The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was declared by the World Health Organisation in March 2020, just over half way through the 2019/20 academic year. An insight brief has been published that analyses the impact of the pandemic on student data and trends across years of enrolments and qualifications across various characteristics. There are two known areas in which the pandemic has had some impact:
There is evidence to suggest that among a few providers, administrative hold-ups related to the pandemic resulted in significant numbers of qualifications awarded in 2019/20 not being reported. The impact of this under-reporting is believed to explain some of the 3% decrease in the number of qualifications achieved in 2019/20 compared with 2018/19, and the impact is most noticeable on the number of part-time qualifications awarded. Qualifications that were not reported in the 2019/20 academic year have carried over to 2020/21 and contributed to the 9% increase in the number of qualifications awarded in 2020/21.
In relation to classifications of first degrees and other awards, many providers issued public statements that a 'no detriment' approach would be adopted when it came to assessment in 2019/20. This typically ensured that students would be awarded a final grade no lower than the most recent provider assessment of their attainment.
The 2019/20 and 2020/21 data was collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Exceptional guidance was issued to HE providers regarding a number of data fields within the collections to clarify HESA's expectations about how these fields should be treated in light of the pandemic.
Qualification numbers and classifications achieved
Table 18 - HE qualifiers by level of qualification obtained, country of HE provider and sex
The 2019/20 academic year saw the implementation of Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) and the Common Aggregation Hierarchy (CAH). The HECoS classification replaces JACS, used in previous years, with CAH serving as a means to connect HECoS and JACS. For more information, refer to HESA's webpage on HECoS and CAH. This release uses CAH v1.3.4. HESA have decided not to utilise CAH v1.3.4 for time series analysis following investigations of the quality characteristics of CAH. More information can be found in the notes to our Higher Education Student Statistics: UK, 2021/22 statistical bulletin.
Table 50 - HE qualifiers by subject of study and level of qualification obtained
The table below gives a breakdown of qualifiers by subject at each HE provider. If you select either the science or non-science CAH level 3 subject buttons, a drop-down menu will appear allowing you to show detailed CAH level 3 subject breakdowns within each CAH level 1 subject. For example, select Design, and creative and performing arts to see the separate figures for Art, Music, Drama, etc.
Table 51 - HE qualifiers by HE provider and subject of study
Academic years 2019/20 to 2021/22
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Table 51 - HE qualifiers by HE provider and subject of study
Academic years 2019/20 to 2021/22
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Open data licence: CC-BY-4.0