Student Alternative 2020/21 - Qualification awarded
Student Alternative 2020/21Fields required from institutions in All fieldsQualification awarded | return to field list | valid entries |
Type | field |
Short name | QUAL |
Description |
This field records the qualification awarded. |
Applicable to | England |
Coverage | All qualification awarded records. |
Valid entries and labels | |
Notes |
For some students whose course qualification aim may be, for example, first degree but who terminate their studies after a successful second year, occasionally a different qualification such as an HND or DipHE may be awarded. It is the awarded qualification which must be coded here. This field records the qualification obtained by the student during the reporting year. If a student is awarded more than one qualification during the reporting year then the QualificationsAwarded element should be repeated. A qualification obtained is not assumed from Instance.RSNEND and Instance.ENDDATE The coding frame for this field is designed to support the alignment of course qualifications with national frameworks, with the first letter indicating the level. Codes of similar type at different levels have the same two-digit suffix. Further comprehensive guidance on qualification levels and alignments may be found in the COURSEAIM field. Some professional awarding bodies do not currently release results information to providers. Where this is the case, providers should leave this field blank and complete field Instance.RSNEND with code 98 'Completion of course - result unknown'. Interim Awards In most cases qualifications are obtained at the end of a course. Therefore typically where there is a QualificationsAwarded a reason for leaving and a date left would be expected. It is recognised, however, that there are a few courses where interim qualifications are actually awarded and so these fields may not be completed. Providers that award interim qualifications for students who are continuing on a course can return this information to HESA in the reporting year in which the interim qualification is awarded if they wish, in which case Instance.ENDDATE should not be completed in order to indicate that these students are continuing on the course. However records returned in this way will not be included in the Graduate Outcomes population. Alternatively providers can return interim qualifications when the student completes the course by completing the QualificationsAwarded fields and indicating the date the student completed the course in Instance.ENDDATE. Records returned in this way will be included in the Graduate Outcomes population (assuming that all other criteria are met). Each qualification a student is awarded should only be returned once, to avoid the student being counted as a qualifier twice. If a student is awarded an interim award and is then included in the next return e.g. if they progress with their studies, the interim award should not be returned again. If the classification of the interim award changes, a QualificationsAwarded entity is required to update the classification to ensure providers are returning an accurate record of what the student achieved. 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 Alternative 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 and the institution is submitting data wholly or in part for publication on Unistats). However, if the results are not known before the Student Alternative record data collection closes, a record should be submitted with an ENDDATE in the reporting period ending 31 July and code 98 'Completion of course - result unknown' in Instance.RSNEND. Once known, these results should be returned in the next reporting period. The date returned in ENDDATE must be the original ENDDATE and not be updated. Records returned in this way will not be included in the Graduate Outcomes survey population. When necessary, providers should decommit their return late in the data collection period in order to include results from late exam or re-sit boards or to reflect where an award has been rescinded. Qualifications should be returned only when the awarding body has confirmed that the student has gained the award. Office for Students may check qualifications returned against data provided by awarding bodies, and query providers about discrepancies. Rescinded Awards Following the completion of an instance, a student may receive an award and will be returned with an 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, a QualificationsAwarded entity should be returned to update the qualification. 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 ENDDATE would not be updated when returning the QualificationsAwarded entity. If the classification of the student's award changes, a QualificationsAwarded entity is required to update the classification to ensure providers are returning an accurate record of what the student achieved. Grade appeals Where a student appeals a qualification and is successful the new qualification should be returned to HESA. If the student was previously returned with a lesser award in a previous reporting period, the instance should now be resent with the new QUAL information. Instance.ENDDATE should remain as the date on which active study ended in a previous reporting year. Where a student appeals a qualification and is unsuccessful the retained qualification should not be re-sent to HESA. |
Quality rules |
Quality rules relating to this entity are displayed here.
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Reason required | This field is defined to hold information about the qualifications awarded. |
Part of | |
Field length | 3 |
Minimum occurrences | 1 |
Maximum occurrences | 1 |
Schema components |
Element: QUAL
Data type: QUALCodeContentType |
Related fields | |
Owner | HESA |
Version | 1.4 |
Date modified | 2021-05-26 |
Change management notes | Additional guidance added to provide further clarification to the sections 'Interim awards' and 'Rescinded awards'. |
Contact Liaison by email or on +44 (0)1242 388 531.