HEAT Director Membership Update for Higher Education Providers and Uni Connect Partnerships

As a collaborative data and research service, HEAT supports collaboration between all our members – both in principle and in practice. We are proud to work with a wide array of partnership organisations and have been a key player in facilitating collaboration across the sector.

We can see the benefits of this in the new Access and Participation Plans (APPs), with providers making stronger commitments to more strategic collaboration. There are cases where some Higher Education Providers’ access work is largely being coordinated through their Uni Connect Partnerships. Using HEAT’s data sharing functionality, Uni Connect Partnership staff can manage data collection and reporting on their partner HEPs’ behalf. This is a clear efficiency saving and is something we are keen to support.

Yet to ensure sustainability in our approach to this, we need to be clear on how HEAT can be used in these cases. For example, we have been asked whether both HEP and Uni Connect Partnerships need a separate HEAT membership.

The answer is yes – a separate subscription means that both partners (Uni Connect Partnership and HEP) have guaranteed long-term access to all data recorded for their collaborative delivery, including data tracking outcomes, dashboards and other tools that the HEAT Service provides.

A clear rule about membership

To provide clarity, we have a clear rule: where the partner HEP is not a HEAT member, the Uni Connect Partnership cannot add data relating to collaborative delivery on their behalf. This stipulation is included in the Uni Connect Legal Agreement, which specifies only activity that is funded by Uni Connect can be added to Uni Connect accounts.

Uni Connect Partnerships can add collaborative activity, but it must be shared with the HEP they are collaborating with, and for this to be possible each HEP must have a separate HEAT subscription.

Understanding why separate HEAT memberships are required

We appreciate members may ask why it is necessary for HEP to have a HEAT membership when the services can be accessed on their behalf through their Uni Connect Partnership. This approach is necessary for two reasons. Firstly, it safeguards HEPs from potential loss of data that they will need for their APP reporting. Secondly, it is the only way to protect our collaborative service and national tracking dataset.

Risk 1: Losing Access to APP Data

Programme funding such as Uni Connect can only ever be guaranteed over the short-term, yet long-term data collection and reporting systems are needed to show the real impact of access and participation delivery.

Relying on short-term programme funding to fulfil their APP reporting requirements would pose significant risks to APP evaluation. If Uni Connect funding ends, non-HEAT member HEPs will lose access to crucial data – putting APP evaluation at risk. By retaining independence in their use of HEAT, and the data being recorded for their APP, they can ensure long-term access to the data for their own APP evaluation commitments, ensuring regulatory compliance.

Risk 2: Undermining HEAT’s Sustainability

HEAT, being non-profit and focused on keeping costs low for all members, operates a zero-balance budget. We are reliant on subscriptions from each of our members, which makes it possible to continue to provide the service in which we all share – a service with proven value. We therefore need to protect the subscription model we have, to ensure our sustainability and to continue to provide the service in the future.

HEAT is a highly successful shared service that enables you to meet your regulatory requirements to evaluate, without duplicating effort, recruiting additional staff, or building costly bespoke systems. Our recent Value for Money report (members only) quantifies these cost-savings:

• £9.80 return on every £1 invested
• £94,500 estimated savings per member
• £9.5 million saved to the sector as a whole

As well as supporting collaboration practically, we also support it at a policy-level. We have championed the value of collaboration in outreach delivery through blog posts and research reports, and worked with the Office for Students (OfS) to provide robust evidence using member data showing the economic value of collaboration through Uni Connect. This is work that John Blake described as fundamental to his discussion with the Department for Education about future funding for a collaborative programme.

Please continue to support us to provide this service for you.