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Student Alternative 2018/19 - Religion or belief

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Student Alternative 2018/19

Fields required from institutions in England

Religion or belief


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valid entries
Typefield
Short nameRELBLF
Description

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

Applicable toEngland Scotland
Coverage

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

Valid entries and labels
CodeLabel
01No religion
02Buddhist
03Christian
04Christian - Church of Scotland
05Christian - Roman Catholic
09Christian - Other denomination
10Hindu
11Jewish
12Muslim
13Sikh
14Spiritual
80Any other religion or belief
98Information refused
99Not known
Notes

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

Providers are expected to reconfirm this information with the student, on at least an annual basis.

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.

Providers are expected to ask this question of new entrants and to make little use of code 99 ‘Not known’. However, in instances where a student does not answer the question then code 99 should be returned.

Code 98 ‘Information refused’ should only be used for explicit refusals

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

HESA coding frame for providers in: E S W NI
01 No religion Y Y Y Y
02 Buddhist Y Y Y Y
03 Christian Y Y
04 Christian - Church of Scotland Y
05 Christian - Roman Catholic Y Y
06 Christian - Presbyterian Church in Ireland Y
07 Christian - Church of Ireland Y
08 Christian - Methodist Church in Ireland Y
09 Christian - Other denomination Y Y
10 Hindu Y Y Y Y
11 Jewish Y Y Y Y
12 Muslim Y Y Y Y
13 Sikh Y Y Y Y
14 Spiritual Y Y Y Y
80 Any other religion or belief Y Y Y Y
98 Prefer not to say/Information refused Y Y Y Y
99 Not known Y Y Y Y

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].

Quality rules
Quality rules relating to this entity are displayed here.
Part of
Field length2
Minimum occurrences0
Maximum occurrences1
Schema components
Element: RELBLF
OwnerEquality Challenge Unit (ECU)
Version1.2
Date modified2019-08-30
Change management notesGuidance has been updated to clarify the use of codes 98 and 99.

Contact Liaison by email or on +44 (0)1242 388 531.