HESA Data Futures
Project summary
This project will prepare the University of Oxford to meet the requirements from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) for the new approach to collection of student data. The University currently reports to HESA on an annual basis. HESA has been engaged in a project to update these requirements, and after a number of delays, a number of changes are happening now, in 2022 which will change the amount and frequency of data collected by HESA.
This project will work with colleagues in divisions, departments, colleges and the UAS to understand current processes and how these can be adapted to meet the new requirements. The first phase will be to make changes to how HESA data is collected from students at registration. There are several field changes and value updates. The following phase will introduce the more regular 'in-year' reporting by a number of 'reference periods'.
What will this mean for you?
With the introduction of in-year submissions to HESA our Data Quality team will lose the long-lead in times to quality control the data. There will therefore be more onus on the teams managing data at source to ensure that data held in the central student record system is current and highly accurate at all times. To support those involved in student records management and to ensure data quality is retained you will see the introduction of more efficient and streamlined processes; be equipped with the right tools to do your work; find that more data is stored in eVision rather than in different formats across multiple systems; and see improved visibility of data. These changes may require additional training.
The requirement to capture a greater depth and breadth of information will provide more timely high quality data furnishing the University, divisions and colleges with a clearer understanding of who our students are, what they are doing and their interactions with the university, enabling better decision making at all levels. For instance, we will have to share full information about a student’s activity connected with their course which is not happening at the University (‘off-venue activity’).
August 2022 - Communications sent to all affected parties
HESA Update
The planned changes to the student forms for the HESA Data Futures project are on track, and the new forms are due to be released in September as planned.
As we indicated, the vast majority of changes will be behind the scenes, but some differences may be noted in certain questions that students respond to upon application, and in student self-service. Some of the key changes relate to specific options in: Disability; sexual orientation; ethnicity; religion; and source of student funding.
There is no action needed from administration or other student-facing colleages.
The changes described will take place in September for the new year’s intake, and ready for student registration at the beginning of Michaelmas term.
If you have any questions, you can email the project team at hesa-datafutures@it.ox.ac.uk
July 2022 - Communications sent to all affected parties
HESA Update
Each year we submit a return to HESA with aggregated information about many aspects of the university’s operations and about our students and staff. We are required to submit to HESA as part of our regulatory obligations.
This year, as part of HESA’s ‘Data Futures’ project, HESA have updated their requirements for the data which we submit. The vast majority of this will be behind the scenes, but some differences may be noted in certain questions that students respond to upon application, and in student self-service. Some of the key changes relate to specific options in: Disability; sexual orientation; ethnicity; religion; and source of student funding.
If you have reports which pick up any of the above from evision you may wish to start review these as we release more details.
The changes described will take place in September for the new year’s intake, and ready for student registration at the beginning of Michaelmas term.
If you have any questions, you can email the project team at hesa-datafutures@it.ox.ac.uk
March 2022
An update on HESA Data Futures at Oxford
In March, HESA shared its thinking about the scope and delivery timeframe of the Data Futures programme. They have announced a further design changes which impact scope and required changes. It has also confirmed that student data collections for the 2022/23 period will move to the updated data schema. The changes to in-year reporting will be deferred to the 2023/24 year.
Summary
The HESA Data Futures programme has presented opportunities and challenge in equal measure, and following the announcement above, we can now provide clarity around the scope of work at Oxford. The focus for us, however, continues to be one that delivered benefits along key points in our student data process, and that we derive as much value as possible from the investment we've already made in HESA Data Futures.
What is HESA?
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is the official agency for the collection, analysis and dissemination of quantitative information about higher education in the United Kingdom. Legally, higher education providers such as the University of Oxford must send an annual return of data to HE funding bodies.
This data currently includes:
• the student record (personal characteristics, course- and module-level data, funding information and details about qualification outcomes);
• Unistats record (all full- and part-time undergraduate courses plus other course-level metrics)
• Initial Teacher Training Record (personal characteristics of new and continuing ITT students and details about their courses)
• Aggregate Off-shore record (an aggregated headcount of students registered with providers but studying wholly outside the UK).
HESA gathers, analyzes and quality checks this information before sending it to their statutory customers, who include the HE funding councils, government bodies, governments, universities, academic and commercial researchers, students and potential students, and policy makers. This is used to enable strategic planning, inform policy making, support academic and commercial research, understand social and economic trends and support prospective students’ decision making.
The Current HESA Student Return
The current HESA Student return is an annual single exercise looking back at the previous year. Currently data is returned to HESA at the end of following October and we have twelve months to manually collect, cleanse and quality assure over 24,000 student records, each with typically over 200 data attributes. It utilises data both within the central student record system (SITS: eVision) and a number of local systems, Access databases and spreadsheets, across the collegiate University. Data that is held within SITS is not always held in ‘standard’ functionality (used by other HEPs) due to flexibility required or challenges with the Oxford process, and so complex transformations for data across the system are required in order to make data ‘usable’ for the HESA return.
Data Futures
The new student return process is scheduled for implementation in 2022/23 and requires substantial changes to the way student records are maintained at Oxford. The new student data collection model is a major change for all HEPs, moving to in year reporting, initially linked to three reference periods a year with a view towards live reporting in future years. Data will be related to events (e.g. enrolment, exams) and will have to be submitted within the reference period when the event occurs.
Compared to the existing timescales for gathering and quality assuring data, HESA Data Futures will drastically reduce the amount of time available. For example, by November (Reference Period 1) in the Academic year (~ week 6 of Michaelmas Term) we will need to submit registration and enrolment data and changes to organisation structure, courses (programmes) and modules. This compares to the current HESA return where information is submitted the following October.
In addition to the change to in-year collections, HESA Data Futures has a much broader scope and increased requirements in terms of the types of data required and the level of information required. For example, there will be a significant expansion of data on financial support required, with all offers of financial support required to be reported for all students. This compares to the current return where only support >£50 and for Home/EU UG and PGCE students is reported.
Using a combination of streamlining current practices, technology initiatives and changes to working processes the HESA Data Futures project plans to meet the deadline for the first collection of data from new and existing students as they register for the academic year, or apply, starting in September 2022.
The project will work with many areas of the university: divisions, departments, colleges, administrative departments, to understand how they currently collect and manage the relevant data and to look at ways in which the new requirements can be met. It is likely a combination of technology adaptations and culture change will enable this to happen.
You can contact the HESA Data Futures project team by emailing: hesa-datafutures@admin.ox.ac.uk
News
Contact
HESA Data Futures Project
Location: Gibson Building and Exams Schools
Email: hesa-datafutures@admin.ox.ac.uk
