06/06 - October

Dear Colleagues

Student Record Coding Manual 2006/07

I am writing to advise you of a limited number of revisions to the Student Record Coding Manual 2006/07. These are being made to reflect changes in the external environment. Note that these revisions apply to the data collection to be made in September 2007.

These revisions are detailed below.

Student Record Coding Manual 2006/07

1. Field 21 Highest qualification on entry (QUALENT2)

   Codes 24 and 41 have been updated to refer to SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) rather than to SCOTVEC (Scottish Vocational Educational Council).

   Revised valid entries:
   24 HNC or HND (including BTEC and SQA equivalents).
   41 ONC or OND (including BTEC and SQA equivalents).

2. Field 41 General qualification aim of student (QUALAIM)

   Codes 71 and 72 have been updated to refer to the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) rather than to SCOTVEC (Scottish Vocational Educational Council).

   Revised valid entries:
   71 OND, SQA National diploma.
   72 ONC, SQA National certificate.

3. Field 53 Teacher training course identifier (TTCID)

   Codes 6 and 7 have been revised to include the words ‘leading to QTS’.

   Revised valid entries:
   6 TDA funded flexible provision (ITT leading to QTS) - student concurrently employed.
   7 TDA funded flexible provision (ITT leading to QTS) - student not concurrently employed.

4. Fields 57-59 Teaching qualification sought subjects 1-3 (TQSSUB1-3)
   Fields 61-63 Teaching qualification gained subjects 1-3 (TQGSUB1-3)

   New guidance notes:

   If a Scottish secondary teacher training student studies more than one subject, the first subject returned should be the main (major) subject studied. Therefore do not complete the trio of fields in alphabetical order of subject names.

5. Field 68 Major source of tution fees (MSTUFEE)

   New guidance notes:

   For new students (entering under 2006/07 funding arrangements):
   Code 01 ‘No award or financial backing’ should be used for cases where the student pays the full fees upfront with no SLC funding.
   Code 02 ‘Award assessed by English or Welsh LEA and paid in full by LEA or by the SLC (includes EU students assessed by DfES)’ should be used for cases where the SLC funds full fees through a fee loan.
   Code 03 ‘Paid in full by Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS)’ should be used for cases where the fee is paid directly to the institution.
   Code 52 ‘Mix of student and SLC (following assessment by English or Welsh LEA or DfES for EU students studying in England)’ should be used for cases where there is a mixture of SLC funding and student contribution (i.e. where the student receives a part fee loan and in addition makes an upfront contribution).
   Code 53 ‘Mix of student and Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS)/Student Loans Company (SLC)’ should be used for cases where there is a mixture of SAAS and/or SLC funding and student contribution (i.e. where the student receives a part fee loan/SAAS payment and in addition makes an upfront contribution).

   For all continuing students (entering under pre-2006/07 funding arrangements):
   Code 01 ‘No award or financial backing’ should be used for cases where the student pays the full fees upfront with no SLC funding.
   Code 02 ‘Award assessed by English or Welsh LEA and paid in full by LEA or by the SLC (includes EU students assessed by DfES)’ should be used for cases where (i) the SLC fund full fees through a grant, or (ii) the SLC fund full fees through a fee loan, or (iii) the SLC fund full fees through a mixture of SLC grant and SLC fee loan.
   Code 52 ‘Mix of student and SLC (following assessment by English or Welsh LEA or DfES for EU students studying in England)’ should be used for cases where there is a mixture of SLC funding and student contribution, including cases where (i) the SLC pays part fees and the student pays part fees, or (ii) the SLC pays part fees, the student pays part fees and receives a part fee loan for the remainder, or (iii) where the SLC pays nil fees and the student pays part fees upfront and receives a fee loan for the remainder.
   Code 53 ‘Mix of student and Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS)’ should be used where there is a mixture of student funding and SAAS funding (including part fees paid directly by SAAS to institution).

6. Field 172/157 Department of Health funding body (DHFUND)

   The following new valid entries to be used for 2007/08 have also been introduced into the 2006/07 Student Record Coding Manual as the Workforce Development Confederations (WDCs) have now been replaced with Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs). These new valid entries therefore apply in 2006/07.

   New valid entries:

   Q00 Other NHS organisation
   Q30 North East Strategic Health Authority
   Q31 North West Strategic Health Authority
   Q32 Yorkshire & The Humber Strategic Health Authority
   Q33 East Midlands Strategic Health Authority
   Q34 West Midlands Strategic Health Authority
   Q35 East of England Strategic Health Authority
   Q36 London Strategic Health Authority
   Q37 South East Coast Strategic Health Authority
   Q38 South Central Strategic Health Authority
   Q39 South West Strategic Health Authority

   The codes must be left justified in the field. The new codes Q30-Q39 may be used for any students, whereas the old codes LWF01-LWF27 can be used only for students with a COMDATE prior to 1 August 2006.

7. Field 199/184 Number of CACHE qualifications (CACHEN)
   Field 200/185 Tariff score for CACHE qualifications (CACHETS)
   Field 201/186 Number of BTEC National (BTECN)
   Field 202/187 Tariff score for BTEC National (BTECTS)
   Field 204/189 Tariff score for Irish Leaving Certificate (ILCTS)

   These fields, which are to be used to report additional tariff qualifications, have been opened for use in 2006/07 at the request of institutions and also with the agreement of Statutory Customers.

   The coverage for these newly opened fields is ‘Not compulsory’. However provision of this information for students entering through UCAS and for other full-time undergraduate entrants will allow institutions to give a full tariff score for students with such qualifications and so will provide more complete statistical information for the sector.

   Note that if a tariff score is included in one of Field 200/185, Field 202/187 and Field 204/189 then this must also be included in Field 198/183 Total tariff score.

Post-collection amendments to HESA returns

Institutions were first advised of an altered process for making post-collection amendments to HESA returns in Circular 05/03, issued in July 2005, and then again in Circular 06/05 issued in July 2006.

Whereas previously such exceptional amendments were handled by HEFCE on behalf of the funding councils and passed to HESA after they were agreed, from 2004/05 onwards such exceptional amendments have been collected via HESA.

However this process remains separate from the main data collection and will only be available to an institution on the explicit instruction of a funder, e.g. HEFCE. Detailed decisions about the circumstances in which onward use will be made of amended data have not yet been taken, but in any event no information based on the amended data will be published until at least April 2008 for changes to 2005/06 data and April 2009 for changes to 2006/07 data.

The agreements HESA has with funding councils provides for the costs of processing such exceptional amendments to be recovered from institutions by HESA, with assistance from the funding councils. For the student record this charge is set at 20% of the institution's annual subscription. However, although the HESA Board agreed to waive these charges for the 2004/05 collection, the first year of operation of this process, charging was introduced in 2005/06, and so applies from 2005/06 onwards.

Strengthening HIN linking in 2006/07

The HIN concept (HUSID + Institution identifier + NUMHUS) was introduced at the time of the first major redevelopment of the Student Record, which was implemented in 1998/99. HIN uniquely identifies a student on a course leading to a qualification or institutional credit, and so it is essential in exploring the tracking attribute of the record. A tracking facility within the HESA record is crucial in year on year aggregate analysis of the data, e.g. in calculation of progression and retention rates. Thus since its introduction, attention has been incrementally paid to improving all aspects of data quality relating to HIN linking.

The redeveloped Student Record being introduced in 2007/08 is reliant on robust HIN linking. The record structure is based on a logical data model; information is collected economically. For example, information about entrants that is not expected to change in subsequent years is collected once, for new entrants, and not for continuing students. Thus the Entry Profile entity contains fields describing a student's academic and personal history as at the beginning of the Instance, and the Qualifications on Entry entity contains detail of the qualifications held by the student when the Instance begins. This information is only required in the year of entry - the Entry Profile and Qualification on Entry entities are only compulsory when a new instance is created. HESA will therefore rely on HIN linkage to link data from these entities to the Instance in subsequent years.

Consequently it is necessary to ensure that HIN linking in 2007/08 onwards is of the highest standard. For this reason, and because Statutory Customers can afford there to be little or no tolerance in respect of the standard of linking needed in 2007/08, further strengthening of HIN linking will be introduced for 2006/07. Further detail about the strengthening of HIN linking, focussing particularly on missing and broken links, and the related issue of students with multiple HUSIDs, will be made available at the time that the validation for the return is published, in Spring 2007.

The purpose of raising awareness of this issue now is to give advance warning of the need for data quality improvements in relation to HIN linking in 2006/07.

Further Information

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

Yours sincerely

C. Jane Wild
Director of Operations