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FSR record 2014/15

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FSR record 2014/15

Data collection schedule


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Version 1.0 Produced 2015-09-10

The document below is designed to guide higher education providers (HEPs) through the stages of data submission for the Finance Statistics Return.

At a glance

From August 2015 Providers' local preparation
October 2015 C14031 preparation guide
Mid November 2015 C14031 data collection opens
13 December 2015 Send HESA copy of published accounts
13 December 2015 Return date
13 December 2015 to 17 January 2016 Data quality checking period
18 January 2016 Last submission
20 January 2016 Sign-off deadline

Detailed requirements

From August 2015: PROVIDERS' LOCAL PREPARATIONBack to top

HEPs should read the C14031 FSR coding manual and associated documentation for details of the requirements for the return.

If you have any queries with the requirements for C14031 please contact Institutional Liaison.

October 2015: C14031 PREPARATION GUIDEBack to top

In advance of the main collection HESA releases a preparation guide. This guide 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 at FSR circulars.

Notification of the publication of this circular will be sent to the FSR record contacts at your HEP, and circulated on sector mailgroups such as the HESA-FINANCE JISC mailgroup. If you would like to join this group please contact Institutional Liaison.

Mid November 2015: C14031 DATA COLLECTION OPENSBack to top

The C14031 collection database opens on the HESA data collection system a few weeks ahead of the return date providing HEPs with opportunity to test files ahead of the return date deadline.

The 14031 FSR is required to be submitted in the format of an Excel workbook. The templates for these records should be downloaded from the Downloadable files section of the C14031 coding manual. Please note that data must be returned to HESA on the templates provided.

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

13 December 2015: SEND HESA COPY OF PUBLISHED ACCOUNTSBack to top

HEPs in Wales and Scotland are requested to send a copy of their published accounts to Institutional Liaison at HESA as soon as they become available, and no later than 13 December 2015. (The published accounts for HEPs in England and Northern Ireland will be forwarded to HESA by HEFCE by this date).

13 December 2015: RETURN DATEBack to top

HEPs are required to send complete data that has passed exception stage validation to HESA by 13 December 2015.

To meet this deadline HEPs are required to submit their C14031 FSR template, which passes exception stage validation to HESA.

HESA FSR record contacts need to co-ordinate submission of all three components to ensure the deadline is met.

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.

13 December 2015 to 17 January 2016: DATA QUALITY CHECKING PERIODBack to top

A successfully submitted record will generate several reports containing management information that HEPs will need to review to assess data quality. These reports for review are:

Check documentation This Excel workbook contains a series of tables presenting much of the submitted data to enable HEPs to check that their submission presents their HEP's data as expected. The FSR check documentation includes a cross-comparison of the use of cost centres between the Staff record, Student record and FSR record. Contacts are encouraged to liaise with colleagues responsible for these other returns to ensure commonality in use of cost centres.
Check documentation compare facility This report is available against every recommit made by the HEP. This report highlights changes between the two most recently processed commit transactions. Cells highlighted in colour denote a change, by hovering the mouse over this cell the plus/minus difference between the two figures can be viewed.
Exception report
This report details any exception stage quality rule errors/warnings triggered by the submission.

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 de-committed 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 de-commit 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 the Minerva DQ database. 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.

As part of the quality checking process HESA will also undertake analysis referencing the HEP's published accounts. For HEPs in England and Northern Ireland comparative analysis will also be undertaken referencing the financial tables submitted to HEFCE.

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

18 January 2016: LAST SUBMISSIONBack to top

In order to meet obligations for hand-over of data to its customers, HESA needs to receive all data files by 18 January 2016.

20 January 2016: SIGN-OFFBack to top

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

On the system your data will be set to credible and a new button 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 Institutional Liaison. 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. This will be necessary as access to the site will be restricted after the collection has closed.

Onward use of C14031 FSR record dataBack to top

Following closure of the data collection all data submitted will be passed to HESA's Statutory customers.

Data is also used by HESA in the following ways:
HESA publications (including HE Finance Plus, HE Planning Plus and Finances of Higher Education)
heidi
General data enquiries
HESA mobile App


Need help?

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