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- New Year’s Welcome from HEAT Director
Anna Anthony, Director of the HEAT Service, welcomes members to 2026 and looks ahead to a year of exciting developments
Happy New Year! As we begin 2026, I wanted to thank you for your continued engagement with HEAT. This year will see several important developments across the HEAT Service.
HEAT Tracking Data
In 2026, we are expecting two cycles of Higher Education Entry (HESA) tracking data alongside the next release of Key Stage 4 and Kay Stage 5 Attainment tracking data.
These datasets and dashboards provide a vital resource for you to understand the impact of your interventions on students’ outcomes. We highly recommend you complete the HEAT Essentials and Key Stage 4 Track training courses, as these provide valuable advice on how to easily convert the results into insights for reporting and get the most out of your tracking data.
Online Training Courses
We will continue to expand our online training offer, supporting colleagues at different stages of their evaluation journey.
Since launching HEAT Essentials, our foundation course, 70% of members have enrolled on at least one course. Further courses, including the Higher Education Track Dashboard and Post-entry Essentials, will launch later this year.
All courses remain free to access via the Training and Support section of our website. Please do sign up and take a look if you have not done so already.
Higher Education Evaluation Library (HEEL)
We have now launched the Submission Portal for the HEEL, meaning that HEAT members can now prepare their evaluation submission for publication on the public-facing HEEL website, due to be launched in the spring. We will be working with TASO on engagement events and training materials to support you to create your submissions
Post-Entry Work
Our Post-entry work continues in collaboration with the Post-entry Working Group. New tools include the Assessment of Performance Dashboard and a Post-Entry Monitoring Dashboard, both designed to support the evaluation of student success interventions. A full overview of our work in the post-entry space is available in our post on the Research Blog.
New Matched Comparator Group Tool
As part of HEAT’s commitment to the Beyond the Barracks project, development will begin this year on the Matched Comparator Group Tool, enabling users to generate comparator groups automatically within the system. The tool will identify similar students by matching on variables known to influence educational outcomes.
For more information on this exciting news and how this tool will work on the system, please see our latest announcement.
The Outreach Metric Project
In partnership with UCL, this project will provide new insights into the coverage and effectiveness of outreach activity. It represents the largest analysis of outreach data undertaken in England to date, using aggregated HEAT tracking data linked with national administrative datasets, including the National Pupil Database and HESA undergraduate records. The work will help evidence the sector’s contribution to reducing socio-economic gaps in higher education participation at both institutional and regional level.
A Growing Community
HEAT now brings together a community of 140 member organisations. This collective commitment allows us to deliver significant value for money for the sector. Our recent analysis shows:
- £9.80 return on every £1 invested per member
- £9.5 million saved to the sector as a whole
- Tracking data savings of over 50% – verified by Jisc
We are stronger together, and I look forward to another year of collaboration with you all.
If you have any questions about any of the items in this update, please contact us via HEAT Support.
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