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Student Alternative 2020/21 - Not in active study

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Student Alternative 2020/21

Fields required from institutions in England

Not in active study


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valid entries
Typefield
Short nameNOTACT
Description

This field indicates whether a student suspended study during the reporting year and/or was not actively studying on this student instance for some part of the reporting year.

Applicable toEngland
Coverage

Compulsory for all instances where study is suspended and fields Instance.RSNEND and Instance.ENDDATE are not completed.

Valid entries and labels
CodeLabel
1Student has suspended studies
2DH/NHS student temporarily stepping-off Continuity Register
Notes

An entry in this field is not required if the student has completed/left the student instance (Instance.RSNEND and Instance.ENDDATE completed), i.e. Students should only be coded as InstancePeriod.NOTACT = '1' if they have suspended study during the instance, not when they have ended the course. Hence, an Instance.ENDDATE should not exist where a student has been flagged as dormant, i.e. NOTACT = 1.

Where students have not withdrawn from a course, but have completed the taught or formally structured element and are expected at a later date to undertake the assessment necessary to gain a qualification, they should in the last instance period returned be coded as InstancePeriod.NOTACT = '1' – 'Student has suspended studies'. This would be applicable in situations where, for example, a student completes 2 years of teaching on a HND course and is allowed additional time to complete their assignments. The student should be returned as InstancePeriod.NOTACT = '1' at the end of the teaching period. At this point, Instance.RSNEND and QualificationsAwarded.QUAL should not be completed, as the outcome for the student is not known and they have neither qualified nor withdrawn. Once the outcome for the student is known (in a subsequent reporting period) the student should be returned again, with Instance.RSNEND, qualifications awarded data (if applicable) and Instance.ENDDATE completed. The end date should back-dated to the point when teaching finished.

Students that are inactive for the entire reporting period do not have to be returned to HESA. If, based on internal systems, it is easier to return these students along with those that are active then providers may do so. These students will, generally, be excluded from analysis because they are not active. Where a student is inactive for the reporting year but was returned as an active, continuing student in the previous reporting year, a record must be returned to show that the student has interrupted studies.

Once an instance period has been returned with an entry in this field, further data with the same combination of UKPRN-HUSID-NUMHUS (UHN) will not be required to be included in subsequent years unless the student returns to resume the instance or a record is being returned to end the instance (by completing (Instance.RSNEND, Instance.ENDDATE and QualificationsAwarded.QUAL (where relevant)).

Code 2 DH/NHS student temporarily stepping-off Continuity Register

The reasons for stepping-on and off are many and varied. The DH core definition of such stepping-off points would be: 'a student who takes a break in study, at an agreed appropriate time, and who plans to return to join a later cohort from the one with which they originally started'.

This provides individuals with the ability to enter or leave a programme of education at a given point, providing maximum flexibility, thereby enabling an individual to consider alternative options of employment and education.

For example, a particular nursing programme allows for stepping-off points at the end of Year 1 (following successful completion of the Common Foundation Programme) and throughout the course.

Reporting students who temporarily suspend studies

The InstancePeriod.NOTACT field is used to indicate where a student temporarily suspends study on the instance. If the student suspends study during the instance period the InstancePeriod.NOTACT flag must be returned and InstancePeriod.STULOAD should be reduced to reflect the fact that the student was not active for the full duration.

If a student resumes study during the reporting year after temporarily suspending studies, a new instance period should be opened.

Where the student completes all required activity in the current reporting year but informs the provider that they will be taking a break in study in the next reporting year this can be reported in one of two ways:

  1. If it is known prior to submission to HESA that the student will not be resuming study in the next reporting year or next instance period, providers can report the InstancePeriod.NOTACT flag on the latest instance period record. This will indicate to HESA that the student is not expected in the next return.
  2. If it is not known prior to submission to HESA, in the year in which the suspension occurs the provider will need to return a full instance period record to HESA. Providers can choose either to resend the previous (last active) instance period record with InstancePeriod.NOTACT = 1 and InstancePeriod.STULOAD = 0 or they can create a new instance period reflecting the study period that the student would have followed had they not interrupted studies, again with InstancePeriod.NOTACT = 1 and InstancePeriod.STULOAD = 0. The InstancePeriod.MODE field should in both cases reflect the last active mode of study.
  3. Once the student has been reported to HESA as having suspended studies, a further record is not required until they resume on the instance.

For example a student is studying full-time on a programme. The academic year runs from early September to the end of June but at the end of March the student suspends their studies due to ill health. They intend to re-join the course in the following year:

In this scenario you would return the data as follows:

Data item Value returned Reason
InstancePeriod.STULOAD 70 The STULOAD value should be reduced to reflect the proportion of the year that the student was active
InstancePeriod.MODE 01 The mode of study remains as the last active position
InstancePeriod.NOTACT 1 This indicates that the student has suspended studies
Instance.ENDDATE Null Where it is expected that the student will resume studies leaving information should not be returned
Reporting students who sit exams or complete assignments over a number of reporting years, after the completion of formal teaching engagement

Example: Where a student completes 2 years of teaching and has an extensive period to complete assignments/sit exams e.g. over a 3 year period to achieve their qualification, the provider should not return an Instance.ENDDATE at the end of the 2 years. The student should, instead, be returned as NOTACT 01 at the end of the teaching period. The student should be returned again in the year that they gain the final qualification and end them as Instance.RSNEND 01 if they have successfully completed their course.

Quality rules
Quality rules relating to this entity are displayed here.
Reason required This field indicates whether a student suspended study during the reporting year and/or was not actively studying on this student instance for some part of the reporting year.
Part of
Field length1
Minimum occurrences0
Maximum occurrences1
Schema components
Element: NOTACT
Related fields
OwnerHESA
Version1.1
Date modified2021-01-06
Change management notesScotland removed from applicable to as only English providers are returning to C20054.

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