Understanding roles
Requesting a role
Inviting colleagues to roles and responding to requests
If your account has granting rights, you are able to invite colleagues to roles. You can also respond to other people's requests for roles for the Data Collection System, Issue Management System data quality database and the Graduate Outcomes portal.
To see whether you have granting rights select the ‘Roles’ option within the ‘My Account’ tab. Below the list of roles you hold, you will see a list of roles you have granting rights for.
To invite someone to a role, select the ‘Roles Admin’ tab in the top right-hand corner of the screen (this tab will only be visible if your account has granting rights).

Types of role
For each data stream, the Record Contact is the first point of communication during data collection. The Record Contact is responsible for overseeing a provider's data submission process and ensuring that deadlines are met.
Record Contacts are administered by HESA. If you hold a Record Contact role and need to delegate this to someone else in your organisation, please complete this form and send to the Liaison team.
If an existing Record Contact is not able to delegate a new contact, then the nomination of a new Record Contact must be approved by your provider’s Accountable Officer (England and Wales) or Head of Provider (Scotland and Northern Ireland). Please ensure the form is completed fully and send it to the Liaison team.
This role allows the administration of Data Collection roles on behalf of the provider's Record Contact. It is delegated by the Record Contact.
This role allows colleagues to view information in the HESA Data Collection System for a given data stream. Guests will have read-only access to the system and will not be able to upload, alter or delete data.
COMING SOON - Provider Issue Management System Viewer
The Issue Management System Viewer role provides a user with access to view data quality queries for the given data stream. Colleagues granted this role may also require a Data Collection Guest role to provide them with read-only access to the data submission on the HESA Data Collection system. Providers are required to actively engage with data quality checking and resolution of data quality queries during the collection period.
Multiple Issue Management System Viewer roles can be set up per data stream.
Provider Issue Management System User
The Issue Management System User role provides a user with access to view and respond to data quality queries for the given data stream. Colleagues granted this role may also require a Data Collection Guest role to provide them with read-only access to the data submission on the HESA Data Collection system. Providers are required to actively engage with data quality checking and resolution of data quality queries during the collection period.
Multiple Issue Management System User roles can be set up per data stream.
The Data Collection Submitter role grants a user full access to the HESA Data Collection System in order to upload and manage data submissions.
This role provides instant access to the Staff Identifiers directory, without the need to contact us and await a file transfer.
Student COLPROV Contact
This role provides instant access to the Student COLPROV Contact directory, without the need to contact us and await a file transfer.
This directory allows staff managing collaborative provision to contact the provider with whom they have an arrangement. It is used by staff compiling the Student return.
The directory contains the contact information for the Student COLPROV Contacts at all relevant higher education providers. The contact details provided in the directory must only be used for this operational purpose and the information it contains must be treated as confidential.
The directory can be found in the Reports tab once you have logged in. Simply click on the link, which will generate a report of all the current Student COLPROV Contacts.
Institution Senior Contact
This person is a point of contact for HESA Liaison and is utilised for query escalation when a Data Collection Record Contact is not contactable during the data collection process, before contact is escalated to the Accountable Officer/ Head of Provider directly.
Institution Senior Contacts are administered by HESA. If you hold an Institution Senior Contact role and need to delegate this to someone else in your organisation, please complete this form and send to the Liaison team.
If an existing Institution Senior Contact is not able to delegate a new contact, then the nomination of a new Institution Senior Contact must be approved by your provider’s Accountable Officer (England and Wales) or Head of Provider (Scotland and Northern Ireland). Please ensure the form is completed fully and send it to the Liaison team.
This role coordinates the interaction of a provider with the Graduate Outcomes portal including the assignment of other HESA Identity System Organisation Roles to individuals at the provider. Every provider must have one Record Contact.
This role coordinates the graduate contact details collated by the provider and sent to HESA for the purposes of the Graduate Outcomes survey. Where a provider can appoint a Contact Details User within HESA’s Identity System, at least one Contact Details User must be appointed.
This role coordinates the personalisation of the Graduate Outcomes portal for the provider, including uploading the provider’s logo and the selection of opt-in question banks. Every provider must have at least one Personalisation User.
This role assigns other HESA Identity System Organisation Roles (Graduate Outcomes Personalisation User and Graduate Outcomes Contact Details User) to themselves and others at the provider.
This role coordinates the response data available in the provider portal, including response rates, the download of SIC and SOC data and the continual raw feed of survey response data.
This role assigns the Survey Results User to individuals at the provider.
This role is assigned to at least two members at your organisation. A Lead Contact can assign Bronze and Silver user role access to colleagues at the same organisation using IDS. For Gold user role access this form must be completed by a Lead Contact and sent to the Customer Success team.
These roles allow access to HESA's business intelligence system - Heidi Plus. The type of user role controls permissions to use and view specific datasets contained within Heidi Plus. Please contact the Customer Success team for any information about Heidi Plus, including information about your organisation's Lead Contacts.