Important changes to next year’s HESA Track

Background to the Data Futures collection model

Data Futures is a new student data collection model with richer information. The first two years will be based on an annual data return by higher education providers, after that it will be based on two in-year data collections. Jisc will work with us to consider the impact of in-year data collection nearer the time but, for now, they are focussing on the changes in data collection which will affect our next HESA Track, due to be released to HEAT members in 2024.

Changes caused by the transition to the Data Futures collection model

Jisc are confident that the majority of the data we currently receive will be unaffected and therefore appear to us in the same format as previous years. There are a handful of key fields that may be affected, which are outlined below. We will be working through the detail of these changes with our Research Group when we meet later this year.

Please do let us know if the analysis you conduct on your tracking data will be adversely affected by the changes in these fields or if you have any specific concerns you would like us to address by contacting HEAT Support.

Changes to methodology, with no accompanying loss of data

1. Mode of study: As well as indicating Full-time and Part-time modes of study, this field has provided us with information about Sandwich students, Writing-up students and Dormant students. The Data Futures collection does not include these values within the Mode of Study field as they are now considered statuses rather than modes. From next year, the Mode of Study field will show these values outlined in HESA’s Data Dictionary. Jisc have said they can include separate fields to identify Sandwich students, Writing-up students and Dormant students if we would like them to.
2. Continuation: Our current methodology looks at continuation within HE provider. The new methodology will allow us to identify students who transfer to other HE providers. This will therefore match the Office for Students (OfS) methodology for calculating continuation. This change in methodology can be applied retrospectively from 2010 onwards and, therefore, it is likely that we will see continuation rates increase as a result of this methodology change. However, rates will now be comparable with the OfS rates.
3. Campus identifier: This field, labelled F_CAMPID in the latest tracking data, can now be returned by higher education providers multiple times, whereas it was previously returned once. So as not to expand the size of our already large tracking dataset we have suggested to Jisc that we would like to receive the main campus. Please do let us know if you require multiple campuses for your tracked participants. More information about this field can be found in HESA’s Data Dictionary.
4. General label changes: Jisc said that there are likely to be label changes to other fields, even where the methodology is unchanged. We have asked Jisc to provide us with an early indication of fields names, labels, field lengths and types prior to sending us the data. Jisc said they would aim to do this 4-6 weeks before delivering the data. We will share this information with you when we have it to help you plan for any changes to your own analyses.

Changes to methodology, with an accompanying loss of data

1. Dormant students: Going forward there may be gaps in the subject and course information for students who have qualified from a Dormant status, as this information is no longer required to be collected. In our last aggregate tracking set, 0.013% of students were Dormant according to the Mode of Study field and so we believe the impact of this will be minimal.
2. Year of the student in the latest year: This field, labelled F_LAST_STU, will no longer be available following Data Futures and Jisc cannot create a similar measure. This field is currently positioned in column number 171, and we do not use this in our HESA Tracking Power BI Dashboard. Please do let us know if you are using this field and we will find ways to replicate it using other fields.

Exciting new fields in next year’s HESA Track dataset

There will also be some additional fields which will be included in the tracking data next year. This is not a result of Data Futures, but our work to continually improve the utility of HEAT’s HESA Track dataset for members.

These new fields are:

• An Apprenticeship flag to identify Higher and Degree Apprenticeships
• A flag differentiating between Post Graduate Research (PGR) and Post Graduate Taught (PGT) study (currently only coded as PG)
• Graduate Outcomes Survey data for PG students (currently only available for Undergraduate students)
• We will also receive records for students who have entered private higher education providers from the 2022/23 entry year. These will not appear as new fields, but additional rows in the dataset