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HESA Aggregate record for students studying wholly outside the UK 2012/13

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HESA Aggregate return for student studying wholly overseas 2012/13

Timescales for data collection


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Version 1.0 Produced 2013-06-27

C12052 Aggregate offshore record - stages of data submission.

The below document is designed to guide institutions through the stages of data submission for the Aggregate offshore record.

At a glance

August 2012 to March 2013 Institutions' local preparation
April 2013 Validate data locally using validation kit
June 2013 C12052 preparation guide released
August 2013 C12052 data collection opens
30 September 2013 Return date
14 October 2013 Commit date
14 October to 8 November 2013 Data quality checking period
8 November 2013 Last submission
11 November 2013 Sign-off

Detailed requirements

August 2012 to March 2013: INSTITUTIONS' LOCAL PREPARATION


Institutions should read the C12052 Aggregate offshore record coding manual and associated documentation for details of the requirements for the return.

If you have any queries with the requirements for the C12052 Aggregate offshore record please contact Institutional Liaison.


April 2013: VALIDATE DATA LOCALLY USING VALIDATION KIT



The C12052 validation kit will be made available to download from Validation kits 2012/13. The kit enables institutions to test their data locally against the INSERT-stage validation ahead of the main collection opening in the summer. 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 C12052 field list and detail.

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

June 2013: C12052 AGGREGATE OFFSHORE PREPARATION GUIDE



In advance of the main collection opening HESA releases a preparation guide. This provides further guidance of the requirements for the collection year, with particular reference to any areas HESA's statutory customers wish institution to pay particular attention to during coding and submission.

Notification of the publication of this guide will be sent to Aggregate offshore record contacts, and is also circulated on sector mailgroups such as the HESA-STUDENT JISC mailgroup. If you would like to join HESA-STUDENT please contact Institutional Liaison.


August 2013: C12052 DATA COLLECTION OPENS



The C12052 collection database opens on the submit site around 4-6 weeks ahead of the return date providing institutions with the opportunity to further test files ahead of the return date deadline.

For a user guide for the submission of C12052 Aggregate offshore record data please visit Aggregate offshore record user guide.

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

HESA monitors all transactions on the system to ensure institutions are progressing reasonably and not encountering difficulties. However, if you require assistance with the submission process, please contact Institutional Liaison.


30 September 2013: RETURN DATE



Institutions are required to send complete data that has passed insert-stage validation to HESA by 30 September 2013.

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

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


14 October 2013: COMMIT DATE


Institutions are advised to send complete data that has passed COMMIT-stage validation to HESA by 14 October 2013.

Commit-stage validation rules can be viewed at COMMIT-stage validation.

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


14 October to 8 November 2013: DATA QUALITY CHECKING PERIOD



A successful COMMIT will generate several reports. Institutions are required to review the reports and resubmit data in order to resolve data quality issues.
The reports for review are:

Hesa checkdoc Check documentation This Excel workbook contains a series of tables presenting the submitted data to enable institutions to check that their submission presents their institution as expected.
Hesa checkdoc compare Checkdoc Compare For each re-commit a second version of the check documentation will be available with colour shaded cells to denote changes between submissions. This tool will allow for quick comparison between data commits.
Exception Report Exception report
This report details any COMMIT-stage validation errors/warnings triggered by the submission.

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 fnal 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 with your institution, via Institutional Liaison, to the Aggregate offshore record contact. 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 to Institutional Liaison as to why these apparent anomalies are genuine.

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


8 November 2013: LAST SUBMISSION


In order to meet obligations for hand-over of data to its customers, HESA needs to receive all data files by 8 November 2013.


11 November 2013: SIGN-OFF

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

Sign Off Slip
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 slip 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, as it will be necessary to restrict access to the site after the submission deadline.


Onward use of C12052 Aggregate offshore record data


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:
HESA Students in Higher Education publication
heidi
General data enquiries

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