Estates management record 2013/14

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Timetable - stages of data submission

Version 1.0 Produced 2014-10-23

This document is designed to guide higher education providers (HEPs) through the stages of data submission for the Estates management record.

At a glance

Detailed requirements

HEPs should read the coding manual and associated documentation for details of the requirements for the return.

If you have any queries with the requirements of the Estates management record please contact Institutional Liaison.

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 HEPs to pay particular attention to during coding and submission. The preparation guide will be made available from the Circulars library.

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

Data is submitted to HESA through the online HESA data collection system. The system opens approximately six weeks before the return date for the record, providing HEPs with the opportunity to further test files against the full range of validation checks ahead of the return date deadline.

The static data from the Student record will already be incorporated when the collection opens. This data will be used to auto-populate the following fields:

• Teaching student headcount (STSHTESH).
• Research student headcount (STSHRESH).
• Teaching student FTE (STFTETE).
• Research student FTE (STFTERE).

The Estates management record return is to be made through a web form which will be accessible from the HESA data collection system when the collection opens in January.

Access and PIN codes to register for the HESA Data Collection System will be distributed to the Estates management record contact at your HEP when the system opens.

To access the HESA data collection system you will need to register for the Estates management record collection. For assistance with registration please view the Registering for the HESA data collection system help page.

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

TEST-COMMIT

The TEST-COMMIT facility will be available for the majority of the data collection period. This facility allows HEPs to process a transaction, which if successful, will generate commit stage reports for scrutiny. These reports are for HEPs' purposes only and will not be checked by HESA. HEPs are strongly encouraged to make use of the TEST-COMMIT facility as part of their data preparations. TEST-COMMIT serves as a useful interim facility in the data collection process. The facility enables HEPs to view the commit reports and assess submitted data for anomalies before processing a full COMMIT to be scrutinised by HESA.

Although reports will be generated from a TEST-COMMIT transaction it will not show the full range of ratios calculated until after data from Finance record has been incorporated.

Static data from the Finance record will be added to the Estates management record following closure of the Finance record collection. This data will be used to auto-populate the following fields:

• Teaching income (FITEI).
• Research income (FIREI).
• Other non-residential income (FINRIO).
• Non-residential income total (FINRIT).
• Residences and catering income (FIRI).
• Total income (FIIT).
• Non-residential expenditure (FENREXP).
• Residential expenditure (FEREXP).
• Total expenditure (FEXPT).
• Non-residential capital expenditure buildings (FNRCEX).
• Residential capital expenditure buildings (FRCEX).
• Total capital expenditure buildings (FCEXT).

At this point the Estates management record will be populated with all the relevant static data from the Student record and the Finance record. It is from this point that the full COMMIT option will be available for HEPs.

HEPs are required to send complete data that has passed COMMIT-stage validation to HESA by 28 February 2014.

For HEPs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland all mandatory data items are required to be completed for the data to successfully pass COMMIT-stage validation. These fields are listed in the Mandatory data items web page.

The entire collection is optional for HEPs in Scotland, although these HEPs are encouraged to contribute to and make use of the information. HEPs in Scotland who choose to make an Estates management record return will need to complete Residential space total (SRESPT).

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 HESA.

The entire collection is optional for HEPs in Scotland, although these HEPs are encouraged to contribute to and make use of the information. The Scottish Funding Council strongly advises the completion of the EMR return, including those fields which are mandatory in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. These fields are listed in the Mandatory data items web page.

HEPs in Scotland that opt not to participate are required to submit a Nil return sign-off form to indicate that the higher education provider will not be returning Estates management record data. This form must be completed and returned to Institutional Liaison by 28 February 2015.

A successful COMMIT transaction will generate several reports containing management information that HEPs will need to review to assess data quality. More detail on these reports can be found on the Help with the data collection system webpage.

HEPs are required to review the reports and to resubmit data in order to resolve data quality issues. HEPs 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 HEPs 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 HEPs. If any anomalies are found queries will be raised through Minerva. Nevertheless HEPs are in a better position to recognise more detailed anomalies within their data, using local knowledge of the intricacies of their own HEP. As a consequence HEPs 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 by HESA.

In order to meet obligations for hand-over of data to its customers, HESA needs to receive all data files by 20 March 2015.

As part of the data quality assurance procedures, HESA requires the return to be signed-off by the Head or Acting Head of the reporting HEP. This verification offers both the HEP and HESA assurances regarding onward use of the data. Sign-off completes the data collection process.

On the system your HEP'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 scanned and emailed back to [email protected]. Please note that the transaction number on the sign-off form must correspond to that of the data being signed-off.

Note: HEPs 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.

Need help?

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