This field contains the higher education provider's (HEP's) own campus identifiers.

All higher education providers (HEPs).

This field will collect the HEP’s own campus identifiers. HEPs may use alphanumerical codes or more descriptive names to identify each separate campus. Whichever of these is returned, HEPs must keep their use consistent across records. Lower case letters are not valid.

The criteria for assessing whether a campus identifier is appropriate are as follows:

• A separate campus identifier should be used when a merger takes place, to identify any merged HEPs as separate campuses if they otherwise fit the specified criteria.
• In the majority of cases, the campus identifier will default to the generic value 'A' indicating the entire HEP or main campus.

For providers in England:

• A separate campus identifier should be returned if 25 or more students are studying at the campus and it is at least 1km away from another location. In exceptional circumstances campuses that are over 1km apart may not need to be separately identified, if for example they are advertised as one and students frequently move between the two locations.
• Occasionally it may be appropriate to return campuses with fewer students, provided these are geographically distinct and separately marketed to students.
• In England, the Office for Students and Research England expect separate campus identifiers for any part of the HEP funded separately e.g. University of London - Institutes and activities, even where these do not meet the other criteria.

For providers in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales:

• A separate campus identifier should be used if a significant number of students, for example 25 or more, are studying at a campus that is in a different city/town. Occasionally it may be appropriate to return campuses with fewer students, provided these are geographically distinct and separately marketed to students.

Campus information is required for all separate locations based in the UK. In addition, in order to align with the Research Excellence Framework 2021, campuses based overseas are also required to be returned. The return of overseas campuses is strongly encouraged even if the HEP has no REF staff members.

There may be cases where a campus identified in the Provider Profile record is returned in the Staff record but not the Student record, e.g. research sites. It is important that campus identifiers used in either of these two records are identified first in the Provider Profile record. Please liaise with colleagues responsible for making these returns to ensure that details of all sites are returned in the Provider Profile record.