Expected arrival of HESA Track data

We are sorry to have to let you know about this continued delay to your HEAT-HESA linked dataset. Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, Jisc were unable to supply us with the latest linked file before Christmas, as we had previously announced. Jisc have told us that this has been due to an extremely high volume of work following delays to their data releases. Their revised schedule means they will now be able to provide us with the linked file by the end of March 2025.

With this new timeline, we are expecting to upload to the database the HESA data for students who were ready to enter higher education (HE) in 2022/23 or earlier (members only) by late May or early June 2025. This is slightly longer than it would usually take us to release the HESA data after receiving it from Jisc, but we are anticipating some extra work will be required as a result of the coding changes. We will, however, do all we can to get it out to you as quickly as possible.

As we have let you know in previous announcements, Jisc have been doing all they can to get the linked data to us as quickly as possible. However, delays at their end have been caused by the new Data Futures collection model which has led to significant coding changes, as set out on HESA’s website.

To remind you of a previous announcement Jisc did alert us that some fields had experienced an increase in the amount of missing data, particularly Entry profile information, Parental education, Ethnicity and socio-economic classification. The Marking and Assessment Boycott has had an impact on qualification awards within some higher education providers.

Some good news to update since our previous announcement is that Jisc have confirmed that we will receive Continuation status for newly tracked students. This is great news as Continuation status is a key outcome for our tracked students and reported in our HEAT HESA Dashboard (members only).

Improvements to the Dashboard

Although the continued delays over this data have been frustrating, we have spent time at HEAT refining our dashboard to provide more meaningful reporting for you all. We are including much more comparator data, including school average data. This will allow you to compare the outcomes of your tracked students with a population who attend the same schools, therefore strengthening the claims you can make with your tracking data. We are also exploring adding additional analysis which makes use of Power BI’s Key Influencers visuals, allowing us to see which factors drive the outcomes that interest us. We will be holding a launch webinar closer to the time to show you all these exciting new additions.

2023/24 HE Entrant Tracking

We have discussed with Jisc whether these delays are likely to affect the next tracking cycle, with the following cohort who were ready to enter HE in 2023/24 or earlier. They said they hoped that the data for 2023/24 entrants would be available in the Autumn of 2025. We can therefore expect to see an update for the next cohort in a few months following the release of the 2022/23 HESA data.