not been studying at that institution full-time for a degree in either of the two years prior to the academic year of interest. This means that students who were on a diploma course in the previous year at the current institution and have transferred to a degree course in the current year will count as starters (unless they had been on a degree course there in either of the two previous years). Such students will not necessarily count as entrants. On the other hand, a student who has spent one year at an institution on a degree course, then spends a year out of studies but comes back onto a different degree course, will not be counted as a starter, but may be counted as an entrant.

Qualifications obtained

In looking at progression statistics, we have had to look at students obtaining a qualification. We have generally distinguished between students obtaining a degree and those obtaining some other undergraduate qualification. For the research indicators, we have also looked at the number of students awarded doctorate degrees by research. This information comes from the highest qualification obtained field (the highest value of QUAL1 and QUAL2) using the codes given below. For progression purposes, we have assumed that students found subsequently on a postgraduate course have qualified with a first degree.

Low-participation neighbourhoods (POLAR2)

A new method for producing the low participation neighbourhoods has been used from 2006/07 onwards and is not comparable with the old (Super Profiles) low participation data published previously.

This year, the low particpation indicator has been produced using POLAR2. This method is based on the HE participation rates of people who were aged 18 between 2000 and 2004 and entered a HE course in a UK higher education institution or GB further education college, aged 18 or 19, between academic years 2000/01 and 2005/06.

It draws on data provided by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the Learning and Skills Council, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, the other UK funding bodies and HM Revenue & Customs.

The POLAR2 classification is formed by ranking 2001 Census Area Statistics wards by their young participation rates for the combined 2000 to 2004 cohorts. This gives five young participation quintile groups (qYPR) of areas ordered from '1' (those wards with the lowest participation) to '5' (those wards with the highest participation), each representing 20 per cent of UK young cohort. Students have been allocated to the neighbourhoods on the basis of their postcode. Those students whose postcode falls within wards with the lowest participation (quintile 1) are denoted as being from a low participation neighbourhood.

More information on the POLAR2 classification and the files used in the mapping can be found on the HEFCE website.

Benchmarks

For definitions of the fields used to create the benchmarks, please refer to the benchmarks document. These fields include:

• subject of study
• entry qualifications.

Context statistics

Please refer to the participation definitions for full details.

Rounding strategy

Due to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998, HESA implements a strategy in published and released tabulations designed to prevent the disclosure of personal information about any individual. This strategy involves rounding all numbers to the nearest 5. A summary of this strategy is as follows:

• 0, 1, 2 are rounded to 0
• All other numbers are rounded to the nearest 5.

So for example 3 is represented as 5, 22 is represented as 20, 3286 is represented as 3285, while 0, 20, 55, 3510 remain unchanged.

This rounding strategy is also applied to total figures; the consequence of which is that the sum of numbers in each row or column will rarely precisely match the total shown.

Average values, proportions and FTE values prepared by HESA will not be affected by the above strategy, and will be calculated on precise raw numbers. However, percentages and indicators calculated on populations which contain less than 20 individuals will be suppressed and represented as a blank value.

Enquiries

Press: Call 01242 211120 or email pressoffice@hesa.ac.uk.
General enquiries should be sent to piteam@hesa.ac.uk.
Enquiries regarding the Performance Indicators Steering Group (PISG) should be directed to the HEFCE Press Office on 0117 931 7307