Data intelligence

Nova College of Accounting and Business Ltd lost designation during the academic year 2015/16. At the end of the reporting period, all of their students were enrolled on non-designated courses.

From 2010/11 to 2016/17 the University of Plymouth has had a significant reduction (a drop of 94%, approx. 8400 students) in their franchised student numbers following a change in guidance from HEFCE regarding the reporting of partnership arrangements.

In 2015/16, The University of Central Lancashire incorrectly reported entry qualifications for overseas students, this affects both Undergraduate and Postgraduate taught students and has the effect of understating the prior qualifications of these students.

From 2015/16 onwards, the University of Oxford changed the way that it awarded credit to students on some part–time courses, this caused a reduction in the number of students it reports to HESA.

In 2015/16, Birmingham City University incorrectly reported qualifiers on H76 Post-Registration Health and Social Care courses. This has resulted in a fall of 835 part-time other undergraduate qualifiers from 2015/16 to 2016/17.

In 2015/16, The University of Glasgow moved the date the board of examiners approves the award for its Business school. This meant it fell outside of HESA's reporting period and specifically affected postgraduate taught qualifiers. This has contributed to a 50% reduction in full-time postgraduate taught qualifiers at the University of Glasgow. These will be returned in 2016/17.

In 2015/16, The University of Birmingham changed the way it reported the final months of its Postgraduate taught students programmes. This has resulted in a visible decrease of both full-time and part-time Postgraduate taught student numbers at The University of Birmingham. These students now fall out of HESA’s standard populations where as previously they would have been included and now better align with HESA reporting requirements.

In 2015/16, Nova College of Accounting and Business Ltd reported qualifications awarded for students after their first year of study. These qualifications were reported in error.

In 2014/15 and 2015/16, The Brit College incorrectly reported all their students as male. In both academic years, a mix of sexes were enrolled.

The majority of alternative providers are subject to student number controls which vary from year to year, therefore their undergraduate student numbers in each academic year reflect this.

In 2015/16, West London College were required to return data to the Alternative provider record but failed to submit this in time to HESA.

The University of Leicester misreported term-time address data for 2,000 (52%) first year first degree students in 2015/16. Due to a system error, the term-time postcodes for these students have been incorrectly recorded as their postcodes for summer correspondence. This also affects term-time accommodation data. The 2,000 first year first degree students should have been reported as living in a provider maintained property but instead have been reported under the property type that their summer correspondence postcode relates to, such as a parental/guardian home.

Heythrop College has announced that they are currently unable to offer full undergraduate programmes for full or part-time study as announced on 26th June 2015. This has resulted in a significant drop in their student numbers for 2015/16.

The University of Surrey admitted its first small cohort of undergraduates into its new School of Veterinary Medicine in 2014/15. In subsequent years the cohorts will be larger and the degree lasts for 5 years, so it is expected to see noticeable year on year increases in undergraduate numbers in Veterinary Science for The University of Surrey up until 2019/20.