Coverage
In general, the HESA Student Record is collected in respect of all students registered at a reporting institution who follow courses that lead to the award of a qualification(s) or institutional credit. The data specification of the record uses the term 'instance' to describe a student's engagement with the institution, which, because a student can have more than one instance of engagement, will exceed the number of students. Unless stated otherwise, student data is based on an instance of engagement. Postdoctoral students are not included in the HESA Student Record.
Higher education (HE) students, for the purpose of HESA's data collection, are those students on courses for which the level of instruction is above that of level 3 of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) National Qualifications Framework (NQF) (e.g. courses at the level of Certificate of HE and above).
The HESA standard registration population has been derived from the HESA Student Record, from all higher education and further education student instances active at a reporting institution in the reporting period 1 August to 31 July, and ensures that similar activity is counted in a similar way irrespective of when it occurs.
The population splits the student experience into 'years of study', the first year of which is deemed to start on the commencement date of the student instance, with second and subsequent years starting on, or near, the anniversary of that date. Student instances are counted once for each ‘year of study’. Short course registrations are counted in the standard registration population regardless of whether they are active on 1 December of the reporting period. However, students who leave within two weeks of their instance start date or anniversary of their start date, and are on a course of more than two weeks duration, are not included in the standard registration population.
Also excluded from this population are students where the whole of the programme of study is outside of the UK.
The HESA standard registration population forms the basis for most counts of first year and continuing student instances.
For the purposes of this enquiry, the standard registration population also includes incoming visiting exchange students (as specified by the client) and writing-up and sabbatical students (to enable comparability with previous years.
Rounding strategy
Due to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998, HESA implements a strategy in published and released tabulations designed to prevent the disclosure of personal information about any individual. These tabulations are derived from the HESA non-statutory populations and may differ slightly from those published by related statutory bodies. This strategy involves rounding all numbers to the nearest five. A summary of this strategy is as follows:
So, for example, three is represented as five, 22 is represented as 20, 3,286 is represented as 3,285, while 0, 20, 55 and 3,510 remain unchanged.
This rounding strategy is also applied to total figures, the consequence of which is that the sum of numbers in each row or column will rarely match the total shown precisely. Note that subject level data calculated by apportionment will also be rounded in accordance with this strategy.
Average values, proportions and FTE values prepared by HESA will not be affected by the above strategy, and will be calculated on precise raw numbers. However, percentages calculated on populations which contain 52 or fewer individuals will be suppressed and represented as '..', as will averages based on populations of seven or less.
Mode of study
Full-time students are those normally required to attend an institution for periods amounting to at least 24 weeks within the year of programme of study, on thick or thin sandwich courses, and those on a study-related year out of their institution. During that time, students are normally expected to undertake periods of study, tuition or work experience which amount to an average of at least 21 hours per week.
Part-time students are those recorded as studying part-time, or studying full-time on courses lasting less than 24 weeks, on block release, or studying during the evenings only.
Other modes of study include those students writing-up theses, on sabbatical or on FE continuous delivery, except where these have been tabulated separately.
Level of study / qualification
The level of study is taken from the qualification aim of the student
Postgraduate programmes of study are those leading to higher degrees, diplomas and certificates (including Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) and professional qualifications) and usually require that entrants are already qualified to degree level (i.e. already qualified at level 6 of the National Qualifications Framework).
In analyses where postgraduate level of study is disaggregated into postgraduate research and postgraduate taught, the following groupings are used:
Postgraduate research, where the qualification aim is a research-based higher degree. These programmes of study include Doctorates, Master's, postgraduate Bachelor's degrees and postgraduate diplomas or certificates (not PGCE) studied mainly by research.First degree includes first degrees with or without eligibility to register to practice with a Health or Social Care or Veterinary statutory regulatory body, first degrees with qualified teacher status (QTS) / registration with the General Teaching Council (GTC), enhanced first degrees, first degrees obtained concurrently with a diploma and intercalated first degrees.
Other undergraduate includes qualification aims below degree level, such as foundation degrees, diplomas in HE with eligibility to register to practice with a Health or Social Care regulatory body, Higher National Diploma (HND), Higher National Certificate (HNC), Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE), Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE), foundation courses at HE level, NVQ / SVQ levels 4 and 5, post-degree diplomas and certificates at undergraduate level, professional qualifications at undergraduate level, other undergraduate diplomas and certificates including post-registration health and social care courses, other formal HE qualifications of less than degree standard, institutional undergraduate credit and no formal undergraduate qualifications.
The ‘Level of subject summary’ field in the data mining tool has been created by the British Council. Within this field, ‘First degree’ and ‘Other Undergraduate’ are collated to form ‘Undergraduate’; ‘Postgraduate Taught’ and ‘Postgraduate Research’ are collated to form ‘Postgraduate’.
Course aim (2007 / 2008 only)
Qualification aim/Level of study is taken from the course aim of the student.
HESA classifies courses according to a framework which aligns with the framework for HE qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (FHEQ), the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) (of which the framework for qualifications of HE institutions in Scotland is a constituent part) and the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) and Bologna frameworks. Details are available at www.hesa.ac.uk/C07051/a/COURSEAIM. It includes level M for taught masters degrees and level H for honours degrees.
Postgraduate courses are those leading to higher degrees, diplomas and certificates (including Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE at level M) and professional qualifications) which usually require a first degree as an entry qualification (i.e. already qualified at level H).
Higher degree (research) includes doctorate and masters degrees studied primarily through research.
Higher degree (taught) includes doctorate and masters degrees not studied primarily through research and postgraduate bachelors degrees at level M.
Other postgraduate includes postgraduate diplomas, certificates and professional qualifications, Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE at level M), institutional postgraduate credits and no formal postgraduate qualifications.
In analyses where postgraduate level of study is disaggregated into postgraduate research and postgraduate taught, the following groupings are used:
Postgraduate research includes doctorate and Master's degrees and postgraduate diplomas or certificates (not PGCE at level M) studied primarily through researchPostgraduate Certificate in Education are those PGCE qualifications which are pitched beyond level H.
Undergraduate courses are programmes of study at level H, including, but not limited to, first degrees (including eligibility to register to practice with a health or social care or veterinary statutory regulatory body), first degrees with qualified teacher status (QTS) / registration with the General Teaching Council (GTC), Postgraduate Bachelor's degrees at level H, enhanced first degrees, first degrees obtained concurrently with a diploma and intercalated first degrees, Professional Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE at level H), foundation degrees, diplomas in HE with eligibility to register to practice with a health or social care regulatory body, Higher National Diploma (HND), Higher National Certificate (HNC), Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE), Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE), foundation courses at HE level, National qualifications framework levels 4 and 5, post-degree diplomas and certificates at undergraduate level, professional qualifications at undergraduate level and other undergraduate diplomas and certificates including post-registration health and social care courses. Entrants to these programmes of study do not usually require an HE qualification.
First degree includes first degrees (including eligibility to register to practice with a health or social care or veterinary statutory regulatory body), first degrees with qualified teacher status (QTS) / registration with the General Teaching Council (GTC), enhanced first degrees, first degrees obtained concurrently with a diploma and intercalated first degrees.
Other undergraduate includes qualification aims below degree level, including, but not limited to, PGCE at level H (unless shown separately), foundation degrees (unless shown separately), diplomas in HE (including those with eligibility to register to practice with a health or social care regulatory body), Higher National Diploma (HND), Higher National Certificate (HNC), Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE), Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE), foundation courses at HE level, NVQ / SVQ levels 4 and 5, post-degree diplomas and certificates at undergraduate level, professional qualifications at undergraduate level, other undergraduate diplomas and certificates including post-registration health and social care courses, other formal HE qualifications of less than degree standard, institutional undergraduate credit and no formal undergraduate qualifications.
Professional Graduate Certificate in Education are those PGCE qualifications which are pitched at level H.
Foundation degrees (e.g. FdA, FdSc) were introduced to provide vocational HE qualifications at level I.
First year students – standard registration population
First year students are based on the HESA standard registration population who commenced their programme of study in the reporting period relevant to the data collection year.
Domicile
Domicile data is supplied to HESA in the form of postcodes (UK domiciled students) or country codes. Postcodes are mapped to counties, unitary authorities and UK nations using the National Statistics All Fields Postcode Directory. Countries are mapped to geographical regions following consultation with the Department for Education and Skills. Where no data is supplied about the student's domicile, fee eligibility is used to determine whether domicile is European Union, including the UK, or not.
Of those students who are not UK domiciled, other EU students are those whose normal residence is in countries which were European Union (EU) members as at 1 December of the reporting period. Non-EU students are those whose normal residence prior to commencing their programme of study was outside the EU.
UK domiciled students are those whose normal residence is in the UK, including the Channel Islands and Isle of Man.
Newly defined countries and territories
From 2007 / 2008, HESA has been able to identify more territories and possessions than before and made the decision to assign territories of an EU country to the EU group. This change has resulted in a slight shift of EU numbers from some of the territories that were previously in the codes 1637 Netherlands Antilles (comprising Curacao, Bonaire, Saba, St Eustatius, St Martin (SOUTH)) and 1822 Mayotte, French Polynesia, and were excluded from the definition of EU. Following advice from HESA, for time series comparability in the on-line tool, students from these territories have been retrospectively ‘merged’ with their corresponding EU country and included in the EU group from 2002 / 2003 onwards.
Consequently, figures in the on-line tool may not match the HESA definition of EU in other printed material.
A full list of countries and territories which have been merged with their EU ‘relative’ is given below:
Country, posession or territory
Fee eligibility
Fee eligibility - the fee eligibility of the student is to distinguish those students who are eligible to pay home fees from those who are not, in cases where there are separate levels of fees for 'home' students and for 'others'.
Fee status - the fee status of the student is to indicate the level of fees paid. This field relates to the status of the fee, for courses covered by the mandatory awards and postgraduate awards schemes, not whether the fee was paid by an award-making body, or whether the fee was waived or not.
Location of institution
The allocation of an institution to a geographical region is done by reference to the administrative centre of that institution. There may be students registered at institutions who are studying in regions other than that of the administrative centre of the institution.
The Open University is counted as a wholly English institution. The administrative centre is located in England, although The Open University teaches throughout the UK.
Merseyside, when separate, has been grouped with the North West.
Major source of tuition fees
The major source of tuition fees indicates the predominant source of the tuition fees for the student, where this is known. This includes fees from UK government, research councils, EU sources and other sources.
Nationality (2007 / 2008 only)
This field defines the country of legal nationality. Where a student has dual nationality including British, they are coded as United Kingdom (GB). If a dual nationality, not including British, but including non-UK EU country, then the relevant EU country code is used. If neither British or non-UK EU country, then they are coded as either nationality.
Please note that this field is only compulsory for students with a commencement date on or after 1 August 2007 and is also not compulsory for students at institutions in Northern Ireland. It is, however, strongly encouraged for all students.
Year of programme / course
This is used to indicate the year number of the programme that the student is currently studying. This could be different from the year of student if the student has changed course/programme or re-taken a year.
Programme codes
Student programmes often involve combinations of subjects, and so cannot be described by a single JACS code. Within the HESA student data collection, there are two mechanisms for dealing with this. First, JACS has been slightly extended to allow codes to be assigned to highly integrated programmes which cut across principal subjects. Where such a broadly-based programme falls within a single subject group, it can be coded as the group letter followed by three zeroes, for example F000 would code such a programme in Physical Sciences. This is known as a generic code, and is an extension of JACS for the purpose of coding complete student programmes; generic codes may not be used in any other way, for example for coding modules. Programmes which cut across subject groups are given the generic code Y000, which is equivalent to continuing to recognise the need for a 'Combined' subject group. The second mechanism is designed to describe less integrated programmes of the kind often known as Joint Honours. The HESA record contains three qualification aim fields and a balance field which together make it possible to report the subject coverage of two subject balanced, two subject major/minor, and three subject balanced programmes.
Apportionment
Additionally, a procedure of apportionment is used. Under apportionment, each headcount is, where necessary, divided in a way that in broad-brush terms reflects the pattern of a split programme. This is analogous to the use of FTE calculations, but should not be confused with them, since the splits used for apportionment are conventional rather than data-based.
For split programmes not involving an initial teacher training (ITT) component, the apportionment algorithm is as follows:
50%:50% for a balanced two-way split;ITT students at undergraduate level who also have a specialism subject recorded (typically, secondary ITT students) are apportioned 50 per cent to the 'Education' subject area and the remaining 50 per cent is further apportioned according to the algorithm for non-ITT students. Where no subject other than education is recorded, or where the student is on a PGCE course, apportionment is 100 per cent to the 'Education' subject area.
From 2007 / 2008, for split courses not involving an ITT component, institutions assign their own percentages based on a broad assessment of the relative contribution of subjects to a course, rather than detailed analysis of the contributions of subjects to individual students' courses of study. It is therefore expected that most institutions will apply the same percentages to all courses and only vary this where there is a substantially different subject split. For institutions in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, the listed standard percentages are recommended, and in Scotland obligatory:
Balanced: 50% for each of the two subjectsThe sum of the proportion allocated to each subject studied on a course must equal 100.
Subject areas
HESA has defined nineteen subject areas in terms of JACS codes for reporting information broken down by subject. The subject areas give a useful broad-brush picture, and are as consistent as is practicable with those previously defined in terms of HESACODE. The subject areas do not overlap and cover the entire range of JACS Principal Subjects. Apart from the need to separate the 'Mathematical sciences' and 'Computer science' elements of Principal Subject G9, they are expressed entirely in terms of JACS Principal Subjects, and in many cases correspond closely to one or more JACS Subject Groups.
In response to requests from users of HESA data, the printed tables also show information for four supplementary subjects, three of which fall within single subject areas, and one, 'Geography & environmental science', cuts across two areas.
Finally, there is an interest in having information about teachers in training. Since this is best presented on a headcount basis rather than an apportioned basis, the figures are not directly comparable with the apportioned figures in the 'Education' subject area, and are tabulated separately to reduce the risk of misinterpretation.
Principal subjects (2007 / 2008 only)
The first review of a selection of subject areas resulted in the implementation of a revision of the JACS subject codes for 2007 / 2008. The full listing of JACS2 can be found at www.hesa.ac.uk/jacs2.
Although subject areas provide a broad-brush framework for presenting information, a more detailed breakdown to the 159 JACS principal subjects is used in some tables. Again, a process of apportionment is necessary, and the procedure is consistent with that used for subject areas.
Subject caveats
A review of JACS subject codes took place for the 2007 / 2008 dataset. The new coding (JACS v2) replaces JACS v1.7. This means that 2002 / 2003 to 2006 / 2007 subject data is not directly comparable to that of 2007 / 2008
When undertaking any time series analysis you should be aware of the following:
subject codes F7 and F8 must be combined to form the subject ‘Science of aquatic, terrestrial and physical geography’Full details of the mapping from JACS 1.7 to JACS 2 can be found on the HESA website:
www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php/component/option,com_studrec/task,show_file/Itemid,233/mnl,07051/href,MappingJACS.html/
The United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.
A registered charity: 209131 (England and Wales) SC037733 (Scotland)
Registered in Singapore as a branch (T09FC0012J) and as a charity (No 0768).
Our privacy and copyright statements.
Our commitment to freedom of information. Double-click for pop-up dictionary.
Open the original version of this page.
Usablenet Assistive is a UsableNet product. Usablenet Assistive Main Page.