This field indicates the method used to return Student FTE

All instances at providers in Scotland where Instance.REDUCEDI = 00, 01 or 03

Where course academic years span two HESA reporting years, providers in Scotland have a choice in how they return Student FTE in Instance.STULOAD.

The choice is:

• 1. 50:50 approach, the load is apportioned between the HESA reporting years on a pro-rata basis.
• 2. 100:0 approach, all the load is assumed to be in the first HESA reporting year.
• 3. 0:100 approach, all the load is assumed to be in the second HESA reporting year.

The Instance.FTEMETHOD field indicates the choice made for this student instance.

Standard instance years

Standard course academic years which fit within the HESA reporting year should be returned as code 1 '50:50' in this field. The 50:50 method requires that the load is apportioned across the HESA reporting years based on the activity undertaken in each reporting period.

Example 1

A full-time student studying from September to July on a 3 year programme would have an FTE of 100 in each of the HESA reporting periods. As the student is studying on a standard instance year which is contained within the reporting period Instance.FTEMETHOD is returned as '1' (50:50) in each of the years.

Note that the 50:50 method involves a pro-rata split of FTE, not necessarily an even split, across years; this is demonstrated in example 2.

Example 2

A student commences a HND programme which runs from September to July. In the first year they study full-time before moving on to a part-time mode of study in the second and third years. As the student is studying on a standard instance year which is contained within the reporting period Instance.FTEMETHOD is returned as '1' (50:50) in each of the years. In the first year they are reported with a load of 100, but when the student moves to a part-time mode the FTE values for the second and third years are reduced to reflect the lower intensity of study.

Non-standard instance years

Where course academic years do not fit into the HESA reporting year providers can choose which of the three Instance.FTEMETHOD approaches to use.

Example 3

A student is studying full-time on a one year non-standard PGT programme. The instance year spans two HESA reporting years.

There are three options for the provider in reporting the FTE for non-standard programmes:

a) If the provider uses Instance.FTEMETHOD = 1 (50:50) the load would be split between the two reporting periods based on the activity the student has undertaken:

b) If the provider opts to use Instance.FTEMETHOD = 2 (100:0) all of the load would be returned in the first reporting year and there would be 0 FTE in HESA year 2.

c) If the provider opts to use Instance.FTEMETHOD = 3 (0:100) all of the load would be returned in the second reporting year and there would be 0 FTE in HESA year 1.

Once assigned the Instance.FTEMETHOD used for an instance should not be updated in subsequent years as this may lead to an over or under reporting of Instance.STULOAD.

To inform analysis by FTE.