This field records the religious belief of the student, on the basis of their own self-assessment

Optional for all students on designated courses or where designation is held at provider level. Not permitted for students on non-designated courses.

Religion or belief is recorded on the basis of the student's own self-assessment.

Suggested questions and valid entries are those used in the 2011 Census.

England and Wales: What is your religion?

Scotland: What religion, religious body, or denomination do you belong to?

Northern Ireland: What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?

The phrase 'Prefer not to say' can be used when collecting the data.

Code 98 'Information refused' should be returned when the question was asked but the individual answered that they 'preferred not to say'.

Coverage of the HESA coding frame is shown in the following table.

Code 98 'Information refused' should be returned when the question was asked but the individual answered that they 'preferred not to say'.

The Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) has recommended inclusion of code 14 'Spiritual' which was not included in the Census. This will be grouped with 'Any other religion or belief' for onward analysis. ECU define 'Spiritual' as 'Spiritual - belief in the spiritual dimension of all life, which can be experienced directly and without the assistance of conventional religion'. All other categories are consistent with the census of the applicable country.

ECU has a number of resources relating to gathering information across the protected characteristics covered by the Equality Act 2010. These resources can be found at Equality Challenge Unit. If you have any further queries regarding equality monitoring, please email ECU at [email protected].

To monitor equal opportunities issues in higher education.