Student Record 2020/21 (C20051): Notification of Changes
This page summarises the changes to the Student Record that will be implemented for 2020/21 (C20051).
All providers
The REFData.UOA2021 field records Unit(s) of Assessment for postgraduate research students against the REF2021 coding frame.
This field will be made mandatory for the C20051 collection.
The coverage of this field be therefore be:
All REFData records, except where supervision is provided by industrial or overseas partners.
The REFData.UOA2014 field will be removed as this is no longer required.
Correction: The original Notification of Changes included a change to the Instance.COMDATE referenced in the following coverage statements:
- EntryProfile.PARED (England, Northern Ireland, Wales)
- EntryProfile.CARELEAVER (Northern Ireland)
This has been corrected in the coverage statements below and included in the C20051 Supplementary Notification of Changes.
The OfS have requested amendments to the coverage of three person characteristics fields. This is in order to enhance sector and provider led regulation of access and participation issues in England through a deeper understanding of the barriers and outcomes of students from a wide range of the groups protected under the Equality Act 2010.
HEFCW have requested amendments to the coverage of three person characteristics fields. This is to support HEFCW and providers to fulfil their duties the Public Sector Equality Duty and to monitor outcomes for different groups of students.
The DfE (NI) have requested amendments to the coverage of four person characteristics fields to provide better data to meet department strategy objectives and policy development relating to widening participation issues. This will also help to maintain consistency of coverage across the UK.
Student.GENDERID (providers in England, Northern Ireland and Wales)
This field will be updated from optional to mandatory. The coverage for providers in England, Northern Ireland and Wales will be updated to:
All Students
The following valid entry will be added to this field to record where the data is not known by the provider:
99 Not available
Student.SEXORT (providers in England, Northern Ireland and Wales)
This field will be updated from optional to mandatory. The coverage for providers in England, Northern Ireland and Wales will be updated to:
All Students
The following valid entry will be added to this field to record where the data is not known by the provider:
99 Not available
For providers in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, both Student.GENDERID and Student.SEXORT are now a mandatory requirement for all students, both new and continuing.
EntryProfile.PARED (providers in England)
The coverage for providers in England will be updated to the below, this is currently restricted to UK domiciled students:
All Instances at providers in England where ((Instance.REDUCEDI = 00 or 01) and (Instance.FUNDCODE = 1 or 7)) and (Course.COURSEAIM begins with H, I, J or C or is M22, M26, M28, M71, M73 or M88, excluding H50, H60, H61, H62, H78, H81, I60, I61 or I81) and (Instance.COMDATE > 2007-07-31) and (Instance.EXCHANGE is N, Y or null).
All Instances at providers in England where Instance.REDUCEDI = 08 and (Course.COURSEAIM begins with H, I, J or C or is M22, M26, M28, M71, M73 or M88, excluding H50, H60, H61, H62, H78, H81, I60, I61 or I81) and Course.MSFUND does not equal 37 and (Instance.COMDATE > 2007-07-31).
EntryProfile.PARED (providers in Wales)
The coverage for providers in Wales will be updated to all UK domiciled undergraduate students (previously restricted to UCAS entrants) as below:
All entrants at providers in Wales where EntryProfile.DOMICILE = XF, XG, XH, XI, XK, XL, GG, JE or IM and Course.COURSEAIM starts with H, I, J or C or is M22, M26 or M28 and Instance.COMDATE is after 2008-07-31.
EntryProfile.PARED (providers in Northern Ireland)
The coverage for providers in Northern Ireland will be updated to UK domiciled students (previously restricted to UCAS entrants) as below:
All entrants at providers in Northern Ireland where EntryProfile.DOMICILE = XF, XG, XH, XI, XK, XL, GG, JE or IM and Course.COURSEAIM starts with H, I, J, C or is M22, M26 or M28, M71, M73 or M88 and Instance.COMDATE is after 2008-07-31.
EntryProfile.CARELEAVER (providers in Northern Ireland)
The coverage for providers in Northern Ireland will be updated to UK domiciled students (previously restricted to UCAS entrants) as below:
All entrants at providers in Northern Ireland where EntryProfile.DOMICILE = XF, XG, XH, XI, XK, XL, GG, JE or IM and Course.COURSEAIM starts with H, I, J, C or is M22, M26 or M28, M71, M73 or M88 and Instance.COMDATE is after 2013-07-31.
EntryProfile.CARELEAVER (providers in Scotland)
The coverage for providers in Scotland will be updated to include postgraduate students as below:
All entrants at providers in Scotland where (Instance.REDUCEDI = 00, 01 or 04) and (EntryProfile.DOMICILE = XF, XG, XH, XI or XK) and Instance.COMDATE > 2013-07-31.
This is in order to monitor the participation and outcomes of care-experienced students at postgraduate levels to inform policies to improve the opportunities and outcomes for these students. The SFC has made a commitment to this through their National Ambition for Care-Experienced Students.
Providers in England
The Office for Students (OfS) have a requirement to collect the class of qualifications for all qualifications awarded at providers in England. The OfS require this information to allow effective regulation of the sector, specifically regarding the OfS emphasis on student outcomes and grade inflation.
The coverage of this field will therefore be expanded to all QualificationsAwarded at providers in England.
The following valid entries will be added to account for cases where the current coding frame does not cover valid class outcomes:
15 Commendation
16 Award of Credit
This does not affect the coverage for providers in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales.
Update:
Due to the need to separately identify credits brought in through APEL and credits brought in other than through APEL, the implementation of this change has been updated. Three new fields will be added (rather than two) to allow APEL to be separately flagged. The below has been updated with this change, as well as additional guidance being added based on queries from providers.
The Office for Students (OfS) require a way of recording when a student is bringing over credits from a previous award that counts towards the new qualification they are now studying. This will help OfS understand where this type of activity happens. The OfS view credit transfer and Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) as important to ensure that choice and competition within the market drive innovation, diversity and improvement.
In order to record this, three fields will be added to the EntryProfile entity to record the number of credits a student brings with them and the associated credit transfer scheme. These fields will be specified as below:
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Type |
Field |
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Long name |
Credits points counted towards study |
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Short name |
CRDPTSTU |
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Description |
This field indicates the number of credit points being used from a previous award towards the student’s current study. |
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Applicable to |
England |
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Coverage |
All EntryProfile entities at providers in England where applicable. |
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Notes |
Where a student uses credits from a previous award or APEL towards their current study, this field records the number of credits. This is used in combination with EntryProfile.CRDSCM which records the relevant credit scheme and EntryProfile.APELCRD which is returned where the credits are the result of APEL. This credit could have been awarded by the reporting provider as part of a previous Instance. If the student is using previous credit to count towards their current Instance, this should be recorded. Where the student has a previous award, rather than credits, this would not be recorded in this field. For example, if a student completed a foundation degree at provider A before moving to provider B to complete a top-up, the credits for the foundation degree would not be recorded in this field. If the foundation degree was the student's highest qualification, this would be recorded in EntryProfile.QUALENT3. Fractional credit points should be rounded to the nearest whole number. Examples
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Reason required |
Being able to see where students are being allowed to transfer in credit previously achieved or use APEL to offset parts of their course will help the OfS understand where this type of activity happens and to ensure that choice and competition within the market drive innovation, diversity and improvement. |
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Part of |
EntryProfile |
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Type |
Field |
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Long name |
Credit Scheme |
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Short name |
CRDSCM |
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Description |
This field denotes the credit point transfer scheme that EntryProfile.CRDPTSTU applies to. |
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Applicable to |
England |
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Coverage |
All EntryProfile entities at providers in England where EntryProfile.CRDPTSTU has a value. |
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Valid entries |
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Notes |
This field identifies the credit scheme to give value to the CRDPTSTU field. If credits gained by students overseas are converted to CATS or ECTS to be used for the student's current study, 01 or 02 would be returned as appropriate and EntryProfile.CRDPTSTU would record the credit value in CATS or ECTS. |
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Reason required |
This attribute aids interpretation of EntryProfile.CRDPTSTU |
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Part of |
EntryProfile |
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Type |
Field |
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Long name |
APEL credits | ||||
|
Short name |
APELCRD | ||||
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Description |
This field records where the credits recorded in EntryProfile.CRDPTSTU are as a result of APEL. | ||||
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Applicable to |
England |
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Coverage |
All Entry profile entities at providers in England where applicable |
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Valid entries |
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Notes |
Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) is the identification, assessment and formal acknowledgement of learning and achievement that occurred prior to entry to a course of study, but not in the context of formal education or training. Where a provider recognises a student's prior experience and as a result the student does not need to complete part of their course, this field is returned to indicate this. This is used in combination of the EntryProfile.CRDPTSTU and EntryProfile.CRDSCM which identify the number of credits that the student is recognised as bringing in and the credit transfer scheme they are applicable to respectively. A StudentOnModule record should not be returned for APEL modules. |
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Reason required |
To be able to distinguish between those students brining over credits from a previous award and those entering with Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL). |
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Part of |
EntryProfile |
The Office for Students (OfS) have a requirement to collect information on financial support provided to under-represented student groups as a result of commitments made in access agreements and Access and Participation Plans. This information will enable the OfS and providers to determine what levels of support, provided to different student groups, may be most effective in improving student outcomes and under what circumstance.
In order to record this, a new field will be added to the FinancialSupport entity to be returned where the financial support being recorded is part of the Access and Participation Plan. This field will be specified as below:
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Type |
Field |
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Long name |
Access and participation spending commitment |
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Short name |
APPSPEND |
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Description |
This field indicates that the financial support being returned is part of the commitments detailed in the provider’s Access and Participation Plan. |
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Applicable to |
England |
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Coverage |
All FinancialSupport entities at providers in England registered with the Office for Students in the ‘Approved (fee cap)’ category with an approved Access and Participation Plan where applicable |
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Valid entries |
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Notes |
This field is only applicable to providers registered with the Office for Students in the ‘Approved (fee cap)’ category. HE providers registered with the OfS that want to charge fees above the basic fee level are required to have an Access and Participation Plan approved by the Director for Fair Access and Participation. Within the plans, HE providers commit to spending a proportion of their higher fee income on strategic measures put in place to address any gaps in outcomes they identify for particular student groups. Returning 01 in this field indicates that the financial support being recorded in this entity has been provided as part of this Access and Participation Plan. |
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Reason required |
To allow the OfS and providers to analyse the effectiveness of the support provided through Access and Participation Plans in relation to student outcomes. To allow the OfS and providers to understand which level and type of support is most effective. |
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Part of |
FinancialSupport |
Providers in England will be removed from the coverage of the Instance.FEEREGIME as this data is no longer required.
This will impact on a number of coverage statements in the record which currently reference Instance.FEEREGIME. Details of this will be released in a supplementary notification of changes.
The OfS require information regarding the physical location a student is studying at and the proportion of a Course delivered by different organisations.
The delivery information is required to allow the Office for Students to attribute students to a named delivery organisation for the purposes of reporting on ‘teaching provider’ consistently (regardless of whether the student falls within an entry, continuing or qualifying cohort). This is used in Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) metrics, NSS results and other sources of student information (DiscoverUni), regional analysis, and analysis of student outcomes used to evidence providers’ compliance with registration conditions concerned with quality and standards.
TEF metrics currently attribute a student to a teaching provider based on the organisation providing the majority of teaching in the student’s first year of study. Knowing from the outset which provider will be the student’s majority teaching provider for the Course as a whole will improve issues of consistency. This will also enable providers to better understand the cohorts for which TEF metrics will consider them accountable for the student experience and outcomes.
The geographical location of students is required for a number of purposes:
- Funding allocations for delivery in London are based on whether the delivery takes place in London rather than whether the delivery organisation is based in London
- Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) metrics take into account ‘local’ students: students being taught at a provider close to where they’re from
- Regional profiles need to identify cold spots for certain subject areas and monitor student migration by subject area
In each case the UKPRN for the delivery organisation is not sufficient and a postcode is required.
In order to capture this a new sub-entity of the Course entity will be created to capture organisation(s) and location(s).
This entity will be specified as below:
|
Type |
Entity |
|
Long name |
Delivery organisation and location |
|
Description |
This entity records the delivery organisations and locations associated with a Course |
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Applicable to |
England |
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Coverage |
All Courses at providers in England where the reporting provider is not wholly responsible for the delivery of the Course |
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Notes |
This entity must be returned once for each organisation involved in delivery of the Course (except for the reporting provider) with the proportion field returned to indicate the relevant proportion of the Course being delivered by each organisation. This information should reflect the entirety of the Course and should take into account franchised Modules. The proportions of different organisations may be dependent on student Module choices. In these cases, the proportions returned should be based on the most common choices from students in previous years or the expected pathways for new Courses. A postcode is required to be returned for each delivery organisation. In cases where the organisation is delivering learning at more than location, the location where the majority of activity is undertaken should be recorded. If the organisation doing the majority of teaching changes, or there is a new delivery partner, a new Course would be required to be submitted and students associated with the appropriate version. If the reporting provider delivers the full Course, this entity is not required. |
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Reason required |
To allow recording of franchise arrangement and location information in order to monitor migration and student numbers. |
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Part of |
Course |
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Type |
Field |
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Long name |
Delivery organisation |
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Short name |
DELORG |
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Description |
This field records the delivery organisation for a Course. |
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Applicable to |
England |
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Coverage |
All DeliveryOrganisationAndLocation entities |
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Valid entries and labels |
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Notes |
In the majority of cases, this field would record the UKPRN of the delivery organisation. Where the organisation does not have a UKPRN, one of the above valid entries must be returned. Code 4002 should be used for any body (educational or other) based outside the UK. This should also be used for Non-UK providers that have a UK campus, but no UKPRN. |
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Reason required |
To allow the recording of franchise information to allow estimates to be made of student population for use in national statistics. |
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Part of |
DeliveryOrganisationAndLocation |
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Type |
Field |
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Long name |
Postcode |
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Short name |
POSTCODE |
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Description |
This field records the postcode for the location at which delivery is taking place |
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Applicable to |
England |
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Coverage |
All DeliveryOrganisationAndLocation entities unless delivery is taking place outside the UK or via distance learning |
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Notes |
A postcode is required for each organisation providing teaching unless the organisation is delivering the Course via distance learning or outside the UK. In cases where the organisation is delivering learning at more than location, the location where the majority of activity is undertaken should be recorded. In the event that a full postcode is not known, providers may return the just the outward part. Letters within the postcode must be returned in upper case. |
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Reason required |
To give the Office for Students a geographical location at which the delivery is taking place for funding allocations, Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) metrics and regional profiles to identify cold spots for certain subject areas and monitor student migration by subject area. The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) metrics take into account 'local' students: students being taught at a provider close to where they're from. |
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Part of |
DeliveryOrganisationAndLocation |
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Type |
Field |
|
Long name |
Delivery organisation proportion |
|
Short name |
DELORGPROP |
|
Description |
This field records the proportion of the teaching being undertaken by the organisation in DeliveryOrganisationAndLocation.DELORG |
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Applicable to |
England |
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Coverage |
All DeliveryOrganisationAndLocation entities |
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Notes |
The total of each DeliveryOrganisationAndLocation.DELORGPROP for a Course may not add up to 100 as the proportion of the Course delivered by the reporting provivder would not be returned. |
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Reason required |
To allow the division of student activity between different organisations and locations. |
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Part of |
DeliveryOrganisationAndLocation |
These fields are not required to be returned for apprenticeship students. The coverage will be updated to reflect this by excluding Instances where Instance.INITIATIVES = K.
Providers in Scotland
In November 2016, the Scottish Veterans Commissioner published his third report The Veterans Community: Employability, Skills and Learning which made various recommendations including “The Scottish Funding Council, universities and colleges to specifically consider the veterans community as they embark on the expansion of articulation, as recommended by the Commission on Widening Access”.
In order to take forward and implement the recommendations the SFC need to establish a benchmark of the current number of veterans in the HE sector and monitor changes in the numbers of students from this group. SFC requires this information to monitor access and retention of veterans at Scottish universities. This information will help develop policies to support this group of students.
In order to monitor this, a new field will be added to the Student entity to record whether students are service leavers. This will be required for Scottish domiciled students studying on an Undergraduate course at a provider in Scotland. Optionally, this data would also be collected for Scottish domiciled students studying on a Postgraduate course at a provider in Scotland. The field will be specified as below:
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Type |
Field |
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Long name |
Service leaver |
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Short name |
SERLEAVE |
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Description |
This field records whether the student is a service leaver |
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Applicable to |
Scotland |
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Coverage |
All Students at providers in Scotland where EntryProfile.DOMICILE=XH and Course.COURSEAIM begins with H, I, J or C or is M22, M26 or M28. Optional for all Students at providers in Scotland where EntryPofile.DOMICILE=XH and Course.COURSEAIM begins with D, E, L or M excluding M22, M26 or M28. |
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Valid Entries |
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Notes |
99 must be returned where the data is not known by the provider. The Scottish Funding Council definition should be used by providers in Scotland: "A service leaver is anyone who has served for at least one day in Her Majesty's Armed Forces (regular and reserve) or Merchant Mariners who have seen duty on military operations." If a student becomes a veteran part way through their studies, this field should be updated. |
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Reason required |
To monitor the participation and retention of veterans at Scottish HEPs. This is to be used to monitor progress in the Scottish government's ambition to see improvements in the education opportunities and outcomes for veterans. |
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Part of |
Student |
In 2015, the Scottish Parliament passed the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act, which then led to the development of the British Sign Language National Plan.
The BSL National Plan states that by 2020 the Scottish Government “expect all colleges and universities will publish BSL plans, setting out how students who use BSL are supported, with a clear measurable commitment to improvement where necessary. These plans link with college and university Outcome Agreements and will be reviewed annually by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), to ensure that inequalities experienced by D/deaf and Deafblind BSL students are being addressed.”
To support this policy the SFC require information on the number of UK domiciled students at providers in Scotland that are British Sign Language users.
A new field will be added to the Student entity to record where students are British Sign Language users. This information will be required for all UK domiciled students at providers in Scotland. The field will be specified as below:
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Type |
Field |
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|
Long name |
British Sign Language user |
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Short name |
BSLUSER |
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Description |
This field records where the student is a British Sign Language user |
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Applicable to |
Scotland |
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Coverage |
All Students at providers in Scotland where EntryProfile.DOMICILE = XF, XG, XH, XI, XK, XL, GG, JE, IM where applicable |
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Valid entries |
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Notes |
The Scottish Government have defined a British Sign Language user as a deaf and/or deafblind person (someone who receives the language in a tactile form due to sight loss) whose first or preferred language is British Sign Language. Returning 01 in this field indicates the student is a British Sign Language user by the above definition. If the student is not a British Sign Language user, this field should not be returned. 99 is returned where the data is not known by the provider. If this data changes during a student’s Instance, this field should be updated. |
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Reason required |
To monitor the number of users of British Sign Language at Scottish providers to aid the Scottish Government's policy regarding improving the experience of BSL users in Scotland. |
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Part of |
Student |
The 2011 census in Scotland included an ethnicity category of ‘White - Other British’
Results from the 2011 census showed that over 400,000 (about 8%) of people in Scotland were classified as 'White - Other British'; this should, therefore, be reflected in the coding frame available to providers in Scotland.
A new valid entry will therefore be added to the Student.ETHNIC coding frame, this valid entry will only be applicable to providers in Scotland.
New valid entry:
16 White – Other British
The SFC have requested that data be collected regarding estranged students. The Independent Review of Financial Support for Students in Scotland published in 2017 identified estranged students as a disadvantaged group. The Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) has separate guidance for estranged students. They are regarded as independent students and entitled to the maximum Independent Student Bursary. SFC also recognises estranged students studying at FE level through its college student funding guidance.
Most Scottish HEPs have an approach to support estranged students in line with their support of care-experienced students and some include estranged students in their contextualised admissions policy.
We do not have information on estranged students at Scottish HEPs. This data is required so that the SFC, other public bodies and HEPs can plan and make informed decisions to improve the opportunities and outcomes for estranged students. The SFC want to know the retention and outcomes for this group of students to see how this compares with other groups to assess the progress being made. They also want to know the characteristics of estranged students, such as their age and gender, and the types of course they are studying on to enable policies to be developed to support these students.
UCAS is introducing a field for estranged applicants in March 2020 for courses that start in September 2021.
A field will be added to the EntryProfile entity to collect this and will be specified as below:
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Type |
Field |
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|
Long name |
Estranged student |
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|
Short name |
ESTRANGED |
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Description |
This field records if the student is estranged, based on their own self-assessment. |
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Applicable to |
Scotland |
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Coverage |
All Students at providers in Scotland where EntryProfile.DOMICILE = XF, XG, XH, XI, XK, XL, GG, JE or IM and Course.COURSEAIM starts with H, I, J or C or is M22, M26 or M28. |
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Valid entries and labels |
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Notes |
The below recommended question has been developed by UCAS in collaboration with Stand Alone and a number of HEPs: Would you consider yourself estranged from your family (i.e. not supported by your family)? Yes No An estranged person is someone who no longer has the support of their family due to a breakdown in their relationship which has led to ceased contact. This might mean your biological, step or adoptive parents or wider family members who have been responsible for supporting you in the past. Tick Yes if you feel this description applies to you.
98 must be returned where the student has refused to provide the information. 99 must be returned where the provider does not know the information. |
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Reason required |
This data is required so that SFC, other public bodies and HEPs can plan and make informed decisions to improve the opportunities and outcomes for estranged students. The SFC want to know the retention and outcomes for this group of students to see how this compares with other groups to assess the progress being made. They also want to know the characteristics of estranged students, such as their age and gender, and the types of course they are studying on to enable policies to be developed to support these students. |
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Part of |
EntryProfile |