Full-time equivalent (FTE)

In 2014/15 The University of Southampton over-reported their atypical staff FTE by approximately 30 and fixed term teaching staff FTE by approximately 10.

In 2015/16, The University of South Wales conducted a data validation exercise following the introduction of a new HR/Payroll system. This resulted in changes in the method of calculating FTE/FPE, to better align with HESA reporting requirements.

The FTEs in Loughborough University return have been overstated for 2008/09. The issue relates to students on non-standard years (i.e. where the year of instance is not completed in one HESA reporting year). All students reported as being active in 2008/09 have been recorded as studying with an FTE of 1, rather than split according to the actual load undertaken in the reporting year. In the main this has over-reported students on full-time PGT programmes.

In 2013/14, the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne has seen an increase of 738 FTE to cost centre Economics & econometrics, from 16 in 2012/13 to 754 in 2013/14.  This was due to the majority of FTE for this cost centre being returned under Business & management studies in 2012/13 in error, which has now been corrected for 2013/14.

The University of the Highlands and Islands is a partnership of 13 independent colleges and research institutions (referred to as ‘academic partners’) and as such the majority of the academic and support staff are employed by the university’s academic partners. Only staff directly employed by the university are therefore included in the Staff return, which hence excludes the majority of academic and support staff and, as a consequence, will affect any calculations of staff volumes, FTE per cost centre and student to staff ratios.

Relevant staff FTEs which should attribute and align against student FTEs for cost centre 129 (Economics & Econometrics), are allocated within those FTE figures provided in cost centre 133 (Business & Management Studies) for Cardiff University.

Relevant staff FTEs which should attribute and align against student FTEs for cost centre 135 (Education), are allocated within those FTE figures provided in cost centres 131 (Social work and Social Policy) and 132 (Sociology) for Cardiff University.

The Open University has noted that the decrease in total FTE for academic staff on standard contracts from 2010/11 is due, in large part, to a change in the method used to calculate the FTE for Associate Lecturers, which is more finely grained and gives a more accurate representation of FTE for this group of staff.

In 2015/16, Kingston University under-reported the FTE values for academic teaching only staff by approximately 80.

The University of St Andrews mis-reported 240.0 FTEs relating to postgraduate research writing-up students. These students were each returned with an FTE of 1.0 instead of 0.1. The correct figure for FTE of postgraduate students at St Andrews is 1932.4 instead of 2147.5.

The University of Glamorgan has identified an error in the FTE for some of their further education students. These students are all studying at the Merthyr Tydfil FE college which is part of the University of Glamorgan group. There are 781 full time students and 2,778 part time students, with a corresponding FTE submitted to HESA of 3,890.84 for FT and 604.99 for PT.

The University of Glasgow mis-reported the FTE of some postgraduate research students for 2011/12. 720 students (646.6 FTEs) were incorrectly reported with an FTE of 1.0 where they should have been returned as 0.1.