Student 2021/22: Support guides
This page provides an overview of the 2021/22 Student collection (C21051).
This should be used alongside the C21051 coding manual, which provides more detailed, technical information about the collection.
Need help? Contact us by email or on +44 (0)1242 388 531
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.
Data collection system: Release history and known issues
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(ID 139490) Credibility reporting. Study Years Chapter: SYR3 and SYR4. The 2020/21, 2019/20 and 2018/17 columns are not being populated. The underlying code is being amended for a scheduled, end of Sprint, release on the 05 October. |
Open | 22 Sept | |
| (ID 138752) QR.Course.REDUCEDC.9 is identifying Instance.ENDDATEs within the acceptable date range. This is being investigated. | Resolved | 07 Sept | 21 Sept |
| (ID 138702) QR.Course.AWARDBOD.10 is triggering for Nulls | Resolved | 07 Sept | 21 Sept |
| (ID 138665) QR.Student,ETHNIC.4 is triggering correctly, for students within coverage of the field, but displaying a different instance that may not be in coverage. A fix is being sought for the display. | Resolved | 07 Sept | 21 Sept |
| (ID 138573) QR.Student.ETHNIC.4 triggering incorrectly where Course.TTCID = Q | Resolved | 02 Sept | 07 Sept |
| (ID 138215) EntryProfile.PARED.12 incorrectly triggering for instances in coverage | Resolved | 31 August | 31 August |
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(ID 137865 / 137866) QR.Student.ETHNIC.19/20 are triggerig correctly where an incoming EntryProfile.DOMICILE is outside coverage, but is preventing submission of Student.ETHNIC if a previously sent instance for the student had a DOMICILE within coverage. Both QR.Student.ETHNIC.19 and 20 will be downgraded to a Warning. QR.Student.ETHNIC.21/22 will continue to trigger as Errors where all EntryProfile.DOMICILEs are outside coverage. |
Resolved | 23 August | 31 August |
| (ID 1378409) QR.Student.ETHNIC.21 is over-triggering when there is more than one Instance, and one is in coverage and one is outside. | Resolved | 22 August | 31 August |
| (ID 137524) QR.Student.LANGPREF.4 is over-triggering when there is more than one Instance, and one is in coverage and one is outside. | Resolved | 16 August | 24 August |
| (ID 137479) QR.Student.ETHNIC.22 is over-triggering when there is more than one Instance, and one is in coverage and one is outside. | Resolved | 16 August | 24 August |
| (ID 137110) QR.DeliveryOrganisationAndLocation.DELORG.6 triggering incorrectly. | Resolved | 10 August | 24 August |
| (ID 137104) QR.DeliveryOrganisationAndLocation.DELORG.5 triggering incorrectly. | Resolved | 10 August | 24 August |
| (ID 137138) QR.QualificationsOnEntry.QUALGRDE.3 incorrectly triggering for the combination QUALTYPE = GN QUALGRADE = Pass. | Resolved | 10 August | 24 August |
| (ID 137011) QR.Course.AWARDBOD.10 - incorrectly triggering where a UKPRN has been returned in addition to codes 3/4. | Resolved | 10 August | 24 August |
| (ID 137088) QR.EntryProfile.PARED.12 is incorrectly triggering where data is returned within coverage of the field. | Resolved | 09 August | 24 August |
| (ID 137090) QR.EntryProfile.CRDPTSTU.8 - the values for 'this year' and 'last year' are transposed. | Resolved | 09 August | 24 August |
| (ID 136372) QR.Student.TTPCODE.14 Updated to check previos years' EntryProfiles | Resolved | 21 July | 11 August |
| (ID 136752) QR.Instance.FEEELIG.10 should not be triggering for continuing students (as per the HESES guidance). Confirmation received from the OfS that QR.Instance.FEEELIG.10 and .8 are no longer required to be applied to HE providers in England and will be swiched on request. The rules will be amended to follow suit. Confirmation is also being sought from the SFC if the same applies to providers in Scotland. | Resolved | 29 July | 09 August |
| (ID 136661) QR.Student.ETHNIC.22 - is over-triggering. A fix is being applied for release on 10th August. CVl | Resolved | 28 July | 09 August |
| (ID 135507) QR.EntryProfile.PARED.6 - amendment to fields to display. HUSID and OWNSTU are being added to the rules report for this rule. This amendment will be released on 27th July. | Resolved | 14 July | 27 July |
| (ID 135422, 135518) QR.EntryProfile.PARED.12 and EntryProfile.CARELEAVER.5 appear to be over-triggering. These are being investigated. | Resolved | 05 July | 14 July |
| (ID 135525, 135531) QR.EntryProfile.PARED.9, EntryProfile.CARELEAVER.1. These two EntryProfile coverage errors are currently triggering for students with previous entry profiles. They are being amended to trigger only for students with incoming entry profiles. | Resolved | 05 July | 14 July |
| (ID 133140) QR.Student.DISABLE.6 (Student.DISABLE must not exist where any Instance.REDUCEDI not 00 or 01). Rule is triggering where any Instance.REDUCEDI not 00 or 01. This is preventing the return of Student.DISABLE if more than one Instance is associated with the student and one instance is in coverage. A ticket has been raised to change the rule to 'Student.DISABLE must not exist where all Instance.REDUCEDI not 00 or 01', so that students with an Instance in coverage can return DISABLE as per the field's coverage statement. | Resolved | 12 May | 18 May |
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(ID 133157) In line with QR.Student.DISABLE.6 (above) the following introduced reverse coverage rules will be re-assessed for a change to the Instance.REDUCEDI clause to 'all Instance.REDUCEDI not in...' QR.Student.ETHNIC.20 and 19; QR.Student.SEXORT.6; QR.Student.RELBLF.13; QR.Student.GENDERID.5. |
Resolved | 12 May | 30 June |
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(ID 133196) QR.Instance.ENDDATE.19 (For providers in England, Wales or Northern Ireland where the Instance.ENDDATE is a date that is before the previous reporting year (less than 01-08-Y1(-1)) and the Instance.STULOAD was greater than 0 in the previous reporting year. The end date must also be a date in the previous reporting year) may be triggering incorrectly where a STULOAD and ENDDATE was not provided for a dormant student in the previous reporting period. A ticket has been raised to investigate. |
Resolved | 12 May | 01 June |
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(ID 132771) QR.Student.SEXORT.6 (Student.SEXORT must not exist for students at providers in England where Instance.REDUCEDI = 08), although triggering as it is intended, has been incorrectly published as (Student.SEXORT must not exist for students at providers in England except where Instance.REDUCEDI = 08). The description will be corrected. |
Resolved | 29 Apr | 04 May |
| (ID 132290) QR.Instance.INITIATIVES.43 (For providers in Wales, Instance.INITIATIVES must be coded K, N, Q, Z or 11) does not appear to be triggering correctly. This is being investigated. | Resolved |
27 Apr |
04 May |
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(ID 132546) QR.Student.ETHNIC.20 (For providers in England, Student.ETHNIC must not exist where (EntryProfile.DOMICILE exists and is not in ((XF, XG, XH, XI, XK, XL, GG, JE, IM) and Course.TTCID does not equal 1)) or (Instance.REDUCEDI does not equal 00, 01, or 08) is not triggering correctly. It is not excluding NULL Domicles. This is being investigated. The equivalent rule for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, QR.Student.ETHNIC.19, is also being investigated. |
Resolved | 27 Apr | 04 May |
| The Schema datatype YEARTYPE requires the maximum value to be updated to 2022 from 2021. This is currently affecting YRLLINST in the validation kit, if 2022 is submitted. The schema will be updated in the version 1.6 coding manual release. | Resolved | 09 Mar | 21 Mar |
| Release ID | Release date | Release summary |
|---|---|---|
| 102 | 20 October 2022 |
The following quality rules have been amended:
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| 100 | 21 September 2022 |
The following quality rules have been amended:
|
| 99 | 07 September 2022 |
The Unistats report is now available from the Data Collection dashboard. The following quality rules have been amended:
|
| 99a | 31 August 2022 |
The "commit" feature is now available. All known issues with quality rules have been addressed - please refer to the Known Issues page for details. |
| 98 | 24 August 2022 |
The National Student Survey (NSS) report is now available via the Data Collection dashboard. The following quality rules have been added, amended or deleted: Added:
Amended:
Deleted:
|
| 97 | 09 August 2022 |
The following quality rules have been added or amended: Added:
Amended:
Deleted:
|
| 96 | 28 July 2022 |
The following quality rules have been added or amended: Added:
Amended:
IRIS reporting process has been switched on for providers in Wales (although the HEFCW are currently sending back an empty .zip file until early August). |
| 95 | 14 July 2022 |
The following reports are now available from the Data Collection dashboard, and will be visible following a new submission:
The validation kit has been updated to include the Instance.NHSEMP valid entry changes from Coding manual version 1.8. The following quality rules have been added or amended: Added:
Amended:
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| .94 | 30 June 2022 |
The PGR transfers Out report is now available on the Data collection dashboard. (The 'In' report will only be visible after Commit functionality is available in August and the collaborating provider has Committed their data). A number of Static data tables have been updated and released to enable and allow subsequent updates to exception rules:
The following quality rules have been added or amended: Added:
Amended:
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| 93 | 16 June 2022 |
A number of Static data tables have been updated and released to enable and allow subsequent updates to exception rules:
The Frequency Counts report (identifying the occurrences of valid entries) is now available from the Data Collection Dashboard and will appear when a new file is submitted. The Data Supply report (identifying raw data and derived fields) is now available from the Data Collection Dashboard and will appear when a new file is submitted. The following quality rules have been added or amended: Added:
Amended:
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| 92 | 01 June 2022 |
The following quality rules have been deleted, added or amended: Added:
Amended:
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| 91 | 18 May 2022 |
The following quality rules have been deleted, added or amended: Deleted:
Added: Instance.FEEREGIME.22 (Scotland only)
Amended:
|
| 90 | 04 May 2022 |
The Exception rules, using rolled-on static data from C20051 have been enabled, following a roll-on of last year's derived fields. The static data that underpin these rules will be updated in future sprints as it is received from external organisations. Notifications will be issued when each static data source has been updated using latest available data. (The *J data for UCAS fields has been loaded into the system for C21051). The Continuity process has been added to the process chain, and as a result the Continuity stage rules have been rolled-on and released. and the Continuity (expected instances population) report is now available. The XTPOINTs library has been updated and released based upon the values in the UCAS tariff point aggregation field XTPOINTS_1.21.1.(https://www.hesa.ac.uk/collection/c21051/derived/xtpoints). The Entry Profile report, enabling providers to review missing entry profile data, has been updated and is available via the data collection system. |
| 89 | 21 Apr 2022 |
The following quality rules have been amended or added: Amended:
Added:
The following rules have been added to prevent the return of personal data outside of the stated field coverage:
|
| 88 | 05 Apr 2022 |
The following quality rules have been amended or deleted: Amended:
Deleted:
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| 87 | 24 Mar 2022 | The validation kit has been updated to match the QualificationsOnEntry.QULAGRADE and QULATYPE additions released in Coding manual version 1.5 (22/03/2022). |
| 86 | 09 Mar 2022 |
The following quality rules have been added, amended or deleted: Added:
Amended:
Deleted:
|
| 85 | 24 Feb 2022 |
The Data Collection system for C21051 has been enabled with the 'Send data' functionality to validate against this year's schema and the rolled-on business rules, based on their final position of 2020/21 (C20051). The validation kit is available with a roll-on of the 2020/21 business rules. Rules will be updated for C21051 through future iterative releases. 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. 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. The updated HUSID Lookup Service is available from the drop down at the top of the Data Collection System page, containing students from the 202021 collection. Please see the HUSID lookup support page for further information at https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/tools-and-downloads/husid. The Data Entry Tool is live. This is the program which will produce XML data in the format required for submission to HESA. The link will be added to the next release of the coding manual, but can be downloaded here: https://cdn.hesa.ac.uk/downloads/C21051/C21051XmlDataEntryTool.msi. Following changes to the C21051 schema, or coverage changes in the coding manual, the following quality rules have been deleted:
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A high-level summary of the C21051 major external component releases is highlighted below.
This is a guide to the proposed sequence, and releases may occur before, or after, the month indicated dependent on internal and external factors.
January
- HUSID lookup service
February
- Data entry tool
- Validation kit based on current year schema, with business rules rolled-on from last year
- Roll-on of collection and opening of the Data Collection System with rules and rule compare functionality
March
- Addition new constituent HE providers to Data Collection System drop-down
- First release of business rule updates to match coding manual schema and coverage updates
- * J for UCAS loaded into the system for validation
April
- Business rules to match coding manual schema and coverage updates
- XTPOINTs library updated to validate against QualificationOnEntry.QUALTYPES
- Qualifications on Entry and Continuity Register update
- Continuity stage rules roll-on
- Roll-on of exception rules (that are not depended upon derived fields)
- Entry Profile report
May
- Business rules to match coding manual schema and coverage updates
- Derived field implementation
- Further release of exception rules following derived field development
June
- Quality rule updates
- Exception rule updates using available external static data
- Frequency Counts report [Moved from May to June]
- Data Supply report
- Expected Instances population report
- PGR transfers Out report
- Credibility reports roll-on
July
- IRIS reports
- DfE webservice
- Cost Centre, Campus, Collaborative Franchise, Institutional information reports
- Credibility reports updates
- Revision to XTPOINTs appendix (if required)
August
- NSS (draft) report
- Commit functionality and Sign-off form available
- PGR transfers In report (when Commit is available)
September
- Unistats report
- Credibility checking
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.