Discover Uni record 2024/25
Discover Uni record 2024/25 - Introduction
Version 1.1 Produced 2024-05-01
The Discover Uni record has been collected since 2012/13 from Higher Education Providers (HEPs) and Further Education Colleges (FECs).
Further policy information can be found on the OfS website.
Purpose of the Discover Uni record
The Discover Uni record is collected to help prospective higher education students make a decision about what and where to study. The record covers undergraduate courses that are open to entrants in the next academic year. Full details can be found in the coverage statement on the coding manual.
What data is collected?
The Discover Uni record collects data about full and part-time undergraduate courses which are open to entrants in the next academic year. This is then joined to other datasets, such as National Student Survey and Graduate Outcomes, to generate a range of course information. This is published by HESA as open data and included on the Discover Uni website. The detail of the different items collected can be found in the data items document located on the coding manual.
How is the data collected?
The Discover Uni data is collected prospectively, being submitted in May-August on courses which will be commencing in the following academic year. For example, the 2024/25 (C24061) record included courses beginning in the 2024/25 academic year. Providers submit data to HESA through the Data Collection System. FECs who previously submitted data to OfS through the Extranet are now required to submit data directly to HESA.
The Discover Uni collection allows providers to resubmit their data at any point during the collection. Providers are required to update their data submissions throughout the year if their course offering changes. Information submitted to HESA in this way will be included in weekly updates to the open data and the Discover Uni website.
Changes to Discover Uni data collection 2024
Collection name change: as notified in 2023, the name of the Unistats collection will change to ‘The Discover Uni collection’.
The name change will not affect the dataset fieldnames or schema, which we expect to remain the same. Neither will the changes affect providers’ collection and submission of their course data.
As notified in 2023, we are asking that all references to the ‘Unistats’ dataset on websites and in publications are updated to read ‘The Discover Uni dataset (formerly Unistats)’. Organisations do not need to make changes to the naming or labelling conventions used within their systems unless they choose to do so.
Need help?
Contact Liaison by email or on +44 (0)1242 388 531.