HESA Staff record 2013/14
Statement from HEFCE about academic teaching qualifications
Version 1.0 Produced 2014-04-30
In England the HE sector has been asked by Government to improve the quality of information available to students about the teaching expertise of their teaching staff at all levels. In summer 2013 the Quality Assurance Agency provided guidance to institutions on how this could be achieved. The guidance highlights that information should be published both at institutional level - through data collected by HESA - and by institutions at course level. (http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Pages/explaining-staff-teaching.aspx)
HESA collected data at institutional level through the staff record for the first year in 2012/13. While a low return is expected for the first year of a new collection, 51% of relevant staff have been returned as 'not known'. We have also identified through the post-collection survey that institutions have experienced challenges in collecting this information. As a result HESA together with HEFCE have agreed that in this first year, there is insufficient data to publish a summary at institutional level.
HEFCE are committed to publishing from the 2013/14 record. We would urge institutions to consider actions they may wish to take in line with the QAA's guidance to minimise the number of 'unknown' records in their return.
HEFCE will be working with partners QAA and the HE Academy to put in place a collective action plan to support improvements to the quality of the data submitted in 2014. Further information about this will be available in summer 2014.
Contact Liaison by email or on +44 (0)1242 388 531.