Student 2018/19: Support guides
This page provides an overview of the 2018/19 Student collection (C18051).
This should be used alongside the C18051 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 C18051 Student record, we adopt 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 in July. 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 Amalgamator tool
For the C18051 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.
Changes to the Student Record
There have been several changes to the Student Record when compared to C17051. These are highlighted in our Annual Update and Supplementary Changes. It is important that providers are aware of all the changes for C18051. Some specific field changes are as follows:
ENDDATE
The ENDDATE guidance has been clarified and should reflect the student's final engagement with the course. For many students this will be when they complete the taught or formally structured part of their course, including planned exam periods and any formal writing-up period.
HEAPESPOP
The HEAPES survey is not taking place and the Office for Students (OfS) have confirmed that they will no longer use the HEAPESPOP field. Consequently, HEAPESPOP will be made optional for C18051 and will be removed from C19051. The coverage for the field will be changed to ‘Optional for all students’ and the notes updated to reflect this change in requirement.
Graduate Outcomes
In C17051 the population for cohort A was available in the data collection system. As the Graduate Outcomes portal will be available from September 2019 for the 2018/19 graduates, the Graduate Outcomes report will no longer be available from the Student data collection system from C18071. The functionality for reviewing the population information and returning contact details will be available via the Graduate Outcomes provider portal. Providers will also be able to identify their survey population through tables G01 & G02 of the credibility reports in the C18051 Data Collection system.
DfE (previously NCTL) Performance Profiles
As in the previous year, a full commit will not be required to populate the DfE 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 DfE webservice.
HEFCW will provide, as in previous years, end of year monitoring (EYM) tables and other analyses through IRIS. The EYM tables will be available earlier than the rest of the analyses and HEPs are encouraged to look at them at the earliest opportunity to ensure that any errors in the student record that lead to incorrect information appearing in the tables can be resolved in plenty of time. Welsh HEPs are reminded that HEFCW staff are available at [email protected] if there are any questions about the EYM tables or any other part of the HEFCW IRIS output. Welsh HEPs are also reminded that there is a new code in the INITIATIVES field for 2018/19 ‘HEFCW-funded degree apprenticeship scheme’ which they should use to identify students on the scheme.
Providers in Scotland should 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).
Providers in Scotland are reminded that student carers are identified for the first time in the C17051 Student record, see the CARER field.
The OfS would like to remind providers about the importance of meeting the published collection schedule. For registered providers, the OfS will monitor compliance with ongoing conditions of registration.
The OfS will generate outputs to allow providers to verify, and where appropriate correct, their data before signing it off. These outputs will be made available to providers as part of the Information Reporting Interface Service (IRIS) reporting available through our data collection system. Further information on these outputs and the schedule for release will be issued by the OfS. You are required to review all of these outputs to ensure that the data returned to HESA is accurate.
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 2018/19 returns are prepared in a way that is consistent with the code.
Validation kit
The validation kit for the 2018/19 student data is available to download. A user guide for the kit is available from the same link. 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 C18051 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 C18051 Student record data are available from the C18051 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Issue ID: 79354/79348/79358 - Instance.INITIATIVES.46/46/48 The SPLENGTH implementation for Instance.INITIATIVES.46/46/48 (warnings) needs to be corrected to allow SPLENGTH entries with leading zeros (i.e. '02', '03' etc.) to not trigger the rules. |
Closed | 02 Oct 2019 | 10 Oct 2019 |
|
Issue ID: 79248 - QualificationsAwarded.QUAL.19 historic data Previous year's data for the Warning QualificationsAwarded.QUAL.19 is not accurately matching the C17051 data. This is being investigated. |
Open | 02 Oct 2019 | 23 Oct 2019 |
|
Issue ID: 78725 - Credibility report GO1 display over-counting The figures in the Graduate Outcomes Credibility GO1appears to be over-counting, resulting in a total figure being 2-3 more than the corresponding figure in the Drill-down. This is being investigated and may be occurring if duplicate HUSIDs appear in the file. The Drill-down figure is correct. |
Closed | 17 Sept 2019 | 27 Sep 2019 |
|
Issue ID: 78690/78691 - Student.ULN.1 and 3 quality rules implementation Student.ULN.1 is currently triggering where a ULN does not exist. Student.ULN.3 is not triggering where Instance.FESTUMK=3. |
Closed | 17 Sept 2019 | 27 Sept 2019 |
|
Issue ID: 77076/78451 - ModuleSubject.COSTCN.4,5,6,7,8,9 quality rules implementation These warnings require an update to point to the 2017/18 FTE data for the previous year's display and calculation. They currently point to the 2016/17 FTE data. |
Closed | 22 August 2019 | 13 Sept 2019 |
|
Issue ID: 77439 - Cost Centre Analysis Report download functionality The download to excel functionality for the Cost Centre Analysis Report is not currently working. |
Closed | 20 August 2019 | 11 Sept 2019 |
|
Issue ID: 77464/59 - Incorrect implementation of Instance.LOCSDY.19 QR.Instance.LOCSDY.19 (Error) require an update to ensure that the rules only trigger if the MOBILITY entity exists. |
Closed | 20 August 2019 | 11 Sept 2019 |
|
Issue ID: 77022 - Incorrect implementation of Instance.TYPEYR.5 QR.Instance.TYPEYR.5 (Warning) requires an update to ensure that the rule only triggers if TYPEYR exists. |
Closed | 14 August 2019 | 29 August 2019 |
|
Issue ID: 76838 & 76840 - Incorrect implementation in FUNDCODE rules .30 and .31 QR.Instance.FUNDCODE.30 & .31 require an update to ensure that the rules only trigger for UK and EU country codes. |
Closed | 05 August 2019 | 15 August 2019 |
|
Issue ID: 71463 - Schema validation for ILR EmploymetStatusMonitoring.EMSCODE.1 requires ESM Codes 2, 3 and 4 added to the schema to match the ILR - as these are valid for continuing students. The addition has been requested. |
Closed | 03 March 2019 | 11 April 2019 |
|
Issue ID: 96509 - Schema validation A schema error has been reported in the submission of COURSEAIM and QUALSBJ code H91. Initial investigation has found this may also affect code I91. |
Closed | 01 February 2019 | 14 February 2019 |
|
Issue ID: 67214 - ILR file generation Schema errors have been reported in the submission of the ILR file when submitted to the ESFA. This has been experienced in the 'OTJHours' element, reporting an 'invalid child element 'OTJOURS' and capitalisation errors for 'AgreeId'. |
Closed | 23 October 2018 | 29 November 2018 |
|
Issue ID: 65066 - ILR file generation The ILR file generation output is removing capital letters from the SWSUPAIMID field, which is causing files to trigger schema errors when they are submitted to the ESFA. |
Closed | 1 October 2018 | 5 October 2018 |
| Release ID | Release date | Release summary |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | 06 Nov 2019 |
The Credibility report SYR3 was displaying 2017/18's data in the 2018/19 column. This has been fixed. A note has been added to the Credibility report GO1 explaining that as a consequence of including QualificationsAwarded.QUAL in the drill-down, GO1 displays the count of qualifying qualifications. Where more than one qualifying qualification exists for one Student instance, each qualification is counted in GO1 and displayed in the drill-down as a separate row. Continuity Report C - QR.Instance.NUMHUS.1 rule was displaying a blank row against incoming 'Possible match found' records. This has been fixed. |
| 24 | 23 Oct 2019 |
The PGR Transfers In expected instance population collection dates have been corrected. In addition, a bug that resulted in PRG Transfers In UKPRNs being returned two years after submission (rather than one year) has been fixed. The derived field XETHNIC01 implementation corrected. All providers have been reprocessed so that Data Supply reports reflect the update. The following Quality Rules have been amended in this release:
|
| 23 | 10 Oct 2019 | The latest version of the XTPOINTS library has been added to the domain to ensure validation matches the complete list of QualificationsOnEntry.QUALTYPES and QUALGRADES listed in the coding manual. All providers' data was reprocessed to recalculate XTPOINTS if required. |
| 22 | 27 Sept 2019 |
The following Quality Rules have been amended in this release:
XTPOINTS implementation has been amended to de-dupe Reformed A-levels (QUALTYPES RE, RN, RW) and Double awards (QUALTYPES DA and D1) in the same manner as A level (QUALTYPE A), following clarification from UCAS. NSS report text has been updated to correctly identify that the report identifies students expected to be completing their studies in the following academic year. |
| 21 | 11 Sept 2019 |
The Continuity population (Expected instances) report XML download has been updated to change the tag <TARL> to <TARLROW> to match the schema published on the Coding manual 'File structures for downloadable files' page https://www.hesa.ac.uk/collection/c18051/files_expectedinstance. The Cost Centre Analysis report .xlsx download function is now available. The following Quality Rules have been amended in this release:
|
| 20 | 29 August 2019 |
The following Quality Rules have been amended in this release:
Bug fixed with the progress tracker – it is now populated with the correct deadline dates. Final updates to the lookup lists have been made – including the UKRLP lookup. The PGR transfers In/Out reports are now available. The sign-off form and commit button funcationality are now available. |
| 19a | 20 Aug 2019 | The IRIS reports are now available for HE providers in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. |
| 19 | 15 Aug 2019 |
The following Quality Rules have been added/amended in this release:
The following reports are now available on the Data Collection Dashboard and will appear when a new file is submitted:
|
| 18 | 31 July 2019 |
The following validation/quality rules have been added/amended in this release:
The Check documentation (xlsx) is now available from the Data Collection Dashboard and will appear when a new file is submitted. This includes the Campus, Collaborative Franchise, and Institutional Information tabs. (Please note that from C18051 the Performance indicators tables are no longer included, as the methodology has changed. An explanation of the change and a link to the performance indicators website have been added to the PI tab). The NSS (National Student Survey) Report is now available from the Data Collection Dashboard and will appear when a new file is submitted. This now excludes students that are under 16 years as at the 31 July the end of the reporting period. |
| 17 | 18 July 2019 |
The latest version of the XTPOINTS library has been added to the domain to ensure validation matches the complete list of QualificationsOnEntry.QUALTYPES listed in the coding manual. The Cost Centre Analysis report is now available from the Data Collection Dashboard. This will appear when a new file is submitted. The following Quality Rules have been added/amended in this release:
|
| 16 | 04 July 2019 |
Quality rule QR.QualificationsAwarded.QUAL.19 added to warn when the total number of qualifications awarded have decreased by more than 10% from the previous year's return. Rule added to give HE providers earlier notification of this query, which was previously only raised during the credibility reporting process. The IRIS reports are now available for HE providers in Wales. A number of static data has been updated:
|
| 15 | 21 June 2019 |
The Frequency Counts report is now available from the Data Collection Dashboard. This will appear when a new file is submitted. QualificationsOnEntry.QUALTYPES 8A, GH and GI have been added to the schema to match the Coding Manual valid entries. The list of franchise partners have been updated for QR.C18051.Module.TINST.12. |
| 14 | 06 June 2019 |
The following new Quality Rules have been added to further validate the return of Initiatives code U 'Postgraduate Loan Eligibility' - based on length of study:
|
| 13 | 24 May 2019 |
The Data Supply report and the Continuity Population report are now available from the Data Collection Dashboard. These will appear when a new file is submitted. The following Exception rules have been added:
|
| 12 | 09 May 2019 |
Following the implementation of derived fields, the Exception rules have been rolled-on, and the following updates released:
Business rule QR.C18051.Instance.INITIATIVES.5 has been deleted, as 'Troops to Teachers' is no longer a valid Initiative. A revised *J data for UCAS file has been loaded into the system following an update by UCAS. This is used in various quality rules. |
| 11 | 25 April 2019 |
The following reports have been updated for 2018/19 and are now available from the data collection dashboard:
(Please note that the Graduate Outcomes report will no longer be available from the Student data collection dashboard. The functionality for reviewing the population information and returning contact details is now available via the Graduate Outcomes collection site). |
| 10 | 11 April 2019 |
Validation kit updated to match Coding manual version 1.4 schema update. Validation rule updates:
|
| 09 | 29 March 2019 |
Validation rule updates: Added:
Amended:
For full details of changes please refer to the Reason for change on individual rules. |
| 07 | 28 February 2019 |
|
| 06 | 14 February 2019 |
The HUSID Lookup Service (HLS) has been updated. The *J data for UCAS has now been been loaded into the system. This is used for a number of quality rules. |
| 04 | 10 January 2019 |
Release of updated validation kit to match the schema for Coding manual release version 1.3:
|
| 04 | 04 January 2019 |
Amended the following rule:
|
| 01 | 29 November 2018 |
ILR Output File (File for submsiion to the ESFA): Release to fix bug 67214 with the ILR file generation tool. (OTJHours and AgreeId schema fixes). Any providers that have experienced issues should ask for their submission to be reprocessed for the ILR output file fix to take effect. |
| 80 | 6 November 2018 |
Amended/Added the following rules:
|
| 78 | 5 October 2018 | Release to fix bug 65066 with the ILR file generation tool. |
| 75 | 30 August 2018 | A text change has been made to the ILR row on the dashboard to amend 'SFA' to 'ESFA'. Similarly, the ILR Generation file header has been fixed to read "ESFA/ILR/2018-19" (note that this went live on 24 August 2018). |
| 74 | 16 August 2018 |
Amended the following rules:
|
| 73 | 3 August 2018 |
The data collection system for the 2018/19 Student record is now open. The validation kit is now available. 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. This includes the rolled-on business rules from the 2017/18 record. It also includes the following changes, to validation data for creating an ILR ready file:
The data entry tool is also available. This is the program which will produce XML data in the format required for submission to HESA. The ILR file generation tool capability has been introduced in this release.The terms and conditions for using the ILR generation tool are available here: www.hesa.ac.uk/collection/c18051/apprenticeship-data-processing-terms. You are required to contact [email protected] to let us know if you would like to use the ILR generation tool. If you haven't informed us that you would like to opt-in, then the system will not allow you to send apprenticeship data and you will not be able to continue with your submission. Please note that access to the data collection system is governed by the Identity system. Users will need to ensure that they have the relevant permissions attached to their Identity system account in order to access the data collection system. |
| Month | Scheduled areas of work |
|---|---|
| April 2019 | Validation kit update to match Coding manual release 1.4 (2019-03-11) |
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.