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Initial Teacher Training In-Year Record 2012/13

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Initial Teacher Training In-Year Record 2012/13

Frequently asked questions
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Version 1.1 Produced 2012-08-23

Data structure and validation
1. Why isn't the ITT record structure an exact match to the 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. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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. Institutions are able to exclude students without amending data. This facility is available to HEI submission users within 'Review of total institution records' by changing the inclusion status of the record. This allows a record to be excluded from submission to the QTS and Induction division of the TA, TDA Teacher Supply and Training department of the TA, or both. 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.
5. Is the concept of provisional registration continuing? No, there is no longer a requirement for any student on an ITT course to be provisionally registered with the TA, however, student details must be forwarded to the TA for the purpose of allocating a Teacher Reference Number (TRN).
6. 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 support centre contains 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.
7. Does HESA make available any guidance on the creation of XML files? Basic XML conversion guidance is available through the HESA support centre.

Coverage
8. Is the coverage of the ITT record for new entrants and/or continuing students? It is compulsory for HEIs to send data for all new and continuing ITT students.
9. How should a student be coded who transfers onto an ITT course from a non-ITT course at the same institution? 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. The field Student.ITTCOMDATE enables institutions to record the start date of the ITT course where this is different to the start date of the instance (collected within Student.COMDATE).
10. 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. Institutions are also able to exclude students without amending data. HEI submission users are able to change the inclusion status of the individual records within 'Review of total institutions records'. This allows a record to be excluded from submission to the QTS and Induction division of the TA, Teacher Supply and Training department of the TA, or both.
11. 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 2010/11, but has returned in the current reporting period they should be coded with the same Student.HUSID, Instance (Student.NUMHUS) and original Student.COMDATE.
12. 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.
13. Should overseas domiciled students be included in the ITT In-year Record? Yes, as they will need to be sent to the TA for Teacher Number allocation, however, if these students are not eligible for funding Student.FUNDCODE should be coded 2 ‘Not fundable by the funding council’. This will allow them to be excluded from the TA census.
14. 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.
15. 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 then the record should be updated, as the record may need to be resent to the TA for TRN allocation.

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
16. Is it possible to have information regarding the different timelines for HESA, the QTS and Induction division of the TA and the Teacher Supply and Training department of the TA? Yes, the Timescales document will be available through the ITT stream data collection web page and this details the requirements and deadlines.
17. Is there an absolute cut-off point for submission of ITT students to the TA aggregate return? The Teacher Supply and Training department of the TA 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 TA in order to create the Trainee Number census.
18. Can institutions update their funding/census data on the collection system? Once an institution has sent their data to the Teacher Supply and Training department of the TA for funding/census information, data 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 Teacher Supply and Training department of the TA until they authorise this and have decommitted the data to allow this.

General questions
19. Will the Teacher Supply and Training department of the TA 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 HESA collection it will be easier to ‘drill-down’ and access data at an individual level.
20. What is the July update phase? The July update is an opportunity for institutions who had included 'forecast' ITT numbers in the October census to update their data. Affected institutions will be contacted by the Teacher Supply and Training department of the TA and asked to commit a data feed to the TA to update their data and ensure that they have received the correct level of funding. Institutions do not need to send information about withdrawals during the July update phase.
21. How does an institution indicate that a student is part of the School Direct programme? Institutions should make use of the relevant codes in Student.TTCID to indicate that a student is part of the School Direct programme. More detailed guidance on the process of checking and signing off School Direct trainee data will be made available before the start of the In-Year collection for 2012/13.

Field guidance
22. 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.
23. 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]).
24. 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.
25. 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't 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
  2. Example: Student B (repeating years)
    • DEGSTDT of degree 15/09/02
    • DEGENDDT of degree 08/06/07
    • DEGLENGTH 5 years
  3. 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
26. How do I obtain a list of Teacher Reference Numbers (TRNs)? The QTS and Induction division of the TA will feed back TRNs through the Aardvark system. TRNs will automatically be added in to the HESA data. ITT Record contacts will be notified by email when the list is available to download. This function will be available under the 'What can I do now?' section.

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