Student 2016/17: Support guides
This page provides an overview of the 2016/17 Student collection (C16051).
This should be used alongside the C16051 coding manual, which provides more detailed, technical information about the collection.
Need help? Contact us by email or on +44 (0)1242 211144
Student overview
We collect data across a number of streams. These streams focus on different aspects of higher education.
The Student stream collects data about students studying at higher education providers in the UK. Details of which students need to be returned to us are included in the Coverage document found in the Coding manual.
The data we collect on behalf of the sector is provided to governments and fundng bodies in order to support the regulation of higher education. We also make anonymised data available to the public to enhance understanding of UK higher education and to support its advancement
Our coding manuals provide you with all the necessary documentation to support your data return. The coding manual contains technical documents giving detailed information on the record's coverage, data specification and submission formats. Familiarising yourself with these documents will help you make an accurate and timely return.
Each collection has its own coding manual which can be found in the Data collection section of our site. By default, you will land on the open collection for each record; you can then select previous or future years.
The coding manuals will be updated throughout the data collection cycle and Record Contacts informed by email when new versions are made live. Be sure to check the manual's Revision history for a summary of changes.
You submit data via our Data Collection system. To access this, you will need to have an appropriate role in our Identity System (IDS). We publish an IDS user guide which includes information on creating and editing your account.
You will need to be given access to the Data Collection system by the relevant Record Contact at your provider.
Once you have access to the system you will be able to upload files and track the progress of the collection.
The coding manual homepage includes all the technical information you require, including:
- The data specification
- File format specifications
- A detailed collection schedule
- Our XML data entry tool (available for some streams)
- Quality rules.
This Support guides page collects together the following resources:
- User guide
- Data collection system: Known issues and release history.
In the Support area of the HESA website, you can find:
- User guides for our Identity System (IDS) and Issue Management System data quality database (HESA subscribers only).
- Support with using XML files
- Our XML amalgamator tool and Validation kits available for some collections.
Our Data innovation section includes information about:
- Open and recently completed record reviews, including information about changes we are implementing
- Our Data Futures programme which will transform the higher education information landscape.
In the About section, you can find:
- Details of who we are and what we do
- Information about data protection
- Information for providers including the Code of practice for HE data collections, and information about subscription rates and the fixed database facility.
Our expert analysts have a thorough understanding of our records and processes. We are here to support you throughout the data submission process.
Our JISCMail groups allow you to discuss specific streams with colleagues from across the sector. We also use the lists to circulate news regarding data requirements and coding manual and validation kit releases.
Preparation guide
Release - overview
For the C16051 Student record, we have adopted an agile approach to data collection. Functional components of the system are being released incrementally during the period leading up to full functionality being released by early August. This approach gives more flexibility in when data can be submitted. This in turn provides a longer window for data quality checks to be made.
Details of the contents of each release so far can be found in the Release History section of this page.
HESA Amal tool
For the C16051 collection you need to submit a single file containing full data. Each subsequent file you upload will replace the previous one. If you prepare your data in multiple *.xml files, our XML amalgamator tool will combine these records prior to submission.
NCTL Performance Profiles
As in the previous year, a full commit will not be required to populate the NCTL Performance Profiles and meet the deadline. As long as valid data has been received that generates all possible reports (i.e. data does not fail Entry Profile or other fundamental rules) then data will also successfully transfer to the NCTL webservice.
HEFCE would like to remind providers about the importance of meeting the published collection schedule. HEFCE will review providers' performance as part of the annual provider review process.
Together with the UK funding councils, we have published a code of practice on data collection, which came into practice from the reporting year 2015/16. You will wish to ensure that your 2016/17 returns are prepared in a way that is consistent with the code.
From 2017-18 it is proposed that students studying certain healthcare qualifications in England will no longer be supported by bursaries but will instead have access to mainstream student support supplemented by HEFCE grant. It is therefore likely that 2016-17 data on these professions will be of particular significance in informing allocations. You are therefore encouraged to pay particular attention to the coding of COURSEAIM, REGBODY and JACS for these courses.
Providers in Scotland are reminded of the importance of providing information on care leavers through the CARELEAVER field. This information is required to monitor the participation in higher education of such students and to assist with the development of national policy to support this vulnerable group of students. Providers in Scotland should also record the rest of UK students paying deregulated tuition fees as being 'eligible to pay home fees' (code 1 for FEEELIG) and as being on the 'post-September 2012 fee regime' (code 20 for FEEREGIME).
Validation kit
The validation kit for the 2016/17 student data is now available to download. A user guide for the kit is available from the same link. The new kit has both increased functionality and a greatly improved processing speed. This gives you earlier access to validation processes and allows you to test against a wider set of quality rules.
Please note that if you have a previous version of our validation kit it will not be updated to include the C16051 quality rules. You will need to download the new validation kit.
Minerva queries
We expect you to respond to all queries raised within the collection window. As a guide, these queries should be answered within 5 working days.
Data collection system releases and known issues
All reported issues relating to this collection are available under Known issues. These include any fixed and open issues that we are aware of.
Derived field specifications
Full details of the derived fields that we use in analysis of the C16051 Student record data are available from the C16051 coding manual.
Record contact changes
The record contact is the first point of communication during data collection. Access to our data collection system is also managed by the nominated record contact. If these details change please ensure you notify Liaison to prevent any delay in the granting of this access.
Data collection system: Release history and known issues
| Issue Summary | Status | Date raised | Date resolved | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Issue ID: Unistats report The Unistats preview report does include apprenticeship students, however, these students are not required to be included in the populations used in Unistats. Therefore there could potentially be a mis-match to the populations in the Unistats report in Student, and the populations appearing in the Unistats record. Please note: we are not planning to change this for C16051 - it will be fixed for C17051. |
For info only | 12 March 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 46519 - XTARIFF Derived Field We have three qualifications with '+'s in the qualification grade (which is the 'IB Bonus points' qualifications, that could have grades +1, +2 or +3 with Tariff scores - 40 80 and 120 respectively). When an update was done earlier in 2017 this caused these particular grades to have the '+'s removed from them. The knock on effect of this is that when one of these qualifications is assigned a Tariff score during submission, it can't match the qualification grade, so it comes back as a non-match, meaning that no Tariff score is allocated to it. |
Closed | 7 November 2017 | 13 November 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 47283 - NSS Person Report The new fields that have been added to the NSS Person Report this year (STULOADY1_1, STULOADY1_2, YEARADJ, EXPEND, TOTFTE) are not populating correctly - many of them are blank. Please note: we are not planning to change this for C16051 - it will be fixed for C17051. |
Open | 8 November 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 46283 - Emails Following the system unavailibility on Thursday 26th October, the email system didn't restart correctly. No emails have been sent from the data collection system since last Thursday. Note: this was fixed by restarting up our email sending system, and the email queue has now been sent out. |
Closed | 31 October 2017 | 31 October 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 45670 - Reports There may be some students missing from the Unistats table 3. The new restriction we introduced this year on the INITIATIVES field (to exclude any postgraduate EYITT courses in previous years) did not take into account the possibility of null values, where no UHN link can be found. |
Closed | 20 October 2017 | 9 November 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Issue ID: 45674 - Reports The Expected Instance Population report does not have the same line as last year that counts the number of records contained within the download, i.e. "The list for provider <UKPRN> (<INST ID>) contains <NNNN> records." |
Closed | 20 October 2017 | 9 November 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 45376 - Credibility Reports The columns headings on the SYR3 and SYR4 tables (in the Study Years chapter) are incorrect - they should all be rolled forward a year. Currently it says:
But it should say:
|
Closed | 19 October 2017 | 9 November 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 45376 - Reports The Expected Instance Population report doesn't have the correct tags in the download file: '<TARL>' should be '<TARLROW>' as per the XML Schema. |
Closed | 13 October 2017 | 9 November 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Issue ID: 44407 - Reports The CCAnalysis report is not showing the 'FE FTE' figure for cost centre 136 Continuing education. However, this cost centre is being counted in the 'Total FTE' figure. |
Closed | 27 September 2017 | 11 October 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 44405 - Credibility Reports The credibility table DISAB1 needs some old codes removing from the report, due to changes that have been made in the XSTUDIS01 derived field it is using (remove XSTUDIS01 valid entries E, L, M and N). Please note: we are not planning to change this for C16051 - it will be fixed for C17051. |
Open | 27 September 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 44088 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.Student.SSN.4 is triggering correctly, but is displaying data for a different MSTUFEE value. |
Closed | 18 September 2017 | 11 October 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 44068 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.Instance.EXCHANGE.4 is triggering incorrectly when there is no change between the incoming and previous instances. |
Closed | 15 September 2017 | 11 October 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 43810 - Credibility Reports PGR1 is not displaying the correct historic 15/16 data. |
Closed | 15 September 2017 | 29 September 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 44060 – Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.CourseSubject.SBJCA.15 is incorrectly displaying a column heading “ITTPHSC = 54-57, 78-81”, this column heading should be displayed as "Count of instances where Instance.ITTPHSC = 54-57, 78-81". |
Closed | 15 September 2017 | 11 October 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 24977 - Continuity Reports The count of continuity issues being displayed on the dashboard is not matching up with the number of issues being displayed in the Continuity Report. This is because it is trying to trigger some FE rules which shouldn't be triggered. As these errors shouldn't be triggered, providers cannot see them on the continuity report (as it only shows the HE ones). We will supress these rules correctly, in order to fix the count on the dashboard. |
Closed | 7 September 2017 | 15 September 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 33472 - NSS report testing window (31 Aug - 13 Sep) The NSS report will be tested by HEFCE and HESA in the next two weeks. You may see this report disappear for a while, whilst this happens. If it does appear - please don't use the results yet, as it may still be changed. We will let you know when the testing is complete and the report has been finalised. Note added 11 Sep: Testing is now complete. Nothing has been changed with the NSS report and therefore you can continue to use any previous downloads you may have. |
Closed | 31 August 2017 | 11 September 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
For info only: Credibility Reports Shading rules on credibility reports do not appear until your submission has finished processing. The reports and tables will appear first and the shading rules later. So whilst you're transaction is processing, please wait until it has completely finished before checking if you have triggered any shading rules. |
For info only | 31 August 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 22435 and 43184 - Report downloads The CCAnalysis and Unistats reports do not yet have Excel / zip download options. These will be available shortly. |
Closed | 30 August 2017 |
Unistats zip - 7 September 2017 CCAnalysis Excel - 15 September 2017 |
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Issue ID: 43227 - Frequency Counts report The INITIATIVES1 and INITIATIVES2 tables in the Frequency Counts report have not been updated to include the most recent codes added. In particular code T 'Postgraduate Loan' should be removed, and code U 'Postgraduate Loan Eligibility' should be added. |
Closed | 30 August 2017 | 15 September 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Issue ID: 43223 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.Course.AWARDBOD.6 and QR.C16051.Course.AWARDBOD.7 rules are triggered for two providers where it shouldn't (Courtauld Institute of Art and Institute of Cancer Research) as they are part of the University of London. |
Closed | 30 August 2017 | 7 September 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 43136 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.CourseSubject.SBJCA.24 does not have the same ENTRYRTE = 3 clause as the equivalent QR.C16053.CourseSubject.SBJCA.9 rule does. |
Closed | 29 August 2017 | Not going to be amended - rule is correct for Student. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 41945 - Quality Rules download The CSV download for the Quality Rules report is inserting blank rows every 10,000 lines. This isn't happening in the XLSX version. |
Closed | 15 August 2017 | 15 September 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 41198 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.Course.FEQAIMC.10 is triggering incorrectly. |
Closed | 8 August 2017 | 17 August 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 41562 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.QualificationsOnEntry.QUALTYPE.2 is triggering incorrectly. It is triggering per student instead of per instance. |
Closed | 10 August 2017 | 30 August 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 41530 - Credibility Reports To use the drill down functionality on the credibility reports please always go into the chapters by clicking on the 'view' button; you can then use the blue triangles to view the figures. If this method is not followed then you will experience issues with this information displaying. |
For info only | 9 August 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 40966 - Credibility Reports Some of the credilbility reports are not displaying the correct historic 15/16 data, instead it is showing zeros. These are tables: SBJ1, SBJF1, SBJ2, SBJ3 and DLHE2. |
Closed | 3 August 2017 | 17 August 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 40490 - IRIS for providers in Wales The IRIS system isn't displaying the EYM report from HEFCW on the data collection dashboard, for providers to download. Until the issue is fixed, the EYM output from the IRIS system will be available from the HEFCW secure download area of the HEFCW website, as a live link to the latest output. In order to access this for your provider, you will need a username and password. Please call Hannah Falvey at HEFCW on 029 2085 9720 to obtain these. Please contact Hannah or email [email protected] if you are having any difficulties in accessing the output. |
Closed | 24 July 2017 | 27 July 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 40424 - Quality Rules Providers are triggering the exception rule QR.C16051.Instance.CAMPID.1 as the static data needs to be updated to use the latest Provider Profile data, now that it is available. |
Closed | 24 July 2017 | 17 August 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 39858 - Schema The valid entry QualifcationsOnEntry.QUALTYPE EY isn't being allowed through the system at the moment - it is triggering a schema error for anyone who tries to submit the code. |
Closed | 17 July 2017 | 2 August 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 39772 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.Course.FEQAIMC.10 is triggering incorrectly. It seems to be triggering when a student fits the criteria for not triggering (i.e. ILRGEN = 1, and associated Instance being PROGTYPE = 25 and FUNDMODEL = 36) |
Closed | 17 July 2017 | 2 August 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue IDs: 38997, 38998, 38999, 39000 - Quality Rules The four checksum-related rules QR.C16051.Student.HUSID.3, QR.C16051.Student.SCN.1, QR.C16051.Student.ULN.1 and QR.C16051.EntryProfile.UCASAPPID.1 are triggering incorrectly. |
Closed | 16 June 2017 | 20 July 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 38462 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.Instance.MODE.33 is triggering incorrectly. It doesn't seem to be treating the COLTODATE 2016-08-01 into account correctly. |
Closed | 22 June 2017 | 6 July 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 38079 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.QualificationsOnEntry.QUALTYPE.2 is triggering incorrectly. It is triggering where there is more than one occurence of QUALTYPE WB, WE or WS across the whole submission, instead of across a single student. |
Closed | 21 June 2017 | 6 July 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 38036 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.Instance.ENDDATE.14 is over reporting and triggering incorrectly. It appears to be looking across the collection rather than across the components for that person. |
Closed | 20 June 2017 | 6 July 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 37848 - Downloadable Validation Kit Providers have reported different problems they are having with the downloadable validation kit, and we are working to try to understand what the problems are. In the meantime, please continue to use the validation in the data collection system as normal - as this is working fine. |
Closed | 16 June 2017 | 6 July 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 37825 - Quality Rules The rules QR.C16051.Instance.ENTRYRTE.6 and QR.C16051.Instance.ENTRYRTE.7 are again not working correctly. They are incorrectly triggering when the ENTRYRTE field has not been returned. |
Closed | 16 June 2017 | 6 July 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 37669 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.Student.NATIOND.6 is triggering for a lot more records than it shouldn't be triggering for. |
Closed | 13 June 2017 | 23 June 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 37521 - Quality Rules The rules QR.C16051.Instance.ENTRYRTE.1 and QR.C16051.Instance.ENTRYRTE.5 are triggering when the data has not been returned in the Instance.ENTRYRTE field (as the field is optional). |
Closed | 8 June 2017 | 13 June 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 36878 - Quality Rules The rules QR.C16051.Instance.ENTRYRTE.6 and QR.C16051.Instance.ENTRYRTE.7 are incorrectly triggering. |
Closed | 2 June 2017 | 9 June 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 36865 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.ITTPlacement.PLMNTSCH.1 seems to be triggering on all ITTPlacement.PLMNTSCH across the collection, regardless of matching or not matching combinations. |
Closed | 2 June 2017 | 9 June 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 36254 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.Engagement.ENGEND.4 is incorrectly triggering when there is no ENDDATE. |
Closed | 24 May 2017 | 9 June 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 36255 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.Engagement.ENGSTATUS.3 is incorrectly triggering when ENGEND is null. |
Closed | 24 May 2017 | 9 June 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 35487 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.Instance.ENTRYRTE.1 is incorrectly applying where the ENTRYRTE field doens't exists. |
Closed | 11 May 2017 | 25 May 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 35853 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.QualificationsOnEntry.QUALTYPE.2 is triggering incorrectly. It is triggering where there is more than one occurence of QUALTYPE WB, WE or WS across the whole submission, instead of across a single student. |
Closed | 16 May 2017 | 25 May 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 35734 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.Instance.FUNDCOMP.1 is not triggering for as many records as it should be. It was counting an error for every instance triggering the rule, but now it is to be counting at course level - hence it appears as though less records have triggered the error. |
Closed | 12 May 2017 | 25 May 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 35722 - Quality Rules The rule QR.C16051.Instance.GROSSFEE.7 is triggering for a lot more students than it should be! It seems to be triggering where GROSSFEE has not been returned, when it should be ignoring these cases. |
Closed | 11 May 2017 | 25 May 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 35226 - Derived Fields process A provider entered 29 February for the COMDATE of a student. Our derived fields process that works our the anniversary of a student was not able to cope with this, as it was trying to make every year a leap year! |
Closed | 8 May 2017 | 8 May 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 29288 - OFFA Financial Support data Due to recent restrictions placed on the Financial Support data that OFFA supply to HESA, OFFA will not be able to supply this data until the middle of June. This means that quality rules QR.C16051.Instance.FinancialSupport.9 and QR.C16051.Instance.FinancialSupport.10 will be validating using last year's data. Providers are to be aware of this, and should contact Liaison if they need any rules switching off in the mean time. |
Closed | 8 May 2017 | 23 June 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 34834 - Quality rules The rule QR.C16051.Instance.LearningDeliveryFAM.4 is triggering when the conditions of ILRGEN = 1 and PROGTYPE = 25 do not apply, which is the opposite to what it should do. |
Closed | 27 April 2017 | 28 April 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 34800 - Quality rules The rule QR.C16051.Instance.Engagement.2 is triggering incorrectly as it is over reporting. It is trying to check where Engagements for a single instance overlap. Note: 28 April 2017: this rule has now been removed, and will likely be made an Exception rule in a future release. |
Closed | 27 April 2017 | 9 June 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 34532 - Quality rules The rule QR.C16051.QualificationsOnEntry.QUALTYPE.2 seems to be displaying the first Qualification on Entry returned for the student, instead of the relevant one. Currently only reported by one provider. |
Closed | 26 April 2017 | 11 May 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 34377 - ILR generation process The LearningDeliveryFAM.LearnDelFAMDateFrom and LearningDeliveryFAM.LearnDelFAMDateTo are not being generated when the LearningDeliveryFAM.LEARNDELFAMTYPE is coded 'ACT'. |
Closed | 20 April 2017 | 11 May 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 33031 - Quality rules QR.C16051.Engagement.ApprenticeFinances.1 was triggering incorrectly. The check on AIMTYPE wasn't happening correctly, as it was triggering when AIMTYPE.3 was in the data, and it shouldn't have been. |
Closed | 29 March 2017 | 18 April 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 30634 and 30628 - Schema Following the release of the Student coding manual on 23 February, new codes were added into the QualificationsOnEntry.QUALSBJ and QualifcationsOnEntry.QUALTYPE fields. These changes have not yet been carried over into the schema used in the data collection system or validation kit. |
Closed | 28 February 2017 | 6 March 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 31097 - Quality rules QR.C16051.LearningDeliveryFAM.LEARNDELFAMTYPE.1 rule is triggering correctly, but is displaying incorrect data when you click to see more details on the rule. |
Closed | 28 February 2017 | 6 March 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Issue ID: 30802 - Quality rules QR.C16051.Instance.AIMTYPE.5 is currently triggering where there are two instances for a student, but the AIMTYPE for each instance were different (and therefore the rule shouldn't have triggered). |
Closed | 22 February 2017 | 6 March 2017 |
| Release ID | Release date | Release summary |
|---|---|---|
| 55 | 14 November 2017 |
All providers have been reprocessed now - this was to fix bug 46519 with the XTARIFF derived field. As part of this reprocess others things will now have taken affect in the latest submission for providers. This includes:
|
| 54 | 9 November 2017 |
A few bugs have been fixed in this sprint:
Also the UKPRN static data has been updated for the last time - to include some more recent UKPRNs. |
| 52 | 11 October 2017 |
A few bugs have been fixed in this release:
QR.C16051.Instance.INITIATIVES.37 - COURSEAIM L99 has been added into the business rule. The coding manual links from quality rules have all been fixed. This is when you are in the Quality Rules Report and click on the coding manual link in the rule (right corner); or when you are in the validation kit and right click on a rule. |
| 51B | 29 September 2017 |
ONS postcode static data has been updated. PGR credibility report has been updated (RCUK1 and RCUK2) - to fix bug 43810. |
| 51A | 19 September 2017 | Update to the IRIS process to include some new providers. |
| 50C | 15 September 2017 |
In this release we have tried to get everything updated and ready for the return and commit deadlines for providers.
The counts for Continuity (Quality Issues, Issues Remaining) on the dashboard were showing incorrectly for some providers. This has now been fixed - bug 24977. Blank rows being were being inserted into the CSV downloads for the Quality Rules report. This has now been fixed - bug 41945. Tolerances were not working correctly on the Quality Rules report. Now if a provider exceeds their tolerance for a quality rule, it will appear back in the 'Errors' tab for you to resolve. The fuzzy matching process has been updated for collaboration provision. Frequency counts report now has the updated INITIATIVES values (removed code T; added codes U, V and W) - to fix bug 43227. UKRLP static data has been updated. The NSS report has now been fully tested between HEFCE and HESA. This is now available again - to resolve bug 33472. An Excel download has been made available for the CCAnalysis report. The zip download file is now available for the Unistats report. This fixes bugs 22435 and 43184. |
| 50B | 7 September 2017 |
A couple of minor updates for this release:
|
| 50A | 5 September 2017 |
A number of bugs have been fixed in this interim release:
|
| 49 | 30 August 2017 |
The 'Commit' and 'Sign-off' functionality is now available. HESA is set up and ready to start data quality checking provider's data, once you have committed your data. Unistats report is now available. Minor updates have been made, to the specification of this preview report. Check documentation is now available. This included updates to the PI tab, Item 2 on the Campus tab, and the collaborative / franchise tab has been included again (following feedback that was useful to have back from the sector). Credibility reports:
Rule updates: Added 1 business rule:
Amended 5 exception rules:
Amended 1 continuity rule:
Deleted 3 rules:
IRIS reports - now available for providers in England and Northern Ireland. The HEAPES16 comparison output is now available. Providers may view the output by submitting your data the data collection system; which will automatically trigger the generation of the output from HEFCE. The associated technical documentation is available at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/data/indstudata/altprovider/ If you require any further information or guidance on what's included in the reports, please contact HEFCE on 0117 931 7138 or email [email protected]. Dashboard page A number of minor updates have been made to the user interface on the dashboard page, including:
|
| 48B | 17 August 2017 |
Some changes have been made to Credibility Reporting:
Business rule QR.C16051.Course.FEQAIMC.10 amended (to fix bug 41198) A few links have been updated on the reports, now that these have been published in the coding manual. [Please let us know if you spot any more broken links - as these should now all be working!] The Continuity population report (Expected Instance population) is now available for both HE and FE, including the PGR collaborative students transferred in expected instance population. Some changes have been made to handle the collaborative provision reporting:
A number of changes have been made to the static data:
|
| 48A | 9 August 2017 |
A few more changes have been made to the Credibilty reports: 2 new tables for ITT placements: ITT3 and ITT4. Shading rules have been added to QUAL1 and ITT1 tables. |
| 47 | 2 August 2017 |
QualificationsOnEntry.QUALTYPE EY is now allowed in the schema - to fix bug 39858
We have made a number of changes to Credibilty reports for this release. The static data has been updated for this year and it is now using the 2015/16 data. 3 tables amended to remove TTCID codes 8 and G: ITT1, ITT2, QTS1. 1 table amended to use ENTRYRTE codes for this year's data and continue to use INITIATIVES codes for previous year's data: EYTS1. 8 tables amended to add new COURSEAIMs: DOM1, DOM1P, EXPL3, EYTS1, QUAL1, SIN1, SIN2, SIN1P. 1 table amended to adjust for 2 occurences of REGBODY: REGB1. Three new tables have been added for Apprenticeship data: APP1, APP2 and APP3. Drill down has been applied to 7 tables: SIN1, FTES1, FTES2, FTES3, FTEN1, FTEN2, FTEN3. We have also made some efforts to improve the performance of generating these reports - so hopefully it won't be as slow as last year!
This release also has a couple more quality rules: Amended 1 business rule:
Added 1 exception rule:
We also added the unknown header into a number of our quality rules. |
| 46 | 20 July 2017 |
This release includes a number of reports:
Also the new derived field XAPP01 has been added into data supply. The HUSID Look-Up Service has now moved onto the data collection system and is now accessed with an IDS role. More information on the service is available here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/tools-and-downloads/husid This release also has a few more quality rules (and we are hoping this is the bulk of all the changes needed for this year): Amended 4 business rules:
Added 1 exception rule:
Amended 8 continuity rules:
|
| 45 | 6 July 2017 |
Continuity has now been updated for this year and is now on. The small number of continuity rule changes will be coming soon. All of last year's Credibility reports have now been rolled forward to use this year's data. Please note that we still have all the changes and updates to make for this year - including updating the static data used in tables (although the label says it's 2015/16 data, it is still using the 2014/15 static data). This will be completed in the coming weeks, but we wanted to get it out there to you as soon as possible. We will be applying drill down initially in the following 7 tables: SIN1. FTES1, FTES2, FTES3, FTEN1, FTEN2 and FTEN3. A couple more static data loads have happened in this release, including the latest ONS postcode load and the Learning aims for English and Welsh FE. We have investigated a number of problems reported with the Validation Kit (bug 37848). Some of these were fixed by downloading another version of the validation kit; four checksum issues were reported with the rules (bugs 38997, 38998, 38999, 39000); and we have switched off the pivot table in the Excel download for now, as it's not working. If anyone found this useful and would like this fixed at some point, please let us know. And as usual, this release has a few more business and exception rules:
Added 1 business rule:
Amended 4 exception rules:
Added 7 exception rules:
|
| 44B | 23 June 2017 |
The Data Supply and IRIS report (for providers in Wales) are now available (though you will need to submit another file before they will appear, as we have not reprocessed providers at this stage). A new derived field XAPP01 'Apprenticeship identifier' has been added - the specification will be up on the HESA website shortly. This derived field is not yet appearing in the data supply report, but will also be added shortly. There is now a draft version of the NSS report available. Please be aware that this is an early draft version, using last year's specification, and therefore may not be correct. The final version will be released in September, once any changes for this year have been agreed with HEFCE. This release has a few more business and exception rules: Amended 6 exception rules:
Added 5 exception rules (these were all previously checks that were carried out on credibility reports):
Static data loaded:
|
| 44A | 13 June 2017 |
An interim release to fix some bugs with the Exception rules.
|
| 43 | 9 June 2017 |
We have made a few minor amendments to business rules - to fix some bugs that had been found - then we have focused on updating the exception rules. Amended 7 business rules:
Amended 25 exception rules:
Added 4 exception rules:
The 2015/16 Student fixed database is now open to providers who need to fix data from the C15051 collection. |
| 42 | 25 May 2017 |
We have finished all the known business rule changes this sprint, which are the following: 19 amended business rules:
16 new business rules:
Some Exception rules have also been added or amended:
We have also finished developing all the dervied fields needed for C16051, which means the following 69 exception rules have now been switched on:
The ILR generation process now generates a LearningDeliveryFAM entity when Instance.LearningDeliveryFAM.LEARNDELFAMTYPE is coded 'ACT' and Instance.AIMTYPE = 3. This is in addition to the ones generated for AIMTYPE = 1. |
| 41B | 11 May 2017 |
Final few changes required to rules following the new Apprenticeship Levy:
This release we have really tried to push out as many rule changes as possible. 10 deleted rules:
37 new rules:
45 amended rules. All for a variety of reasons, including: adding COURSEAIM code M73, removing TTCID codes 8 and G, removing PROGTYPE code 10, adding FESTUMK code 5.
QR.C16051.QualificationsOnEntry.QUALTYPE.2 has now been moved to exception - to fix bug 34532. The ILR generation process now generates dates for LearnDelFAM type ACT - to fix bug 34377. The derived fields process has been amended to make the anniversary date 28 Feb, for any student who has a COMDATE of 29 Feb - to fix bug 35226. A number of derived fields have also been developed this sprint, which means we have been able to make the following 28 Exception rules work now:
|
| 41A | 28 April 2017 |
This release is to fix bugs we had on a couple of rules. Amended 5 rules:
Added 1 rule:
Deleted 1 rule:
|
| 40 | 27 April 2017 |
Added 2 new rules:
Amended 24 rules:
The above rules are all due to the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy, and subsequent changes required to validation (that are in this release). There are a handful more changes required to rules for the new Apprenticeship Levy, and these will be completed in the next couple of weeks. The rule QR.C16051.Course.REGBODY.4 has also been amended to be applicable to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales only. The Frequency Counts report is now available. Please note that if you have already sent a file to HESA, the new report will not show up until you have submitted another file, as we will not be reprocessing this time. |
| 39 | 18 April 2017 |
1 new rule added:
28 rules amended
|
| 38 | 29 March 2017 |
42 rules amended (a lot of changes are due the TTCID codes 8 and G being removed):
10 new rules added:
1 rule deleted - as it was no longer needed:
Also, a link to the DLHE population specification (from the DLHE pop report) was updated. |
| 37 | 17 March 2017 |
7 new rules added:
1 rule deleted:
6 rules amended:
|
| 36 | 6 March 2017 |
The DLHE population report is now available to providers. Following feedback from the sector, the download for this report now includes the DOMICILE and NATION fields. In order to access the population file you will need to submit a file that passes schema validation. The new codes in the QualificationsOnEntry.QUALSBJ and QualificationsOnEntry.QUALTYPE fields have now been updated in the schema (to fix bugs 30634 and 30628). New rules added:
Rules deleted:
Rules amended:
|
| 35 | 15 February 2017 |
In this release a number of quality rules have been updated for this year. 11 rules deleted:
4 amended rules:
26 new rules:
|
| 33a | 20 January 2017 | The Entry Profile report has been released. This report includes validation to ensure that all records submitted can be linked to an entry profile either in the incoming data or submitted historically. This year the major change with this report is that any validation errors in this report will not prevent other reports from being generated and so will hopefully enable you to continue working. Please bear in mind however that missing entry profile data will affect other reporting. |
| 33 | 19 January 2017 |
Validation has been introduced or updated for all postcode fields in the record to enforce that postcodes are returned in uppercase. |
| 26 | 13 October 2016 | A fix to the data type for Telephone number has been issued. |
| 22 | 19 August 2016 | ILR file production capability introduced.
Updated valid entries for Engagement.ENGOUTCOME and QualificationsOnEntry.QUALGRADE. |
| 19 | 8 July 2016 | The validation kit has been updated to include the rolled-on business stage rules from the 2015/16 record. We are currently identifying and specifying the changes required to validation to cater for the inclusion of Apprenticeship Standards and these rules will be included in future releases. |
| 16 | 27 May 2016 | The schema validation kit is now available for the 2016/17 Student record. This will allow users to validate their XML against the revised schema that caters for Apprenticeship Standards. If you already have the validation kit installed there is no need to install a new version. If you do not currently have the validation kit installed, you can access it by going here. |
| Month | Scheduled areas of work |
|---|---|
| There are no planned upcoming releases |
Stages of data submission
A. Sending data
Send data by clicking on the 'send data' button in the data collection system. Note that actions not currently available will be greyed out.
Browse your computer to locate the file you wish to submit, and upload the file to the data collection system.
Tips:
- Files can have any name
- Files must be in XML and conform to the relevant XML Schema Definition (XSD) file
- Files can be compressed using PKZip/WinZip which will significantly reduce the upload time
- Only a single file can be held on the system.
B. Validation
Automated validation checks (quality rules) will now run.
Further details on the quality rules which apply to this collection can be found in the coding manual.
The Quality rules report will contain the details of any rules triggered by the submission. Make any necessary amendments to the data and resubmit the file to the system. To pass validation, the file must not trigger any validation errors.
You can run some of these validation checks through our validation kit before submitting data to the data collection system. The kit enables you to test your data locally against schema and business stage validation rules prior to submission. You are strongly encouraged to use the validation kit as part of your data preparations.
Remember that you need to process and pass the business-stage validation in order to meet the requirements of the return deadline.
How to obtain a switch
When errors are triggered in the Data Collection system but the data has been checked and is genuine, you need to request a switch. This is because your file will not pass the validation requirements of the collection deadlines if there are any remaining errors.
Please email your switch request to Liaison, stating which rule is causing the error to be triggered and for how many records, together with an explanation as to why the data is genuine.
This will then be forwarded to your funding council/regulator for them to review. They may agree the switch, ask for more information or state how they wish the data to be returned so that an error is no longer triggered.
This request should be sent well in advance of any deadline, to allow sufficient time for a decision to be made.
When a switch has been agreed, it will be applied to your data for the count specified and the data will be reprocessed. This will resolve the error.
If the count increases, the rule will be triggered again, and you will need to request that the count on the switch be increased. This will be forwarded to your funding council/regulator for approval.
To proceed to the next stage in the submission process, a valid file needs to have been submitted. The data will then be classed as 'committable' and the option to process a COMMIT transaction will be made available through the data collection system.
Prior to committing data, you should review all of the reports produced on the data collection system and make any necessary corrections to the data.
The COMMIT transaction sends a copy of your submission to our data quality assurance team and, where appropriate, to the relevant funding council. We analyse your return in parallel with your own analysis.
Decommitting
A passed commit transaction will lock the system to prevent the data from being amended. This is to allow our data quality assurance team to analyse the submission. To unlock the system you will need to request a DECOMMIT transaction.
Request a decommit by email or on +44 (0)1242 388531
Remember that you need to process and pass a COMMIT transaction in order to meet the requirements of the commit deadline.
Once we have analysed your committed return, data quality queries will be posted onto the Issue Management System data quality database. Relevant users will be notified by email when these queries are available to view. The Issue Management System user guide provides help on using the Issue Management System.
Once your data has passed all the stages of validation, and any issues highlighted during credibility checking have been addressed, we will set the return to CREDIBLE. This produces the sign-off form.
When data is set to credible, a link to the sign-off form is automatically emailed to the head of the submitting organisation as well as the appropriate record contact. The form should be completed and signed by the head of the reporting organisation and returned to us by email or post. This verification offers both you and us assurances regarding onward use of the data.
Sign-off completes the data collection process.