Data intelligence

In 2013/14, University of Ulster reallocated 3,610 students (2,897 FTE) to collaborative/franchised provision, as these students were taught on the campuses of their partner provider and by staff of the partner provider. In previous years these students were coded as being taught wholly at University of Ulster.

Due to ongoing meter read / billing issues, Middlesex University were unable to complete all the sections of the Estate record for 2020/21 as no water usage data was available.

In 2021/22, The University of Sheffield, reported an increase in other (non-SME) commercial businesses (£000s) from £18,850 in 2020/21 to £35,347 in 2021/22 and a decrease in non-commercial organisations value (£000s) from £24,961 to £9,491 for contract research within Table 2a.These variances are due to a reclassification of high value catapult-related awards from the non-commercial subhead to the commercial subhead.

Following the merger of the University of Glamorgan and University of Wales, Newport to become the University of South Wales, 13 staff records in the cost centres of general engineering, chemical engineering and sociology have been wrongly coded. This should not affect the significance of the data that is published.

In 2013/14, The University of Strathclyde miscoded staff numbers in cost centres 107 Pharmacy & pharmacology and 112 Biosciences. When analysing staff cost centre for this provider, please switch the numbers in the two cost centres.  This has also affected the provider’s student staff ratio (SSR), in SSR analysis please replace cost centre 107 (published as 41.2) with 19.4 and cost centre 112 (published as 9.5) with 21.1.

Robert Gordon University has incorrectly recorded country of activity as country of domicile in their Aggregate offshore record data where Type of activity is ‘Type 2 – Registered at reporting institution - studying overseas for UK HEI award other than at an overseas campus of reporting institution’.

Within the 2012/13 data there should be 1 student in Venezuela, 10 students in Sri Lanka, 308 students in Switzerland and 112 students in Algeria. Robert Gordon University only had collaborations in these four countries in 2012/13.

In 2017/18, University of Bedfordshire misreported 265 students domiciled from India as being domiciled from Nicaragua. University of Bedfordshire had no students domiciled from Nicaragua in 2017/18.

Buckinghamshire New University had a fall in their Creative Arts & Design numbers (approx. 400 first degree instances) in 2012/13. This was mainly due to the transfer of their degree level provision, run collaboratively with the Open College of The Arts, to the University of the Creative Arts.

In 2015/16, the University of Sunderland reported a different classification within Creditors in its Annual Financial Statements and in Finance record Table 3, sections 7a and 3b. The correct figures are as follows:

• 7 Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year
  • 7a Bank loans and external borrowing
    • Year ended 31 July 2016 £0k
    • Year ended 31 July 2015 £0k
• 3 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
  • 3b Bank loans and external borrowing
    • Year ended 31 July 2016 £26,080k
    • Year ended 31 July 2015 £27,566k

In 2017/18, Aberystwyth University omitted data within Creditors in Finance record Table 3, section 7b. The correct figures are as follows:

• 7 Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year
  • 7b Obligations under finance leases and service concessions
    • Year ended 31 July 2018 £49,311k
    • Year ended 31 July 2017 £48,950k

The University of Strathclyde's data were set to credible for 2020/21's Estates record before data quality queries had been resolved, an error on HESA's part. Strathclyde have been responding to last year's queries alongside the 2021/22 data. As part of this, it was identified that Fairtrade accreditation existence (EEFAIREX) was returned the incorrectly last year, and will be updated for 2021/22.

A significant error has come to light in the financial data submitted by University of St Mark and St John which could not be corrected in time for this release of HE Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) data. HESA has therefore taken the decision to suppress the erroneous data from the release. This affects financial data shown for University of St Mark and St John and HE sector totals, which are calculated excluding data for this HE provider. This data release will be revised once corrected data for University of St Mark and St John is available. A release date for the revised and corrected HE-BCI data will be announced as soon as this has been determined.

In their 2011/12 Estates Management Statistics return, the University of Dundee used an old DEFRA conversion factor of 0.18322 instead of the up-to-date factor of 0.18521 resulting in a 1% discrepancy. The corrected figure is 6,746,852.105 Kg CO_².

The University of Portsmouth misreported 360 classifications as third class/pass. Therefore the number of third class/pass awards are artificially inflated. The correct figures are as follows: First Class = 350, Upper Second = 1,855, Lower second = 1,630, Third class/pass = 495 and unclassified = 65.

The University of Strathclyde's Integrative Masters Pharmacy degrees have been categorised at postgraduate level. Previously, and in future, they will be categorised as undergraduate degrees. 

Further clarification is available from the University's Planning Office.

Nova College of Accounting and Business Ltd lost designation during the academic year 2015/16. At the end of the reporting period, all of their students were enrolled on non-designated courses.

London School of Business and Finance (UK) Limited had no students included in the standard registration population in 2016/17.

A technical issue resulted in The University of Stirling being unable to accurately report on which of their students declared receipt of the DSA in their HESA Return for 2018-19 therefore they have been excluded from Table T7

The Open University under-reported the number of students in receipt of DSA in England and Wales in 2014/15. This is due to changes in the administration arrangements for DSA awards in 2014/15 which resulted in information not being available for all students in receipt of an award. They estimate that the return undercounts students in receipt of DSA in England and Wales by c.370 awards and 34 awards, respectively (applicable to table T7).

Changes to the Disabled Student Allowances administered through Student Finance England took effect in the academic years 2015/16 and 2016/17. These changes rebalanced responsibility for supporting disabled students, with HEPs providing certain aspects of disability related support previously funded via the DSAs, including funding to support specialist equipment and accommodation costs. Further details have been published on the changes to DSA. As a result of these changes, the Performance Indicator reported in Table T7 - Participation of UK domiciled students in higher education who are in receipt of Disabled Students' Allowance for the 2016/17 cohort is not consistent with previous years. See changes document for more details (applicable to table T7).