Collection specification and technical content
The Student - Data Futures collection specification is a product of extensive work with Statutory Customers, HE Providers and sector bodies. Through this collaborative development the collection specification has been refined, accommodating the needs of Statutory Customers and executed in a way as to minimise the resulting impact upon providers.
As with any working document a collection specification needs to flex and adapt to the future requirements of a dynamic policy environment. This will mean changes, but the collection specification for Data Futures has been structured in such as way to ensure that these changes are not fundamental. An iterative schedule of releases will allow for modifications to be made, at a similar frequency to those of an established collection specification (for example the Staff record).
Areas of development are listed in the specification: ongoing development section.
In addition to feeding back through consultations on the Data specification overview page, you can provide feedback to our Liaison team as we will continually refine the data specification based on your feedback.
Collection specification: activity and information
| Description | Summary of requirement | Status | Status updates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Off Venue Activity HOSTID | There is an error in the schema for the OffVenueActivity.HOSTID field. It is currently down as a mandatory field, but it is only required for OffVenueActivity.ACTTYPEID codes 01 and 04. This will be amended in a future release. | Open | 9/6/21: bug reported |
| PARED - valid entry | The valid entry 7 "No response given" was not copied across from the Student / Student Alternative records, into the EntryProfile.PARED equivalent field in Data Futures. This had been included for applicants who fail to answer the question through the UCAS Apply questionnaire. We are considering whether this code should be included explicitly in Data Futures, or whether it should be mapped to code 99 "Not available". | Open | 9/6/21: issue identified |
| QUALYEAR field does exist | The EntryQualificationReward.QUALYEAR field has been missed off the physical data model jpg, but does appear on the data dictionary page. This field does exist and the physical data model will be amended to match in a future release. | Open | 4/6/21: bug reported |
| 2020/21 changes not yet reflected |
Some of the coding frames in Data Futures have not been kept up to date with Student / Student Alternative releases - the example here is the EntryQualificationSubject.SUBJECTID field. UCAS have made many amendments to the 2020/21 specification that have not yet been copied across to Data Futures. Please be aware that anything relating to changes made in 2020/21 coding manuals will at some point be reflected in the data dictionary in Data Futures, we just haven't done the reconcilliation exercise as yet and we will aim to do this before Beta. |
Open | 28/5/21: raising for awareness, expected to be address by Beta |
| General typos | Minor typos have been found in the XSD and on the webpages. All that have been found will be fixed in the next release. | Open | 28/5/21: raising for awareness |
| PARED - valid entries |
The valid entries in the EntryProfile.PARED field are the wrong way around in the data dictionary - codes 99 and 98 will be swapped over in the next release. |
Open | 28/5/21: raising for awareness |
| ACCESSPRG - valid entry | A mysterious code 03 called "New Label" has crept into the EntryProfile.ACCESSPRG field in the data dictionary. This is a mistake and will be removed in a future release. | Open | 28/5/21: raising for awareness |
| XSD - composite keys | There are areas in the data model where we have used composite keys to enforce uniqueness, but this is not working as expected (when we added in the key restrictions in a recent release, we haven't got the foreign key references working correctly). This is causing "unique contraint" errors to be flagged when submitting files through the system, when they shouldn't be. | Open |
18/2/21: This will be fixed before the start of Alpha |
| Backward mapping - missing rows | There are two missing rows from the backward mapping document: APELCRD and OWNVENUEID (both new fields that haven't been included in the mapping document). This will be added in a future release. | Resolved |
3/3/21: fixed in the release today 9/2/21: will be fixed in the next release |
| Typo in the data label | There is a typo in the label for code 02 in the ModuleDeliveryRole.FRANIND field. | Resolved |
3/3/21: fixed in the release today 28/1/21: minor typo, will be fixed in the next release |
| XSD doesn't allow UKPRNs | There are a few errors in the XSDs being produced since version 1.0.0 on 31 March - any field which allows a UKPRN to be submitted as well as others codes (such as ModuleDeliveryRole.HESAID and OffVenueActivity.HOSTID) do not currently support unions and so the UKPRNs cannot be submitted in the schema. The generic codes can be submitted, but nothing else. | Resolved |
3/3/21: fixed in the release today 21/9/20: XSD generation currently being worked on by the development team. |
| XSD has 'action' references | There are a few errors in the XSDs being produced since version 1.0.0 on 31 March - the actions contained within this are no longer relevant in a discrete collection. These will be removed in a future release. | Resolved |
3/3/21: fixed in the release today 10/9/20: XSD generation currently being worked on by development team. |
| XSD maximum occurences | There is an error in the XSD produced in version 1.4.0 on 26 August - the maximum occurences within many entities is now displaying as unbounded. This should be showing the same values as appeared in the version 1.3.0 release. | Resolved |
3/3/21: fixed in the release today 10/9/20: Awaiting fix to XSD. |
We are reviewing the data model and associated specification items. We have arranged available items according to status:
- Available for consultation: we will announce when these are available and update this page.
- Under consideration: items may rely on another item being consulted or reviewed
- Not under consultation: may be required for a discrete collection, or subject to statutory requirements
The current version of the Data Futures coding manual provides access to:
- Overview of the record
- Collection specification
- Collection specification guidance