AP Student record 2017/18 (C17054): Notification of Changes
The following information outlines the changes to the AP student record that will be implemented for 2017/18. The full technical specification will be published in September 2017.
Change to the data collection schedule
The data collection schedule for C17054 will differ to previous years. All deadlines, from submitting complete data to the final sign-off for data submissions, will occur one week earlier.
Change to the coverage statement
Extension to coverage to include all registered students studying courses leading to a higher education qualification or credit.
From C17054 the AP Student Record will include all registered students studying courses leading to a qualification or credit, with a small number of exceptions, which will be outlined in the coverage statement. Previously, Alternative providers returned students studying undergraduate, taught Masters and postgraduate ITT courses. The extension to coverage from C17054 means that for the first time, students studying undergraduate non-designated courses lasting less than one year or research-based postgraduate qualifications or credits will need to be returned.
The extension of coverage was initially proposed by the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and HEFCE in April 2016. HESA advised providers of this proposal at the time and invited feedback. The feedback that we received indicated that providers felt they would be ready to provide this additional information for the 2017-18 return. The extension of coverage is subsequently being introduced for the 2017-18 return.
The valid entries and coverage statements of existing fields will be updated to reflect the increase to coverage of the overall record. Further details of these changes to the specification are published below.
Change to coverage statement for Major Source of tuition fees (Instanceperiod.MSTUFEE)
The coverage statement for Major Source of tuition fees is being extended, so that MSTUFEE is now required to be returned for all students, not just those students on designated courses.
Changes to the coverage statements to cover M73 – Postgraduate Diploma in Education.
A new code in Course.COURSEAIM and QualificationsAwarded.QUAL was added to the 2016/17 AP Student collection: M73 - Postgraduate Diploma in Education. The coverage of a number of fields will therefore be extended to include M73 for C17054:
- Gross Fee (Instance.GROSSFEE)
- Location identifier (InstancePeriod.LOCATION)
- Net fee (Instance.NETFEE)
Changes to the coverage statement for regulatory body (Course.REGBODY)
To align the AP Student Record with the Student Record, and include students aiming for the same health and social care qualifications, the coverage for the regulatory body now extends to all courses where Course.COURSEAIM = M16, M26, M76, M86, H16, H62, H76, I16, I76, J26, J76 and Course.REDUCEDC = 00 or 01.
To make the return of Religion or Belief (StudentEquality.RELBLF) compulsory for all providers
Statutory Customers have advised that they require the return of this information to be made compulsory. This is to improve the completeness of data so that it is fit for purpose for equalities monitoring at the national level, and for addressing relevant policy questions. It will also help to understand how alternative finance packages impact participation and take up of student support. It will be made clear that it is within a student’s rights to refuse to provide the data.
Code 99 – Not known will be added for providers to use for those students who entered prior to 2017/2018 to avoid resurveying continuing students. However, where continuing students have provided this information, the data should be returned instead of code 99 – Not known. The intention will be to remove code 99 – Not known in the future.
New valid entries
Addition of new valid entries to Course.COURSEAIM
Due to extension of coverage to C17054 to include all postgraduate students, as well students studying for credit only, new valid entries are required in COURSEAIM to capture these students. The following codes will therefore be added:
D00 - Doctorate degree that meets the criteria for a research-based higher degree
D90 - Provider credit at level D that can count towards a research-based higher degree
L00 - Masters degree that meets the criteria for a research-based higher degree
L80 - Other postgraduate qualification at level L that meets the criteria for a research-based higher degree
L90 - Provider credit at level L that can count towards a research-based higher degree
L91 - Visiting research students at levels D or L, with formal or informal credit
L99 - Research-based higher degree where the student may ultimately study at levels D or L
The coverage for the regulatory body now extends to all courses where Course.COURSEAIM = M16, M26, M76, M86, H16, H62, H76, I16, I76, J26, J76. New valid entries are therefore required in COURSEAIM:
M76 - Post-registration health and social care qualification at level M
M86 - Taught qualification at level M leading towards obtaining eligibility to register to practice with a health or social care or veterinary statutory regulatory body
New field
Addition of field - Intended level of MPhil/PhD studies – Instance.INTENTLEV
The addition of valid entry L99 to the COURSEAIM field, means that the Intended level of MPhil/PhD studies (Instance.INTENTLEV) field needs to be added to C17054, in order to capture further information on this valid entry.
Items to be removed
Removal of code 04 and 06 in Qualification Class (QualificationsAwarded.CLASS)
Code 04 - Undivided Second Class Honours and code 06 - Fourth Class Honours will be removed from QualificationsAwarded.CLASS in line with their removal from the Student Record. This is because there is no longer a requirement from providers to code this information.
Removal of Instanceperiod.SSELIG
The return of this field was made optional for the C16054 AP Student Return. The field will be removed from C17054 as the information it provides can be derived from other fields in the AP Student return.
Removal of code 07 – Fee waiver under government unemployed students scheme - from MSTUFEE
Code 07 - Fee waiver under government unemployed students scheme captures a scheme which is no longer running. Code 07 will therefore be removed from C17054.
Supplementary Changes - September 2017
New valid entries
Addition of new valid entries to Course.COURSEAIM
Some further valid entries have been added: D90, E00, E40, E43, E90, M40, M41, M42, M43, M44, M45, M50, M70, M72, M78, M79, M80, M88, M90, M91, M99, H12, I12, I73. Descripitions of these codes can be found in the Coding Manual under Course Aims in Data Items.
Addition of new valid entries to QualificationsAwarded.QUAL
Due to the addtion of new codes to Course.COURSEAIM, the following codes have also been added to QualificationsAwarded.QUAL: D00, D90, E00, E40, E43, E90, L00, L80, L90, L91, M40, M41, M42, M43, M44, M45, M50, M70, M72, M76, M78, M79, M80, M86, M88, M90, M91, H12, I12, I73. Descripitions of these codes can be found in the Coding Manual under Qualifications Awarded in Data items.