00/01 - June

Dear Colleagues

Proposed changes to the Student Record Coding Manual 2001/02

You will be aware that following the last review of the HESA student record, which was in 1998/99, it was the intention that the next opportunity for inspection of this return would be for 2003/04 - according to the planned five-year rolling basis of record re-development.

It is the case that the pace of external change more recently has been such that this intention has had to be relaxed. However, in order to maintain stability and data quality, and to rationalise the burden of data collection upon institutions, the principle has been adopted that any interim review ought only to bring about substantive and urgent record changes (e. g. those entailed by legislation).

It is recognised that the Statutory Business Committee recently identified that major redevelopment of the student record should be deferred from 2003 (to 2005/06 at the earliest, to allow time to evaluate the success of the introduction of the previous review), but noted that some more minor changes would need to be introduced in 2001 and 2002.

HESA and the Statutory Customers technical group have therefore considered which areas of the student record need to be changed in the interim, and when these changes are necessary.

The main areas identified for earliest revision (in 2001/02) are:

• student support (mixed source of tuition fees)
  
• teacher training (TTA funded modular provision, fast-track ITT and reasons for withholding QTS).
  

Also incorporated for early revision are:

• identification of the new Foundation degree as a qualification aim
  
• 2001 Census categories for identification of Ethnicity.
  

It should be noted that the revises identified above can be brought about through changes only to coding frames and not to the structure of the record. Annex A, enclosed, contains the new coding structure for each of the proposed changed fields in 2001/02.

There are a number of other changes that HESA and its Statutory Customers have discussed, but with the view that these proposals could not be implemented until later, in 2002/03. Thus also enclosed, for information, is Annex B, which outlines some of the possible changes to the student record for implementation in 2002/03.

This Circular therefore both sets out details of the proposed changes to be made to the Student Record Coding Manual for implementation in 2001/02 (Annex A) and gives as much advance information as possible about possible changes to the Student Record for implementation in 2002/03 (Annex B).

Institutions are invited to comment on these proposals. Please address your comments, which are to be received by Friday 11 August, to Alison Berry, Institutional Liaison Manager at HESA.

Summary of Annex A - changes for 2001/02

Field 14 Ethnicity

New categories will be introduced, as identified in the 2001 Census, as per the advance guidance issued during the Student Record re-development of 1998/99. The codes used in this field will be the same as those adopted by UCAS. However, continuing students (i.e. those with a COMDATE before 01/08/2001) need not be re-coded. Feedback from institutions would be welcomed on this, particularly as to whether it is preferred that code 99 previously ‘Information not yet sought' is replaced by the UCAS code 99 ‘Not known (UCAS code) (Dom=Osea)', or a new code is added for ‘Not known (UCAS code) (Dom=Osea)'.

Field 28 Special students

Code A ‘Fast-track (ITT)' is added to this field, in order to allow the TTA to identify ITT students following the Fast-track route. The Fast-track definition is: "All trainees who have passed the national selection process for the fast-track initiative and who are training in ITT on that basis".

Field 40 Programme of study title
Field 41 General qualification aim of student

The DFEE have requested that a new code be inserted (28) in order to recognise the new ‘Foundation degree' qualification. Use of this new code will be optional in 2001/02 but compulsory in 2002/03. Institutions should use the words ‘Foundation degree' within Field 40 Programme of study title if foundation degrees are offered but not yet coded 28 in F41 in 2001/02.

Field 53 Teacher training course identifier

There are two new codes to be added to this field: 5 ‘TTA funded modular provision - student concurrently employed' and 6 ‘TTA funded modular provision - student not concurrently employed'.

Field 68 Major source of tuition fees

Specifically, it has been necessary to introduce new codes in this field to enable the DFEE to identify cases where a student is having some of their tuition fees paid for by the Student Loans Company/SAAS although the remainder of their total tuition fees is being paid for by the student.

Field 161 Outcome of ITT programme

Three additional codes have been requested by the TTA: 6 ‘QTS withheld (standards met but skills test failed)', 7 ‘QTS withheld (standards not met, but skills test passed)' and 8 ‘QTS withheld (standards not met and skills test failed).

Annex B - Advanced notice of proposed changes for 2002/03

Enclosed with this Circular is a further annex, Annex B, which outlines some of the possible changes for implementation in 2002/03.

The advance notice given in this circular is the first stage in consulting institutions about these possible changes for 2002/03. Any issues raised by institutions about these later changes will be further explored before final consultation with institutions in Spring 2001.

In particular, institutions are asked to comment on whether it would be helpful to have any of the proposed changes to the Student Record in 2002/03 available as optional in 2001/02. This particularly applies to codes in Field 28 ‘Special students' and Field 68 ‘Major source of tuition fees', where some codes are being introduced in the earlier year and more codes are proposed for the following year.

Further Information

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

Yours sincerely

C Jane Wild
Director of Operations

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