Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education record 2012/13

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Timescales - stages of the DLHE exercise

Version 1.0 Produced 2013-03-28

This document is designed to guide institutions through the stages of the DLHE exercise. These stages can also be viewed in the DLHE Schedule (PDF) diagram.

Stage One: April Survey (Census date: 15 April 2013)

Stage Two: January Survey (Census date: 13 January 2014)

Stage Three: DLHE data submission (Return date 31 March 2014)

Stage One: April Survey

Arrangements for those who complete their courses between 1 August 2012 and 31 December 2012

This stage details the schedule for the completion of the 15 April 2013 census survey. Full details of the requirements of this schedule are available in the Guidance for institutions document.

Questionnaires are delivered to institutions for the April survey. It is important that institutions check their consignment on delivery, as shortfalls cannot be rectified later.

Institutions must register to use the April census. This system enables graduates to complete the DLHE questionnaire survey online. Institutions are encouraged to make use of this facility.

Leavers surveyed in April are those that meet the DLHE population definition in Coverage of the record and have Instance.ENDDATE 2012-08-01 to 2012-12-31.

Institutions are required to make contact with all graduates in the April POPDLHE between 15 April to 25 June 2013. The survey is undertaken by leavers answering a number of questions by way of a questionnaire, a telephone survey, a centrally-hosted online survey or a PDF version of the questionnaire. Institutions can use as many of these methods of contact as they wish to achieve the highest response possible. Further guidance can be found at Guidance for institutions.

Stage Two: January Survey

Arrangements for those who complete their courses between 1 January 2013 and 31 July 2013

This stage details the schedule for the completion of the 13 January 2014 census survey. Full details of the requirements of this schedule are available in the Guidance for institutions document.

Questionnaires are delivered to institutions for the January survey. It is important that institution's checks their consignment on delivery, as shortfalls cannot be rectified later.

C12018 POPDLHE list is produced when the 2012/13 Student record (C12051) collection passes the COMMIT-stage checks. The list includes those leavers who should have been surveyed in the April 2013 survey and those expected to be surveyed in the January 2014 survey. DLHE record contacts are advised to liaise with colleagues responsible for submitting student data to HESA, in order to confirm the final version of the list.

Institutions must register to use the January census. This system enables graduates to complete the DLHE questionnaire survey online. Institutions are encouraged to make use of this facility.

Institutions are required to make contact with all graduates in the January DLHE population between 11 November 2013 to 08 March 2014. The survey is undertaken by leavers answering a number of questions by way of a questionnaire, a telephone survey, a centrally-hosted online survey or a PDF version of the questionnaire. Institutions can use as many of these methods of contact as they wish to achieve the highest response possible. Further guidance can be found at Guidance for institutions document.

Leavers surveyed in January are those that meet the DLHE population in Coverage of the record and have Instance.ENDDATE 2013-01-01 to 2013-07-31.

Stage Three: DLHE data submission

The C12018 validation kit is made available to download from: Validation kits 2012/13 (not yet available).
The kit enables institutions to test their data locally against the INSERT-stage validation ahead of the main collection opening in the Spring.
Institutions are strongly encouraged to use the validation kit as part of their data preparations.

Further details on the checks included in INSERT-stage validation can be found within the field details of the C12018 field descriptions.

A guide to using the validation kit can be found in Help with validation kits. Alternatively please contact Institutional Liaison.

The C12018 collection database opens on the submit site at the beginning of March.

Access and PIN codes for this system will be distributed to DLHE record contacts when the system opens.

Institutions are required to send complete data that has passed INSERT-stage validation to HESA by 31 March 2014.

INSERT-stage validation rules are listed within the field details of the C12018 field decriptions.

A single validation failure will result in no data being imported into the system.

A diagram view of the validation stages for the DLHE return can be viewed at DLHE validation.

Data which fails validation will not be considered to have been returned to the Agency.

Institutions are advised to send complete data that has passed COMMIT-stage rules by 7 April 2014.
This schedule allows the maximum amount of available time for data quality checking.

COMMIT-stage rules

A diagram view of the validation stages for the DLHE return can be viewed at DLHE validation.

Data which fails validation will not be considered to have been returned to the Agency.

A successful COMMIT will generate several reports containing managment information that institutions will need to review to assess data quality.

Institutions are required to review the reports and to resubmit data in order to resolve data quality issues. Institutions can contact Institutional Liaison throughout this period to request their data is decommitted in order to make adjustments to the submission. The data quality checking period is an iterative process during which institutions may need to submit, commit, review and decommit their data several times to ensure the final submission is credible.

During this period Data Analysts at HESA will also examine data committed by all institutions. If any anomalies are found queries will be raised through the Minerva DQ database. Nevertheless institutions are in a better position to recognise more detailed anomalies within their data, using local knowledge of the intricacies of their own institution. As a consequence institutions are required to either resubmit their data to amend these anomalies, or provide an explanation through Minerva as to why these apparent anomalies are genuine.

Upon satisfactory completion of this process data will be set to credible.

In order to meet obligations for hand-over of data to its customers, HESA needs to receive all data files by 6 May 2014.

As part of the data quality assurance procedures, HESA requires the return to be signed-off by the head or acting head of your institution. This verification offers both the institutions and HESA assurances regarding onward use of the data. Sign-off completes the data collection process.

On the system your institution's data will be set to credible and a new icon will be made available from where the sign-off form can be downloaded and completed. Once completed, the form should be posted back to HESA. Please note that the transaction number on the sign-off form must correspond to that of the data being signed-off

Note: Institutions should download and keep copies of all relevant reports that they are likely to need during the year. This will be necessary as access to the site will be restricted after the collection has closed.

Following the close of the data collection all data submitted will be passed to HESA's Statutory Customers and also to the HESA Information Services team.

Data is also used by HESA in the following ways:
Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Statistical First Release
Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education publication
DLHE Longitudinal Survey
Performance Indicators in Higher Education
heidi
General data enquiries
Key Information Set

Need help?

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