02/01 - May (Updated 2002-06-06)
Dear Colleagues
2002-03 STUDENT RECORD CHANGES – FURTHER CLARIFICATION AND ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE
This Circular supplements Circular 01/04, issued in November 2001, which confirmed changes to the student record to be implemented from the 2002-03 reporting period (C02011A) onwards. It contains two outstanding coding frames, some further clarification relating to 2002/03 in answer to a number of queries raised by institutions since distribution of the earlier Circular, and also additional general guidance. For reference, enclosed at Annex1 is a Summary of the 2002-03 Student Record changes, and at Annex 2, a document about calculation of UCAS Tariff.Outstanding Coding Frames
Progress has been made on making arrangements for data transfer from HESA to the Department of Health/National Health Service, in order to maximise the use of available information from HESA, and so reduce the overall burden on HE institutions.
The following information therefore reiterates and adds to that confirmed in Circular 01/04, issued in November concerning the outstanding coding frames for the two new DoH/NHS fields:
| Field 172/157 | DHFUND | Department of Health | Alphanumeric |
| Field length 5 | funding body |
For students coded 31 'Department of Health/NHS/Health Authorities' in Field 64 and studying at institutions in England, this field will provide additional detail as to the actual source of DH funding. A codelist comprised of Workforce Development Confederations will be available via a link from the electronic version of this circular appearing on the HESA www site.
| Field 173/158 | NHSEMP | NHS Employer | Alphanumeric |
| Field length 5 |
This field will be compulsory for those students where Field 41 QUALAIM is coded 15 ‘Post Registration health and social care courses’ and the student is studying in England. NHS organisation codes now exist which will identify each specific NHS employer.
001 Not an NHS Employee, or a valid entry, see following further information.
Additional valid entries are to be selected from a codelist comprised of NHS and Primary Care Trusts that will be available via a link from the electronic version of this circular appearing on the HESA www site. Whilst the employer code list (NHS and Primary Care Trusts) may appear rather long, it is expected that for any single institution, only a small subset of codes will need to be used.
Further Clarification/FAQs
The following further clarification is given to supplement the information given in Circular 01/04, in answer to a number of queries raised by institutions since distribution of the earlier Circular.
F28 SPCSTU
Q Does the new code 7 apply to all outgoing ERASMUS students, or only those who are out for the whole year? And does it apply only to ERASMUS students or to SOCRATES students too?
A The new code 7 ‘Outgoing ERASMUS student’ was introduced to allow exchange-out students under the ERASMUS/SOCRATES programmes to be unambiguously identified. Therefore all out-going ERASMUS/SOCRATES students, whether for part or all of a year, should be coded as 7. Students who are going out for the whole year will be separately identified using code 03 in Field 67 FEEBAND.
F33 RSNLEAVE (see also F152/137 NOTACT below)
Q Has the new code, 12 ‘Redundant HIN’ been introduced specifically to deal with NHS students as referred to in F152/137 NOTACT? If so, why would we want to create a new HIN for an (NHS) student who is ‘temporarily stepping-off’? Surely for someone (anyone) who resumes their studies at a later stage, after temporarily suspending, we should use the same HIN?
A The new code 12 in F33 has not been introduced for use when F152/137 NOTACT = 2, i.e. it is not an ‘NHS’ code. The purpose of this new code is to allow the record to be ‘tidied-up’, to improve its potential for linking and tracking. This code should be used in any cases where institutions have incorrectly returned more than one HIN for a student. In these cases, institutions will not be required to give a DATELEFT (F35).
F52 SPPRG
Q How should Continuing Vocational Education (CVE) programmes be coded in Field 52? Based on the 02/03 coding frame, it looks as if it is no longer required to identify these programmes separately using code 02, as codes 02-05 become 'Not Used'. Should code 09 'Other' be used instead?
A Continuing Vocational Education (CVE) programmes should be coded 09 ‘Other’ in F 52.
F67 FEEBAND
Q Does the new code 03 ‘ Prescribed undergraduate fee, zero fee’ apply to ERASMUS-in or ERASMUS-out students?
A The new code relates to full-year out-going ERASMUS/SOCRATES students where the regulated fee is zero. This field is needed to allow funding councils to monitor fee compensation given for these students.
F71 LOCSDY
Q Does the revised coding frame apply to all students, or just to new students (starting after 1 August 2002)?
A Since codes 1 – 5 become ‘Not used’, continuing students will have to be re-coded between new Field 165/150 FRNCHACT and Field 71 LOCSDY.
F76 PGCESBJ
Q How should joint honours degrees be coded?
A Use of JACS for coding programmes of study in the HESA student record allows up to 3 x 4 + 1 = 13 digits. However this field is only currently of length 6 and there is no suggestion at this stage that the record structure will be changed. Therefore, to obtain the most information using the existing structure, the TTA have advised that their preference is for institutions to code 2 subjects at 3-digit JACS level, e.g. R11F16 - French Language and Organic Chemistry. The balance between the two subjects cannot be separately indicated, and so it will have to be assumed to be equal.
F152 NOTACT/137
Q There is an implied relationship between the new code, 2 ‘DH/NHS student temporarily stepping-off HIN’ introduced in F152/137 and the new code 12 ‘Redundant HIN’ introduced in F33 RSNLEAVE, given that F33 is compulsory where F152/137 = 2. Could you give examples please of the DH/NHS students expected to temporarily step-off HIN?
A There is no relationship between the new code ‘DH/NHS student temporarily stepping-off HIN’ introduced in F152/137 and the new code 12 ‘Redundant HIN’ introduced in F33 RSNLEAVE.
HESA’s contact at the Department of Health has provided the following additional information about stepping-off.
The reasons for stepping-on and off are many and varied. The DoH core definition of such stepping-off points would be: "a student who takes a break in study, at an agreed appropriate time, e. g. after successful completion of the Year 1 of the Common Foundation Programme for nursing students, and who plans to return to join a later cohort from the one with which they originally started."
This provides individuals with the ability to enter or leave a programme of education at a given point, providing maximum flexibility, thereby enabling an individual to consider alternative options of employment and education.
The new nursing programme allows for stepping-off points at the end of Year 1 (following successful completion of the Common Foundation Programme) and throughout the programme.
F166/151 INSTCAMP and F3 CAMPID
Q Will it still be possible to use our old CAMPID identifiers as well as the new requirement for INSTCAMP? We use this field to distinguish between groups of students such as nurses or continuing education students.
A To facilitate analysis of geographic patterns of study, the use of the current CAMPID, F3, is being changed to be available only to specify a distinct physical site, geographically separated from the main ‘headquarters’ of the institution. So, if students were studying at a campus away from where the main institution is based, e.g. in another town, then a separate campus identifier should be used. This may be the case, for instance, following a merger, to identify a merged institution as a separate campus. Thus CAMPID can only be used where students are studying at a different, and single other site.
Because use of CAMPID has been so limited, the new F166/151 INSTCAMP has been introduced in order to enable institutions to continue to identify other disaggregations, e.g. groups of students, such as nurses or CE students for their own purposes.
F167/152 SEC and F168/153 SOC2000
Q Where can I find a list of the new SOC 2000 codes? A A full coding frame for SOC 2000 can be obtained from the Office for National Statistics [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/nsbase/methods_quality/ns_sec/soc2000.asp]. There will also be an annex containing the SOC 2000 codes included in the new Coding Manual for the 02/03 record.
Q Will students who applied for deferred entry in 2001 be assigned new SOC 2000 codes? If so, will UCAS map the codes?
A For students entering institutions in 2002, UCAS applicants applying this cycle will have an associated SOC2000 code as well as a single character code indicating the new social class based on SOC2000. For those who applied through earlier cycles and have deferred entry, UCAS will supply SOC1990 based coding. HESA will accept both the old and new codings until all entrants can be classified using SOC2000 and will validate which coding frame is appropriate for each student by reference to the date information included in the UCAS number.
F169/154 PREVINST
Q How is the 8-character PREVINST code made up?
A The previous field LASTINST proved difficult to analyse because of the assortment of school/Fe/HE codes used in its completion. This new field seeks to categorise types of expected code, and uses the first character to indicate from which code set the institute identifier belongs. Thus, H will signify either an HEI or an FEC, D signifies a government school number, and U a UCAS school number. The remaining characters in the field are used to insert the actual institution identifier, which for HEIs will be 4 characters in length, for FECs variable, depending on country, but for schools the government school codes are 7 characters in length. Therefore the field has a maximum of 8 characters to allow for the 7-digit school code.
UCAS will provide an HEI, FEC or government number, if they have one, in the absence of same, they will default to the five digit UCAS number, but in all cases they will include the appropriate prefix to the code to differentiate between type.
For continuing students, institutions should return the previous LASTINST information, with the appropriate prefix.
Q What exactly is meant by ‘Institutions will continue to be encouraged to supply full codes for full-time undergraduate entrants, even if they are non-UCAS entrants’?
A As now, the status of this field requires that collection of this information is compulsory for undergraduate students entering through UCAS. Institutions are encouraged to provide similar information for other full-time undergraduates in order to provide more complete statistical information for the sector. This information is used in projections and planning for the sector and analysis of trends in the take-up of higher education. The codes to be used for institutions to supply information for non-UCAS entrants have been reviewed and were confirmed in circular 01/04 as:
4901 UK state school
4911 UK independent school
4921 UK FE college
4941 UK HEI
4931 Any non-UK institution.
Additional Guidance
Module Based Returns
HEFCE have confirmed that for HEFCE-funded institutions there is no requirement to make a module based return, but have asked HESA to draw the attention of institutions to the following development to be taken into consideration in future systems design and management.
HEFCE issued Consultation 02/22 on Funding for Widening Participation in HE (new proposals 2003-04 to 2005-06) in April. As part of this consultation institutions are invited to comment on changes to the funding method for teaching. One of the proposed changes is to the way students who fail to complete the year of programme of study are funded. At present students who fail to complete the year of programme of study are not included in HEFCE’s funding calculations. If HEFCE were to change their funding method to take account of such students, it is likely this would only be possible where institutions return Student/Module Type 12/13 records to HESA. By using a module-based return, it will be possible to monitor what proportion of the total FTE for the year the student has successfully completed. HEFCE-funded institutions should therefore be aware that, in future, returning records to HESA using the Combined student/course (Type 11) record may lead to lower allocations than would have been the case if the Student/Module (Type 12/13) records were used. Institutions might also note that structural record changes were postponed from the last review of the student record (1998-99), so it is likely that structural issues will be considered at the next opportunity for record review.
F14 ETHNIC
Further clarification re new Ethnicity codes<> It is HESA’s intention to adopt national classifications where they exist and are appropriate. The proposal to introduce Census 2001 ethnicity coding across the major data streams is an example of this practice.
However, in this instance, there is no coding structure for ethnicity that is applicable throughout the UK, as variations to the Census 2001 ethnicity coding were adopted in both Scotland and Northern Ireland. To accommodate requirements for institutions in these regions to report locally to their devolved administrations, the coding frame in Student Circular 01/01 issued in May 2001 will be revised. As a consequence, no institution will recognize this hybrid-coding list as the same as the Census codes used in their area.
There are two specific additional categories: ‘White – Scottish’ and ‘Irish Traveller’, which need only be used by institutions in Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively. In addition, institutions in Scotland and Northern Ireland do not need to code the detail for those from mixed ethnic backgrounds. Institutions in Scotland and Northern Ireland can code all such students as 49 – ‘Other Mixed background’.
The revised coding frame for ethnicity is therefore as follows:
10 White (Code only available if COMDATE <01/08/2001)
11 White - British
12 White - Irish
13 White Scottish
14 Irish Traveller
19 Other White background
21 Black or Black British - Caribbean
22 Black or Black British - African
29 Other Black background
31 Asian or Asian British - Indian
32 Asian or Asian British - Pakistani
33 Asian or Asian British - Bangladeshi
34 Chinese
39 Other Asian background
41 Mixed - White and Black Caribbean
42 Mixed - White and Black African
43 Mixed - White and Asian
49 Other Mixed background
80 Other Ethnic background
90 Not known
98 Information refused
Further, it can be seen that in this revised coding frame the code for ‘Chinese’ has been simplified.
Monitoring of Ethnicity
HESA is aware that, under the Race Relations Amendment Act (RRAA) 2000, institutions are required to monitor the ethnicity of all students i.e. those both home and overseas domiciled. In 2002/03 the status of Field 14 Ethnicity will remain 'Compulsory for home-domiciled students'. However, institutions are encouraged, as they develop their internal monitoring arrangements, to include in the HESA record, where possible, data on the ethnicity of overseas students.
F27 ENTRYCDE
In Circular 01/02 (issued in June 2001), the guidance given was that institutions should request new entrant to HE information directly from students during the enrolment/registration process, and not to infer it from F21 QUALENT2. The DfES are keen to encourage capture of this information directly rather than by inference, and so have offered the following further guidance to reinforce this requirement.
Institutions should ask students a direct question along the lines of: "Have you ever started a higher education course (i.e. above A level or equivalent) in the UK before?"
The outcome of any previous HE study is not relevant to this particular field. This field is very important to the DfES because it is used to identify "initial entrants" and it helps to inform the monitoring of progress towards the Government's HE participation targets.
F43 – 46 SBJQA1/3 - SBJBID
As indicated in circular 01/04, the new Joint Academic Coding of Subjects (JACS) coding frame is introduced in 2002/03, replacing HESACODE. This provides for all subjects to be coded according to a common, truly hierarchical, four-character subject code. From 2002/03, the first year of its introduction, JACS will be used substantially in subject representation across the sector, including for provision of quality assurance information.
Use of JACS for coding programmes of study in the HESA student record allows up to 3 x 4 + 1 = 13 digits. The extension to three fields of length 4 plus a balance indicator will allow for the possibility of coding beyond the principal subject level when required. In many cases, coding to the principal subject level will be sufficient (using '00' as the last two characters), although in some specific cases more information is required, see DH and TTA examples following.
The introduction of the new subject codes will therefore result in institutions returning individual codes in Fields 43-46, with up to 4 characters of JACS code in each of Fields 43, 44 and 45, as appropriate, and a balance indicator, if relevant, in Field 46. (Note that it may be necessary to left-justify, as the existing F43 SBJQA1 is 6 characters in length).
The JACS coding frame will also be used for the subject area of study fields 101-146 and M13/16.
Continuing students (COMDATE <01/08/2002) will have to be re-coded using the new subject categories; a mapping is available on the HESA WWW page at index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=609&Itemid=233 Where students are coded using codes in the B group or C8 or L5 groups and are DH funded (Field 64 coded 31), the Department of Health requires that students be coded to the full four digits of JACS where these exist or to three digits otherwise.
The TTA have recently confirmed a policy change to HESA, which will affect coding in these fields for Primary ITT students. Ministerial approval has been received for removal of the requirement for all trainees to study a primary specialism. This will take effect from 1 September 2002, so is therefore relevant to the 2002 December return, and will mean that trainees beginning a new primary course will not have to have a primary specialism, although those on an existing course will need to continue with their specialism. Further advice about the coding implications of this decision including the coding of specialisms in JACS format will shortly be made available to institutions through provision of replacement pages.
F67 FEEBAND
For postgraduate students FEEBAND=41 should be used if the fees for the year are at the standard rate paid by the Research Councils. FEEBAND=42 should be used if the fees for the year are half this amount. In 2002-03 the standard fees paid by Research Councils were £2,870, but the level of these fees changes annually. Institutions are informed of the current fees each year by the funding bodies. The most recent guidance issued in January by the HEFCE can be found as an electronic publication [Circular Letter 01/02].
F71 LOCSDY - updated 2002-06-06
Previously, a record has not been compulsory for any student studying for the whole of their programme of study outside the UK. Institutions are however advised that there is increasing interest in such students, and consequently, the HESA Board has agreed that, from 2002-03, students who would be coded 7 'Student studying for the whole of their programme of study (to date) outside of the UK' in Field 71 must now be included in the return.
Year of programme of study should be incremented for each year of a course a student studies. Therefore, where students do not repeat any studies, year of programme of study will increment each reporting year. In particular, where students study full-time courses on a part-time basis the year of programme of study should still increment every year. For example, if a student is studying a degree normally taken full-time over 3 years, over 6 years part-time, the year of programme of study should start at 1 and increase each reporting year to 6.
Use of UCAS Data in Making HESA Returns 2002/03 Onwards
Circular 01/04 indicated that in due course further details would be made available regarding the provision of appropriate data relating to the 2002/03 HESA fields for which data from specified entrants has originally been collected by UCAS, including for those entering through the Graduate Teacher Training Registry (GTTR), the Nursing and Midwifery Admissions Service (NMAS) and the Social Work Admission System (SWAS).
This information is to be pre-processed from the UCAS sources that most closely match HESA definitions and presented as one transaction in exactly the same format as required for the 2002/03 HESA record, for use in preparing HESA returns for entrants in the 2002/03 academic year onwards.
Earlier in the year UCAS issued to UCAS and MIS Correspondents within its member institutions a document containing details about this data transaction, including the tariff element, plus the agreed arrangement for coding F25 OCCCODE and F168/153 SOC2000. This document, ‘University Circular U C/15/02’, will shortly be accessible to record contacts from the HESA website.
Tariff-related suite of new fields
The tariff suite of new fields includes: F174/159 – F205/190 Number of and tariff score for various awards, and F198/183 TOTALTS, Total UCAS Tariff Score.
Note that in 2002/03, all of the tariff-related fields F174/159 to F198/183 except F197/182 will be used. It is anticipated that additional qualifications are likely to be brought into the tariff system, and possibly before any further review of the student record. For this reason institutions were advised in circular 01/04 to allow space for a number of other tariff-related fields; F199/184 through to F205/190.
As part of the recently announced new transaction to be supplied by UCAS to enable member Institutions and Colleges to make better use of their UCAS data in preparing their submission to HESA the HEFCE, HESA and UCAS have agreed on the method by which the number of awards and their tariff scores are to populate the fields F174/159 to F196/181 and F198/183 (a method subsequently accepted by other statutory data users of HESA data). Annex 2 to this circular contains a UCAS document that describes the tariff calculation and provides some worked examples. This document will also be made available from the websites of both organisations (UCAS and HESA).
Q Is this data only compulsory for new UCAS entrants from 2002/03?
A Yes, as the tariff calculation of entry qualifications will only be available in pre-calculated form from UCAS for UCAS entrants, it is expected that systematic completion of the tariff suite of fields will only be practicable for UCAS entrants. HESA already has information available about the entry qualifications of continuing students, and will use linking techniques to make this available to statutory users of the data on behalf of institutions. Institutions who calculate tariff for non-UCAS entrants for their own purposes are encouraged however to include this information in their HESA return.
Q Are these fields to be completed for students who in 2001 apply for deferred entry until 2002? If so, will information for these students be available from UCAS?
A Yes, for the UCAS population information relating to deferred entrants will be included in the new transaction.
Q Do the tariff scores follow the same lines as the current A Level point scores?
A Please refer to Annex 2 and the information about tariff on the UCAS website.
Q These fields are becoming ‘Not used’ from 02/03. But in the absence of any further information about how to calculate tariff scores, how am I to report information for continuing and non-UCAS entrants?
A The tariff calculation of entry qualifications will only be available in pre-calculated form from UCAS for UCAS entrants, it is expected that systematic completion of the tariff suite of fields will only be practicable for UCAS entrants. HESA already has information available about the entry qualifications of continuing students, and will use linking techniques to make this available to statutory users of the data on behalf of institutions. Institutions who calculate tariff for non-UCAS entrants for their own purposes are encouraged however to include this information in their HESA return.
For further information about tariff, please refer to Annex 2, provided by UCAS and enclosed with this circular, which both describes and illustrates the calculation of tariff.
Replacement pages reflecting these changes to the Coding Manual for use in 2002/03 will be made available shortly via the website (www.hesa.ac.uk).
Record contacts are invited to attend a training seminar that is to be held in Birmingham on 25 June. A separate mailing issued simultaneously with this circular contains both a programme and booking form for the event.
If you have any queries on the issues raised in this Circular, please contact the Institutional Liaison team (Alison Berry, Marietta Nkweta, Janet Earl or Clara Elcocks) at HESA, or email (liaison@hesa.ac.uk).
Yours sincerely
C Jane Wild
Director of Operations
Annex 1 - Summary of 2002/03 Student Record Changes (.rtf)
Annex 2 - Use of UCAS Data in Making HESA Returns 2002/03 Onwards – Tariff Calculation (.rtf)
Field 172/157 DHFUND Valid entries (.rtf)
Field 173/158 NHSEMP Valid entries (.rtf)
