Data intelligence

We are investigating potential quality issues with 0068 De Montfort University’s 2018/19 data. This note will be updated with more information as it is received.

In 2017/18 Middlesex University incorrectly reported both (FNRIPCO) Non-residential insurance premiums and contributions & (FRIPCO) Residential insurance premiums and contributions. The correct values should be £156,914.62 and £0.00 respectively giving a total of £156,914.62 for (FIPCOT) Total insurance premiums and contributions.

In 2015/16, the University of the West of England, Bristol incorrectly reported their fixed assets as intangible assets. This has been corrected in the restated figures captured within the 2016/17 submission. This has had an impact on the sector figures for intangible assets and has resulted in a large percentage change between the years.

2015/16 return (£ thousands)
Fixed assets - 0
Intangible assets - 582,474

Restated 2016/17 return (£ thousands)
Fixed assets - 582474
Intangible assets - 0

In 2013/14, Heriot Watt University incorrectly reported their 2012/13 restated figures within the HEBCI data. This effected the intellectual property income (Table 4) 3aii Non-software licences income - Other (non SME) commercial businesses and 3bi Software licences income - SMEs. These should have been reported as £137K and £24K respectively.

In 2020/21, The University of Westminster incorrectly reported the number of non-commercial organisations for software only licences in Table 4b as 241. The correct value is 0.

From 2017/18 The University of Oxford's Intellectual Property income figures include qualifying income from Oxford University Press and subsidiaries, and the University's wholly owned subsidiary, Oxford Limited.

Cardiff University misreported Income from intellectual property rights (£1,594K) and Other operating income (£4,360K) within Finance Statistics Return Table 6b. These figures should read £1,446K and £4,508k respectively.

Ulster University’s Spin-offs with some HEP ownership - Estimated current employment of all active firms (FTE), increased from 791 in 2017/18 to 36,189 in 2018/19.  This increase was due to increased funding available for academic spin outs and graduate startups, with mergers and acquisitions within the provider’s portfolio also increasing their employment figures.

In 2022/23, the BSL field has been introduced for reporting by providers in Scotland. This marks the first instance of some HE providers submitting this specific information. Survey completion and information returns have varied among staff, resulting in a notable percentage of data being reported as 'Not available.' Therefore, we advise caution when interpreting the BSL field for Scottish providers.

In 2022/23, there were decreases in the values reported by The University of Central Lancashire for the number of licences granted across various fields. The high figures observed in 2021/22 originated from an internal program that generated sales through the licencing and sale of various books. Some licences were produced by the provider licencing the books to other publishing houses. Since then, guidance on this field has been updated, resulting in the number of licences in 2022/23 dropping back to the levels observed before 2021/22.

The low participation measure used in Tables T1, T2 and T3b is based on a UK-wide classification of areas into participation bands. From 2011/12 it uses the POLAR3 methodology which is based on a similar method to POLAR2 but uses more up to date information. As these two methods are not strictly comparable, the 2009/10 to 2013/14 indicators have been produced using both POLAR2 and POLAR3 to provide time series information. The POLAR2 data was no longer published as part of the UK Performance Indicators from 2014/15. The POLAR3 data was updated in July 2015 and this updated version was used in the creation of the Performance Indicators from 2014/15. The updated version includes new postcodes which have been added in the UK in recent times. More information on the POLAR methodologies can be found in the definitions document.

The relatively high (in UK terms) participation rate in Scotland coupled with the very high proportion of HE that occurs in FE colleges means that the figures for Scottish HE providers could, when viewed in isolation, misrepresent their contribution to widening participation. Therefore, low participation data has not been produced for HE providers in Scotland from 2007/08 (applicable to main tables T1, T2, T3b and supplementary tables SP3, SP6, SP7) and only for supplementary table SP1, for Scottish-domiciled students.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) produce their own indicators relating to young full-time Scottish domiciled undergraduate entrants, showing proportions from the most deprived datazones and also from social classes NS-SEC 4-7. These measures are produced and published independently of ‘Performance Indicators in HE in the UK’. The Performance Indicators Steering Group bears no responsibility for the SFC measures but has recognised that they may provide some contextual information for interested readers. The measures are available from the SFC website.

Prior to 2005/06 (T1a only) and 2006/07 (T1b-T1c), the low participation indicator was based on Super Profiles low participation, more details on the change in methodology between Super Profiles and POLAR can be found in changes to the postcode indicator.

Many entrants to University College Birmingham (UCB) will have previously completed vocational learning programmes which do not carry any UCAS points. It would therefore be inaccurate to use mean tariff point score data for UCB in any calculation or to make reference to them in any authoritative way.

In 2013/14, Teesside University had a significant reduction in the numbers of students studying within the subject group Subjects allied to medicine: from 6,530 in 2012/13 to 5,270 in 2013/14. This was partly due to the following courses no longer running;

• BSc (Hons) Paramedic Science (Top-up)
• Diploma in Nursing Studies
• BSc (Hons) Practice Innovation (Top-up)
• Foundation Degree Health & Social Care Practice

In addition, following the change in fee regime, the University has continued to see a decline in enrolments on part-time, short awards in health-related subjects

The School of Pharmacy merged with University College London in January 2012 but have provided separate HESA returns for the 2011/12 academic year. However, within their Finance Statistics return (FSR) they have only provided a partial return for the period 1 August 2011 to 31 December 2011. The FSR for The School of Pharmacy from 1 January 2012 to 31 July 2012 has been included in the University College London FSR. This should be taken into account when analysing either The School of Pharmacy or University College London 2011/12 FSR data.

The University of Glamorgan merged with the University of Wales, Newport on the 11th April 2013 to become the University of South Wales. However, the data which has been requested relates to the 2011/12 academic session and therefore relates to the two former universities. The University of South Wales therefore request that when published it refers to the former institutions and not merged into a single entity under the USW name.

Lamda Limited and Royal Academy of Dramatic Art were affiliates of The Conservatoire of Dance and Drama up until 31/07/19. Therefore the 2018/19 and restated 2017/18 data returned by The Conservatoire of Dance and Drama in the OfS annual financial return 2019 includes the two providers. Lamda Limited and Royal Academy of Dramatic Art became independent providers on 01/08/19 and were required by OfS to submit data to the OfS annual financial return 2019. Some figures (for 2017/18 and 2018/19) will therefore be double counted between the three providers’ returns.

During the 2019/20 academic year ACM Guildford Limited received assets and liabilities from The Academy of Contemporary Music Limited. This transfer was completed on 1 March 2019. The return therefore covers a six month period in the 2019/20 academic year from 1 March 2019 to a financial year ending 31 August 2019.

The University of the West of Scotland are missing from the 2022/23 academic year as their data was not finalised in time for publication. Data for this provider will be included in a future update to the HE-BCI open data.

A notable change from the 2014/15 UK Performance Indicators is the allocation of The Open University (OU) students to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Previously all OU enrolments and qualifications were counted within England, where the OU has its administrative centre. From this release onwards enrolments and qualifications registered at one of the OU’s national centres in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will contribute to the totals of those countries where statistics are shown by country of HE provider.

For tables which include part-time students, a total row has been provided for the OU which has been produced consistently with previous published versions. Total rows for the OU will be produced for 3 years to enable the continuation of time series. From the 2019 publication, the OU will only be shown under the national centres.

For the 2001 census, a new classification, National Statistics - Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC), was developed to replace Social Class. It took into account new work patterns in the UK and the changes in education levels required for, and the status of, large numbers of occupations. This new classification was used for the social class Performance Indicator from 2002/03 and called the SEC indicator. More details on the differences between SEC and social class can be found in changes between 2001/02 and 2002/03.

For the 2008/09 academic year, UCAS changed the question that informs NS-SEC for the majority of applicants. The question reverted back to the original wording for 2009/10 applicants.

For applicants up to and including the 2007/08 academic year and for the 2009/10 academic year, UCAS asked:

"If you are under 21, please give the occupation of your parent, step-parent or guardian who earns the most. If he or she is retired or unemployed, give their most recent occupation. If you are 21 or over, please give your own occupation."

For applicants for 2008/09 entry, the question changed to:

"If you are in full-time education, please state the occupation of the highest-earning family member of the household in which you live. If he or she is retired or unemployed, give their most recent occupation. If you are not in full-time education, please state just your own occupation."

The change in question between 2007/08 and 2008/09 had an impact on the NS-SEC indicators, causing the proportion of students classified as ‘unknown' and those classified as falling into NS-SEC groups 4 to 7 to rise. Given these differences and the lack of any significant external changes to the system, it is safe to conclude that the change in question means that the NS-SEC data for 2008/09 is not comparable with that published previously and as a result, the 2008/09 NS-SEC data was published separately in tables T1ai, T1bi and T1ci and labelled as age-adjusted NS-SEC.

Although the question reverted back in 2009/10, there may still be a slight impact on the NS-SEC indicators resulting from applicants who applied using the 2008/09 form, but deferred entry until 2009/10. However, the 2009/10 data will be more comparable with that published up until 2007/08 than with the 2008/09 data. Therefore, NS-SEC time series data published within the summary excludes data for 2008/09.

The NS-SEC indicators will not be published in 2017 and subsequent publications of the UK Performance Indicators. For more details, please refer to the section on widening participation of under-represented groups.

Prior to 2016/17, Harper Adams University included the value of EECNGSEX - Energy consumption natural gas excluding that used as input for a CHP unit as part of the value of EECCNGAS - Energy consumption compressed natural gas. As such EECNGSEX is incorrectly shown as 0 and values for EECCNGAS have been over-reported.