This field records the date of last scheduled activity by a student and should include the end of the scheduled exam period but excluding retakes.

All instances

All date fields in the Student Record must be completed using the ISO8601 format of YYYY-MM-DD. The specification of this field falls within the scope of the Aligned Data Definitions and follows the Data Standards in the HESA student record.

If the instance has not ended, an empty element should be returned, i.e:

           <ENDDATE></ENDDATE>

A date is not required in cases where a student transfers from one course to another within the same student instance. Guidance on when a new student instance is required is given in Instance.NUMHUS. Normally where a student progresses from one course directly onto another at the same level (e.g. HND to Degree, MPhil to PhD) a new student instance is not required and hence this field would not be completed

An entry in this field means that an entry in Instance.RSNEND will also be expected.

Sometimes there will be a delay in knowing whether or not a student has left a course. Where the precise date of the student leaving is not known, the date of the end of the month, term or semester in which the student last attended should be given.

Where Y0/Y1/Y2 appear in business rules, these refer to the reporting period Y1-Y2 (e.g. for the 2007-08 reporting period, Y0 is 2006, Y1 is 2007 and Y2 is 2008).

Taught students

For the purpose of HESA returns, completing an instance is defined as being the point at which the taught or structured part of the instance, including planned exam periods and any formal writing-up period, is completed, i.e. once the student is no longer actively following the course, and not any later stage after the structured end to the course, such as, for example, re-sits or final confirmation of award. This may mean that Instance.RSNEND is completed using code 98 'Completion of course – result unknown’.

Resit Exams and/or Results from Late Exam Boards

Students who complete their instance by 31 July but who have resit examinations to take and/or whose final confirmation of award by exam boards may be after this date should be returned to HESA as leavers, with an ENDDATE in the reporting period ending 31 July. If their results are known before the Student Record data collection closes, these results should be included in the return. Records for such students will be included in the Graduate Outcomes survey population (assuming that they meet all other criteria). However, if the results are not known before the Student Record data collection closes, a record should be submitted with an ENDDATE in the reporting period ending 31 July completed and code 98 'Completion of course - result unknown' in Instance.RSNEND. Records returned in this way will not be included in the Graduate Outcomes survey population. Once known, for providers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, these results should be returned in the next reporting period but Instance.MODE should reflect the status of the student at the end of the reporting year in which they completed their activity. Please see Instance.MODE for further information. For providers in Scotland, the appropriate dormant code should be returned in Instance.MODE. For all providers, the date returned in Instance.ENDDATE must be the original date left and not be updated.

Please note that the above examples do not apply to Postgraduate Research students. Please see below for guidance on how to return these students.

Providers may wish to decommit their return late in the data collection period in order to include results from late exam or re-sit boards.

This same guidance applies to ITT DfE students where the award of QTS may be delayed.

ITT DfE students may finish their course in June/July of the HESA reporting year. This date should be date recorded in ENDDATE. However the provider may not know whether the student has been awarded QTS until later. If award information is known before the HESA data collection closes at the end of November, then this should be included in QUAL and OUTCOME. DfE have confirmed that trainees who obtain a successful award up until 1 November, and are shown as such in the main HESA return, will be counted in the profiles publication. Award dates after 31 October should be included in the following HESA data collection. In neither case should ENDDATE be up-dated.

It is expected that students coded other than 1 or 4 in OUTCOME who are subsequently awarded QTS should have this recorded in QualificationsAwarded.QUAL and QualificationsAwarded.OUTCOME in a subsequent return to HESA as an award from dormant status.

Research students

For research students the award should be recorded when the provider's Senate, or other body or person empowered, formally approves the award. For such students this field should be completed with the same date.

Dormant students

This field should reflect the date the student was last active on the instance and should not be updated.

Exchange-in students

Exchange-in students should have the date they finished their studies at the reporting provider.

Rescinded awards

Following the completion of an instance, a student may receive an award and will be returned with an Instance.ENDDATE and QualificationsAwarded entity. However, if this award is rescinded and the student then goes on to receive a subsequent award for the same instance, the Instance.ENDDATE should only be updated if the student has completed further activity that would be considered a taught or structured part of the same instance e.g., re-taking modules. This is to ensure providers are returning an accurate record of what the student achieved.

If the student receives a subsequent award for the same instance without engaging in any further activity that would be considered a taught or structured part of the same instance, e.g. following an appeal, the Instance.ENDDATE would not be updated when returning the QualificationsAwarded entity.