C08031 Timescales
FSR with HE-BCI Survey 2008/09
Timescales for data collection
Version 1.0 Produced 2009-09-04
The below document is designed to guide institutions through the stages of data submission for the Finance Statistics Return with HE-BCI survey.
At a glance
| From August 2009 | Institutions' local preparation |
| October to November 2009 | C08031 pre-collection circular |
| December 2009 | C08031 data collection opens |
| 18 December 2009 | Send HESA copy of published accounts |
| 23 December 2009 | Return date |
| 23 December 2009 | Nil Return confirmation deadline |
| 23 December 2009 to 15 January 2010 | Data quality checking period |
| 15 January 2010 | Last submission and sign-off |
Detailed requirements
Institutions should read the C08031 FSR with HE-BCI coding manual and associated documentation for details
of the requirements for the return.
If you have any queries with the requirements for C08031 please contact Institutional Liaison at liaison@hesa.ac.uk.
In advance of the main collection HESA releases a pre-collection circular. This circular provides further guidance of the requirements for the collection year, with particular reference to any areas HESA's statutory customers wish institutions to pay particular attention to during coding and submission. The pre-collection circular will be made available at: Finance Record circulars.
Notification of the publication of this circular will be sent to the FSR with HE-BCI Record contact at your institution, and circulated on sector mailgroups such as the Admin-HESA JISC mailgroup. If you would like to join Admin-HESA please contact Institutional Liaison.
The C08031 collection database opens on the submit site around 4 weeks ahead of the return date providing institutions with plenty of opportunity to test files ahead of the return date deadline.
Both the 08031 FSR and 08032 HE-BCI Part B are required to be submitted in the format of an Excel workbook. The templates for these records should be downloaded from the 'Downloadable files' section of the C08031 coding manual webpage. Please note that data must be returned to HESA on the templates provided. The 08033 HE-BCI Part A record takes the form of a web survey which will be accessible from the submit site when the collection opens in December. This form will be pre-populated where relevant with the data submitted by the institution in last year's survey.
Access and PIN codes for this system will be distributed to the FSR with HE-BCI Record contact at your institution when the system opens.
HESA monitors all transactions on the system to ensure institutions are progressing reasonably and not encountering difficulties. If you require assistance with the submission process, please contact Institutional Liaison.
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Institutions in Wales and Scotland are requested to send a copy of their published accounts to Institutional Liaison at HESA as soon as they become available, and no later than 18 December 2009. (The published accounts for institutions in England and Northern Ireland will be forwarded to HESA by HEFCE by this date).
Institutions are required to send complete data that has passed validation to HESA by 23 December 2009.
To meet this deadline institutions are required to submit all three components: 08031 FSR, 08032 HE-BCI Part B, and 08033 HE-BCI Part A. For those institutions in Scotland opting not to participate in the HE-BCI survey a Nil Return form will be required.
HESA FSR with HE-BCI Record contacts need to co-ordinate submission of all three components to ensure the deadline is met.
A single validation failure will result in no data being imported into the system. Data which fails validation will not be considered to have been returned to the Agency.
The completion of the HE-BCI survey is not compulsory for institutions in Scotland. All institutions in Scotland are required to complete a Nil Return form to indicate whether or not the institution will be submitting HE-BCI part A and B. This form will be made available to download from the C08031 coding manual webpage. All institutions in Scotland are required to complete and return this form to Institutional Liaison by 23 December 2009.
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23 December 2009 to 15 January 2010: DATA QUALITY CHECKING PERIOD |
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A successful COMMIT will generate several reports containing managment
information that institutions will need to review to assess data
quality. These reports for review are:
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Check documentation | This Excel workbook contains a series of tables presenting much of the submitted data to enable institutions to check that their submission presents their institution as expected. The 08031 FSR check documentation includes a cross-comparison of the use of cost centres between the Staff Record, Student Record and FSR. Record contacts are encouraged to liaise with colleagues responsible for these other returns to ensure commonality in use of cost centres. |
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Exception report |
This report details any COMMIT-stage validation errors/warnings triggered by the submission. |
Institutions are required to review the reports and to resubmit data in order to resolve data quality issues. Institutions can contact Institutional Liaison throughout this period to request their data is decommitted in order to make adjustments to the submission. The data quality checking period is an iterative process during which institutions may need to submit, commit, review and decommit their data several times to ensure the final submission is credible.
During this period Data Analysts at HESA will also examine data committed by all institutions. If any anomalies are found queries will be raised with your institution, via Institutional Liaison to the FSR with HE-BCI Record contact. Nevertheless institutions are in a better position to recognise more detailed anomalies within their data, using local knowledge of the intricacies of their own institution. As a consequence institutions are required to either resubmit their data to amend these anomalies, or provide an explanation via email to liaison@hesa.ac.uk as to why these apparent anomalies are genuine.
As part of the quality checking process HESA will also undertake analysis referencing the institution's published accounts. For institutions in England and Northern Ireland comparative anaylsis will also be undertaken referencing the electronic accounts submitted to HEFCE as part of the 'Single Conversation'. HESA FSR with HE-BCI Record contacts need to co-ordinate submission of all three components to ensure commonality of reporting.
Upon satifactory completion of this process data will be set to credible.
In order to meet obligations for hand-over of data to its customers, HESA needs to receive all data files by 15 January 2010.
As part of the data quality assurance procedures, HESA requires the return to be signed-off by the head of your institution, or by a person with suitable authority. This verification offers both the institutions and HESA assurances regarding onward use of the data. Sign-off completes the data collection process.
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On the system your institution's data will be set to credible and a new icon will be made available from where the sign-off slip can be downloaded and completed. Once completed, the slip should be posted back to HESA at the address in the bar below. Please note that the transaction number on the sign-off slip must correspond to that of the data being signed-off. |
Note: Institutions should download and keep copies of all relevant reports that they are likely to need during the year, as it will be necessary to restrict access to the site after the submission deadline.
Following closure of the data collection all data submitted will be passed to HESA's Statutory Customers.
Data is also used by HESA in the following ways:
HE Finance Plus
HE Planning Plus
heidi
General data enquiries
