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Initial Teacher Training In-Year Record 2008/09

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Initial Teacher Training In-Year Record 2008/09

Frequently asked questions


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Version 1.1 Produced 2008-02-14

Data structure and validation

1. Why isn't the ITT record structure an exact match to the new Student record? The ITT record is considerably smaller, with fewer fields. A decision was made to denormalise the student record structure for the ITT record. If it was to follow the exact structure as the Student Record it would have ended up with many entities with very few fields. The student structure is also designed to work with whole institutions, whereas the ITT record is designed so that single students can be sent, without the need for course and module entities.
2. How much flexibility will there be in complying with the data structure and business rules during the first year's collection? HESA cannot relax the schema validation as it is largely for structural correctness. HESA will of course support institutions and deal with individual problems with the business rules if they arise. If an institution foresees a problem arising, please contact HESA as early as possible for advice. The TDA and GTCE will also work with individual institutions, but can only be as flexible as the data requirements allow for funding and provisional registration purposes.
3. If an institution submits a file with an invalid data structure, even one record, what is the outcome? The whole file will fail as validation works at the file level. If a file does not conform to the schema definition (xsd) the file can go no further. This is consistent with the xml based Student record. If the file conforms to the xsd it will then progress onto the business rules.
4. If an institution wishes to update an individual record how is this done? The institution should send a new file containing data for that one student. The record currently held on the system for that student will then be replaced. It is therefore vital to ensure the Student.HUSID is correct.
5. If a student is included in the record in error can the individual record be deleted? If a record is submitted for a student that does not exist (i.e. test data) HESA will work with the institution on an ad hoc basis to correct this. If the student record is genuine, but not ITT, then the record should be changed to Student.TTCID = 0, so that the student is identified as not being on an ITT course.
6. Will HESA monitor whether provisional registration is carried out by an institution within 28 days of the commencement on their course? Institutions are responsible for 'pushing' their own data to HESA, TDA and GTCE to meet the required timescales. Timings are very much reactive to the start date of the individual student on the course. As there are therefore likely to be so many commencement dates HESA will not be monitoring or chasing up individual submissions. However, GTCE will be keeping a record of submissions and may check on institutions if they believe it is getting late.
7. To help in the development of institutions' business processes is it possible to have a document that covers the HESA Aardvark processes of validation, business rules, insert etc? The HESA training resource centre does contain a general guide on the use of the HESA data collection system. The specification of the data to be returned for the ITT record and the XML schema definitions are available through the ITT stream data collection web page.
8. Will HESA make available any guidance on the creation of XML files? Basic XML conversion guidance will be made available through the HESA training resource centre.

Coverage

9. Is the coverage of the ITT record for new entrants and/or continuing students? The ITT record is currently designed as a new entrant record but it is able to collect information on continuing students if the institution wishes to include them.
10. How should a student be coded who transfers onto an ITT course from a non-ITT course at the same institution? The provisional registration 28 day period starts when the student transfers onto the ITT course. The Student.COMDATE of the ITT course should be the original start date of the first course as long as the same Instance (Student.NUMHUS) is returned.
11. How should a student be coded who transfers to a non-ITT course at the same institution? The student’s record should be updated with Student.TTCID = 0 (Not on an ITT course) at any time from when data first submitted (which might be August) to close of census.
12. If a student who withdrew from an ITT course returns do they need to be provisionally registered with GTCE? If the student is returning to complete the programme then they will not need to be provisionally registered. If they re-start the programme then they will need to register.
13. If a student withdrew from, or failed an ITT course in a previous reporting period then re-registers to start the programme again, how should they be coded? If a student withdrew from an ITT course, say in 06/07, but has returned in the current reporting period they should be coded with the same Student.HUSID, Instance (Student.NUMHUS) and original Student.COMDATE.
14. How should a student be coded who carries out a placement as a prerequisite of their course but leaves before they register at the university's faculty of education? The student will still need to have been provisionally registered within the 28 days of the commencement of their course as it is a requirement of the 2002 Education Act, and the placement forms part of the course.
15. What procedure should an institution adopt for short placement ITT students? The same procedure applies. The student must be registered within 28 days of the commencement date on the ITT course.
16. What procedure should an institution adopt for assessment only trainees (flexible assessment)? No student should commence their course without being registered. Any provider needs to be aware of who is starting programmes and ensure their registration.
17. If an institution has difficulty in obtaining previous degree start and end dates how, should these fields be coded? If a student is enrolling on a PGCE at the same institution as their undergraduate degree then the student records office should have this information. If a PGCE student is enrolling at a new institution these dates still need to be as accurate as possible. If the exact start and end date is not known by the student, then the first day of the month they started and finished their previous degree should be returned in Student.DEGSTDT and Student.DEGENDDT.
18. Overseas ITT students have previously been returned to the TDA for the census. How should these students be coded in the new ITT record? These students will be included in the ITT In-Year record for the purpose of GTCE provisional registration. However, if these students are not eligible for funding the fundability code (Student.FUNDCODE) should be coded 2 'Not fundable by funding council.'
19. A large amount of personal information is required for each ITT student. Why is this necessary? Most of the information collected in the ITT In-Year record is already held within HEIs, a large proportion of which comes directly from UCAS and GTTR. The information is required for provisional registration and to update the funding analysis for TDA.
20. Does an institution need to submit fields such as Date of birth for a PGCE student if they were sent in a previous year's Student record collection? The ITT In-Year record is designed as a stand-alone record and does not pick up fields such as Student.BIRTHDTE from a previously submitted Student record.
21. Is there any tie up between the CRB and the ISA in terms of this collection and provisional registration? The HESA collection records a positive indication that the Suitability Declaration is complete and a trainee is eligible for Provisional Registration with GTCE through the Student.INDSLFCRT field. An institution does not need to have the CRB result for provisional registration via the HESA system. ISA is outside GTCE's area of control and the student still has to register themselves with ISA.
22. Under what circumstances should an institution update the ITT In-Year record? If the student's name (Student.FNAMES, Student.SURNAME, Student.PSURNAME), Date of birth (Student.BIRTHDTE) or National insurance number (Student.NIN) changes at any time before TTR2 goes out, then the record should be updated. After TTR2 it becomes ‘For your information’. For most institutions, this will be a clear-cut date in October.

If a student leaves at any time before census, then leaving information (Student.ENDDATE, Student.RSNEND) should be updated. If information changes that affects funding then Student.FUNDCODE and Student.TTCID should be updated.

Timing

23. Is it possible to have information regarding the different timelines for HESA, TDA and GTCE? Yes a document will be available through the ITT stream data collection web page.
24. Is there an absolute cut-off point for the submission of ITT students for the TDA aggregate return? The TDA requires HEIs to make a first submission by the 1st October. HEIs can update this information until the 4th Wednesday October and it is on this date that the final download of data will be taken by the TDA.
25. Can institutions update their TDA data on the collection system? Once an institution has sent their data to the TDA, it can continue to be updated by uploading new files that update existing data or add new HUSIDS (Student.HUSID). In this way, the HESA system can be viewed as a holding area for your ITT data. However, the whole institution data cannot be resubmitted to TDA until TDA authorises this and have set the system to allow this.

General questions

26. Will the TDA continue to work in conjunction with the Texuna on the creation and dissemination of the diagnostic reports? Yes currently this will remain the case. However with the new HESA collection it will be easier to ‘drill-down’ and access data at an individual level. We may be able to add a level of diagnostics at a later date within the HESA collection system.
27. Has HESA been in communication with the sector's software houses regarding this collection? HESA has taken a similar line that was taken with the new Student return; surveying institutions to establish which software houses are employed. Contact has been made with these software houses, and identified contacts have been invited to seminars and training sessions and will be sent the record updates.
28. Has a discussion started between the GTTR and UCAS about the collection and onward use of their data for this record? Yes, a discussion has been initiated between these two parties and HESA.
29. Extra detail is requested for PGCE entrants. Is this information checked by the GTCE on the TTR2 form? GTCE only checks the basic level information (name and date of birth) on the TTR2 form. Qualifications information is not checked.
30. If an ITT student's details are incorrect on the GTCE TTR2 form should the institution correct it? This is a paper form, independent of the HESA collection, completed by and sent to the GTCE by the student and confirmed and corrected by the student.
31. What should an institution do if finds out there is conflicting information between the ITT In-Year record and the TTR2 form? The GTCE will amend their record based on information provided by a student on the returned TTR2 form.
32. How will the TDA forecast check process work under the now collection arrangements? This process is independent of the HESA collection system. Forecasts will be sent to the institutions directly from the TDA and submitted directly back to the TDA. The audit process will also remain unchanged.

Field guidance

33. If an institution returns a PGCE student and the HUSID is not the one they were previously issued with, what is the consequence? The system will treat this as a new student. HESA does not currently look back through the system to see historic use of HUSIDS. If the student enrolled onto a PGCE course from an undergraduate course at the same institution HESA would expect the same HUSID (Student.HUSID) to be used. If unsure, the HUSID lookup service (HLS) should be used to establish if the student has a previous HUSID.
34. Can the HESA HUSID lookup service be made more user-friendly? The HUSID lookup service (HLS) was designed as a simple batch processing tool. HESA has undertaken some work to improve its presentation. If institutional contacts have any comments or views on how to improve this service please forward them to HESA ([email protected]).
35. Why does an institution have to approve the sending of an individual student's file to the GTCE on the collection system when the field to record a positive indication that self certification is complete (INDSLFCRT) has been coded? The approval on the collection system is an indication that the institution is happy for their data file to proceed to the GTCE. The Student.INDSLFCRT field indicates evidence that the student is eligible to be provisionally registered on the ITT course.
36. Does the field Previous degree length in years (DEGLENGTH) record the amount of time the student was expected to complete their degree or the actual number of years taken to complete the degree? The Student.DEGLENGTH field collects the actual number of years of study taken complete the degree, so does not include any intermissions.
37. Why are there separate fields to collect Previous degree start date (DEGSTDT), Previous degree end date (DEGENDDT) and Previous degree length in years (DEGLENGTH)? Why can not the latter be deducted from the former? The reason that the Student.DEGLENGTH field is required is if a student takes time out of the course. If this time is whole academic years then the amount of years between Student.DEGSTDT and Student.DEGENDDT will be greater than the amount of actual amount of time the student spent actively undertaking the programme.

  1. Example: Student A (with normal progression)
  • DEGSTDT of degree 15/09/02
  • DEGENDDT of degree 08/06/06
  • DEGLENGTH 4 years

  • Example: Student B (repeating years)
    • DEGSTDT of degree 15/09/02
    • DEGENDDT of degree 08/06/07
    • DEGLENGTH 5 years

  • Example: Student C (years of dormancy)
    • DEGSTDT of degree 15/09/02
    • Student Dormant for two academic years
    • DEGENDDT of degree 08/06/08
    • DEGLENGTH 4 years
    38. When will the Independent Safeguarding Authority Registration Number (ISANUM) be a requirement? Anybody commencing a training course after its introduction will need to provide an Student.ISANUM - for instance flexible route students. It is currently expected that ISA will start issuing registration numbers in Autumn 2008.
    39. Can the required registration period of within 28 days of a student starting on their course be clarified? This is within 28 days of the individual students start date of instance (Student.COMDATE).

    Training

    40. Are there to be any further training events? TDA are offering training in September to demonstrate how to use HESA data, and HESA and the TDA will be working together to offer to offer telephone support to institutional contacts who have any questions.

    Contact Liaison by email or on +44 (0)1242 388 531.