06/01 - January

Dear Colleagues

Results of Student Record consultation

In October 2005 HESA published Student Circular 05/04 which introduced the plans for the redevelopment of the HESA Student Record and included the first of two planned consultation exercises. Responses to the consultation were considered by the Student Record Review Group at a meeting in December 2005 and the first recommendations from the Group have now been approved by the HESA Board.

This Circular sets out the decisions that have been taken and provides further information about the remaining work to be undertaken in this redevelopment project.

Decisions resulting from the first consultation

1. The Data Model and the Course Entity

The consultation introduced the proposed student data model. There was strong support for the idea that the Agency should publish a data model as an aid to understanding the data specification and the proposed data model and lexicon was broadly supported.

The Student Record Review Group have agreed to adopt the proposed data model and lexicon, and have agreed that this should form the single, universal basis for reporting student data to HESA. The Group recognises the difficulty in defining a single model that can be used across the sector and accepts that there will be cases for which student activity fits this model less well than others. However, the Group was encouraged by the fact that HE institutions in Wales have, since 1995, been using a single structure (the current Student/Module structure) for reporting all students. The Group is therefore looking to HESA to work with HE institutions to identify common solutions to problems of bad fit.

Some minor revisions have been made to the entity relationship diagram included in the consultation in order to aid clarity. HESA is also working through the recommendations of the Managing Information Across Partners (MIAP) Common Data Definitions project to ensure consistency between the proposed HESA lexicon and the emerging MIAP standards. The current draft of the data model and lexicon can be found in Annex A.

2. Method of reporting FTE

The consultation document proposed rationalising Student Instance FTE reporting to a single method using the '50-50' approach in cases where a student's programme year spans two HESA reporting periods. Responses strongly supported the idea that there should be a single method of FTE reporting and generally supported the proposed approach.

The Student Record Review Group have agreed to adopt the proposed approach to FTE reporting.

A number of institutions queried the impact on analyses during the year of change from one FTE reporting method to another. This issue will require further consideration by the various users of HESA data.

3. Collection using XML

The proposal to collect student data using XML was very strongly supported by the sector. Questions about the impact of this on processes like submission and validation were raised by a number of institutions and there was a call for HESA to provide more information in this area.

The Review Group have decided that:

1. The new Student Record should be collected exclusively in an XML format.

2. HESA should define and publish a technical implementation strategy for XML collection. This should include any impact on the publication of data specifications, and on the data collection and quality assurance process.

3. HESA should work with UCISA to continue the dialogue with software providers and technical specialists in HE institutions with the aim of identifying common problems and effective solutions.

Next steps

Student Circular 05/04 included a section on Likely areas of new requirements. The responses to these issues are now informing the on-going development of the fields for the new record.

A second consultation on the content of the new record will be undertaken in March/April 2006. Following approval of recommendations from the Group by HESA Board, operational documentation will be released in the summer of 2006, prior to first implementation of the new record for the 2007/08 reporting period.

HESA will be running a workshop session on the redevelopment of the Student Record at the 2006 Student Records Officers Conference in April. HESA will also be presenting a session on the review at the Association of University Administrators conference, also in April.

Queries

If you have any queries on the issues raised in this Circular please send them to consult@hesa.ac.uk.

Yours sincerely

C. Jane Wild
Director of Operations