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XPROVTYPE01_1.2.2

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Field description Field abbreviation Field version Field length Field type
HESA provider type XPROVTYPE01 1.2.2 1 Char

Valid entries

Code Label
1 Higher education institution
2 Alternative provider
3 Further education college

Dependent fields

  • None.

Depend upon fields

  • UKPRN

Additional information

This derived field adds a HESA provider type flag to relevant datasets for each higher education provider (HEP). HESA provider type refers to a HEP's funding categorisation, based on the following definition:

Higher education institution (HEI) - a provider of higher education which is in receipt of recurrent funding from one of the UK's higher education funding bodies (HEFCE, HEFCW, DELNI and SFC). This may be defined as authority funded.

For specific collections, HESA's constituent HEIs may include 'connected' providers of another HEI. A 'connected' provider referes to a provider that a UK HE funding body recognises as sufficiently connected to a funded HEI, and where, under the majority of circumstances, the direct recurrent grant is passed from the HEI to the connected provider. Connected providers include joint venture agreements (including joint medical schools) and the separate University of London institutes (which do receive direct HEFCE funding). Connected providers are a constituent of the HESA Key Information Set (KIS), enabling Unistats to display these providers separately in search results.

Alternative provider (AP) - an organisation providing higher education which is not in recept of direct recurrent funding from one of the UK's higher education funding bodies (HEFCE, HEFCW, DfE(NI) and SFC). This may be defined as non-authority funded.

Further education college (FEC) - an organisation providing higher education provision within a predominantly further education context, and which is in receipt of direct recurrent funding from one of the UK's higher education funding bodies (HEFCE, HEFCW, DfE(NI) and SFC) for that provision.

Note: Higher education institution (HEI) is a defined term under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, referring to a university, institution conducted by a higher education corporation or a designated institution which is conducting activities eligible to receive funding from a HE funding council. Alternative providers and Further education colleges do not meet this definition. A few HEPs have the legal status of 'University' but do not apply for recurrent funding, and therefore if considering both status and funding definitions HEI, AP and FECs are not mutually exclusive terms. Consequently HESA provider type is based on the funding categorisation to produce a mutually exclusive provider type.

Where HESA analysts have identified a need for this field for a collection it will be created against all HEPs within that collection.

The mapping to HESA provider type is carried out through the use of a static data lookup table (see technical specification, below), supplied by HESA Data Management.

Technical Specification

Please note: in the following specification, the table suffix '_(Y2)AUG' referes to a year-specific reference derived from the reporting year. For 2014/15, Y1 is 14 and Y2 is 15. Thus for 2014/15 the table suffix would be 15AUG, and for 2015/16 the suffix would be 16AUG, and so on.

Each HEP in the collection will submit a UK Provider Reference Number (UKPRN). Each UKPRN in the HESA constituency is mapped using the STATIC_DATA.INSTHQPC_LOOKUP_(Y2)AUG table, to a HESA provider type value and returned in XPROVTYPE01. The HESA Data Management STATIC_DATA.INSTHQPC_LOOKUP_(Y2)AUG table is created as part of the processing of the ONS postcode data loaded into Oracle.

STATIC_DATA.INSTHQPC_LOOKUP_(Y2)AUG lookup table consists of 9 columns:
Column Description
f_hhesa HESA higher education provider identifier
f_opostcode Full postcode of higher education provider HQ
f_xdomuc01 County/unitary authority of higher education provider
f_gor Region of higher education provider
f_ctry Country of higher education provider
f_ctry_iso Country of higher education provider (2-letter ISO-3166-1 format)
f_ukprn UK Provider Reference Number
f_xprovtype01 HESA provider type
f_xpartcat01 HESA participation category

Where this derived specification exists for a collection, this field is created against each HEP. If no match is made between the collection's UKPRN and a UKPRN held STATIC_DATA.INSTHQPC_LOOKUP_(Y2)AUG table, the function will output an invalid null value.

1. Where the UKPRN value is found in the STATIC_DATA.INSTHQPC_LOOKUP_(Y2)AUG table F_UKPRN, return F_XPROVTYPE01 as XPROVTYPE01.

2. Where the UKPRN value is not found in the STATIC_DATA.INSTHQPC_LOOKUP_(Y2)AUG table F_UKPRN, return Null as XPROVTYPE01. This is an error, highlighting that a value in the collection's UKPRN field is not contained in the static_data lookup table F_UKPRN column. This is designed so the derived function does not fail. Nulls are to be identified at impossible values testing to flag the issue to HESA's Data Management team.

UKPRN (as submitted in each collection) XPROVTYPE01 (CHAR 1)
1. Found in STATIC_DATA.INSTHQPC_LOOKUP_(Y2)AUG. F_UKPRN STATIC_DATA.INSTHQPC_LOOKUP_(Y2)AUG. F_XPROVTYPE01
2. Not found in STATIC_DATA.INSTHQPC_LOOKUP_(Y2)AUG.F_UKPRN Null

Revision history

Date Version Notes
2016-11-01 1.2.2 The additional information section has been amended to update the name of the former Department for Employment and Learning Northern Ireland (DEL(NI)) to Department for the Economy Northern Ireland (DfE(NI)).
2016-06-14 1.2.1 Additional valid entry '3' added to account for Further education colleges. No change to function, as this entry is obtained from reference data.
2015-01-20 1.1.1 Created

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