Student Alternative 2021/22: Support guides

HESA collects data across a number of streams. These streams focus on different aspects of higher education. The Student Alternative stream collects data about students studying at a subset of higher education providers. Historically, this collected data about students studying at private higher education providers whose students could access student loans. This now includes some higher education providers who are registered with the OfS and are not required to submit the full HESA Student return as well as providers on limited designation or teach out. 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 the government and the relevant funding council 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. 

Contact Liaison by email or on +44 (0)1242 388531 

Find out more about Liaison

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.

Join the HESA-AP student JISCmail list

If you encounter any problems, contact Liaison

Dates for deadlines

The data collection deadlines for the Student Alternative return have being moved earlier to bring them into line with the Student return, to ensure that all providers are being treated consistently. In order to assist with this change, we have been phasing the adjustments to the deadlines over the C19054, C20054 and C21054 collections. The deadlines for 2021/22 can be seen in the table below.

A high-level summary of the C21054 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

March

• Validation kit based on current year schema, with business rules rolled-on from last year
• Opening of the Data Collection System with rules and rule compare functionality
• Addition new constituent HE providers to Data Collection System drop-down
• First release of business rules to match coding manual schema and coverage updates
• * J for UCAS loaded into the system for validation

April

• No releases

May 

• First load of the OfS designation file (when available from OfS) / Designation report [Moved from April to May]
• XTPOINTs library updated to validate data against QualificationOnEntry.QUALTYPES [Moved from April to May]
• Roll-on of exception rules (that are not dependent upon derived fields) [Moved from April to May]
• Qualifications on Entry and Continuity Register update [Moved from April to May] 
• Continuity stage rule releases [Moved from April to May]
• Entry Profile report
• Derived field implementation  
• Release of business rules to match coding manual schema and coverage updates [Moved from April to May]
• Expected Instances population report 

June 

• Frequency Counts report [Moved from May to June]
• Further release of business and exception rule updates
• Exception rule updates using available external static data 
• Data Supply 
• Credibility reports roll-on 

July  

• IRIS reports  
• Credibility reports updates  
• Revisions to XTPOINTs appendix (if required) 

August 

• NSS (draft) report 
• Commit functionality and Sign-off form available 

September

• Unistats report
• Credibility checking

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.

Access the Issue Management System data quality database

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.