Upcoming development: Update to align Student and Ambassador field values with HESA’s Data Futures model

Following our previous update in regard to the expected arrival of the HESA Track data, we would like to notify members that we are planning updates to the field values on the Student and Ambassador records, to align key fields with the values used in HESA’s Data Futures collection model.

Why are we making this change?

Data Futures is a new collection model that HESA have transitioned to which will facilitate in-year data collection, assurance and dissemination of higher education (HE) data. The model is intended to deliver a more efficient system for Higher Education providers to submit and quality assure their data, increasing operational efficiency and the quality of the data received. For more information in regard to Data Futures, please see HESA’s website.

We are updating our Student and Ambassador field values to align with HESA where possible, to ensure consistency with HESA’s approach to student-level data coding, which will support with member data recording.

Which fields will be impacted by the change?

The following fields will be updated to align their field values with HESA:

Student record:

• General Tab: Sex
• Education Tab: First Generation HE
• Education Tab: Part-Time
• Personal Tab: Care Leaver
• Personal Tab: Has Dependants
• Personal Tab: Service Children
• Personal Tab: Young Carer
• Personal Tab: Disability
• Personal Tab: Ethnicity
• Personal Tab: Gender Identity
• Personal Tab: Religion or Belief
• Personal Tab: Estranged
• Personal Tab: Sexual Orientation

Ambassador record:

• General Tab: Sex
• Education Tab: First Generation HE
• Education Tab: Part-Time
• Personal Tab: Care Leaver
• Personal Tab: Has Dependants
• Personal Tab: Service Children
• Personal Tab: Young Carer
• Personal Tab: Disability
• Personal Tab: Ethnicity
• Personal Tab: Gender Identity
• Personal Tab: Religion or Belief
• Personal Tab: Estranged
• Personal Tab: Sexual Orientation

When will the fields be updated?

Due to the significance of the field changes, the majority of the updates to field values will be implemented as a part of the Summer 2025 Update.

This approach is to ensure that significant changes such as the implementation of different wording and HESA coding for the field values are carefully considered in their implications for data recording, and that transition from the old to the new values is supported.

We will be implementing the addition of new Ethnicity values to the Ethnicity field on the Student and Ambassador record as a hotfix prior to the Summer 2025 Update. This hotfix will see the creation of the HESA Data Futures Ethnicity values which are completely new to the field, and which will be as follows:

• Asian – Filipino or Filipino British (102)
• White – Gypsy or Irish Traveller (163)
• White – Polish (167)
• White – Roma (168)
• White – Showman / Showwoman (170)
• White – English, Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish or British (160)
• White – English, Welsh, Northern Irish or British (161)

The Summer 2025 Update will then see the completion of the full update to the Data Futures values, which will impact the fields as detailed in the following section.

How will the update impact Student and Ambassador record data?

As far as possible, our planned approach to this update will be to provide the new or updated values for each impacted field alongside the old, archived field values. Archived fields will be denoted with an additional “(archived)” in their name; for example, “White – British (11) (archived)”. This is to ensure that members have full control over updating their data values over to the new Data Futures versions, particularly as many of the value changes impact both the wording of the values as well as the HESA assigned code for the value.

The only exception to this approach will be the following values in the Disability field, where the value code has not been changed following the switch the Data Futures, and the wording is the only update to the value. For these examples, we will automatically update the label of the value to match the new HESA wording. The following values will be impacted by this approach:

• A disability, impairment or medical condition that is not listed above (96)
• Blind or a serious visual impairment uncorrected by glasses (58)
• Deaf or a serious hearing impairment (57)
• A specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia, dyspraxia or AD(H)D (51)
• A long standing illness or health condition such as cancer, HIV, diabetes, chronic heart disease, or epilepsy (54)
• A mental health condition, such as depression, schizophrenia or anxiety disorder (55)
• A physical impairment or mobility issues, such as difficulty using arms or using a wheelchair or crutches (56)
• A social/communication impairment such as Asperger’s syndrome/other autistic spectrum disorder (53)

These values will be updated as follows:

• An impairment, health condition or learning difference not listed above (96)
• Blind or have a visual impairment uncorrected by glasses (58)
• D/deaf or have a hearing impairment (57)
• Learning difference such as dyslexia, dyspraxia or AD(H)D (51)
• Long-term illness or health condition such as cancer, HIV, diabetes, chronic heart disease, or epilepsy (54)
• Mental health condition, challenge or disorder, such as depression, schizophrenia or anxiety (55)
• Physical impairment (a condition that substantially limits one or more basic physical activities such as walking, climbing stairs, lifting or carrying) (56)
• Social/communication conditions such as a speech and language impairment or an autistic spectrum condition (53)

As the Nationality field values are significantly different in Data Futures, we will be creating a new Nationality field containing the new values, to ensure members have the opportunity to update their data to the new values in their own time. This is due to the field values changing format from nationality to the country, e.g. “Belgian” to “Belgium”.

How will changes be handled for consistent data codes between the legacy and new data?

As mentioned, we will as far as possible provide the new or updated values for each impacted field alongside the old, archived field values. Where this is not possible will be instances where the same field code value is used between the old, legacy data and the new Data Futures data. This is due to the database only allowing one version of each field code to be active.

In these examples, where the code has been retained and the label has been changed, we will implement the following updates, depending on the context of the change:

1. Where the meaning of the label definition is the same and the language has been updated, we will update the label to the new, current value with the same code being retained.
2. Where the meaning of the label definition is different, we will change the old code to be a minus value, alongside the “(archived)” suffix to be added to its code label. The code will then become available to be used for the new, current version of its label in the Data Futures Data Dictionary.

One example of where this will occur for scenario 1 is the Sexual Orientation field, where the codes 98 and 99 have been reused in the new field values and their label meanings have not changed. As such, the codes will stay the same and the labels will change from “Information refused” to “Prefer not to say” for code 98, and from “Not known” to “Not available” for code 99.

One example of where this will occur for scenario 2 is the Disability field, where the code 98 has been reused in the new field values and the label meaning has changed significantly. As such, in this example the old 98 codes will change to -98 and the label will be updated to “Prefer not to say (archived)” from “Prefer not to say”. This will then free up the code 98 to be used for the new label of “Information not sought”.

Please see the HESA Changelog resource for further information as to which fields will be impacted by the above changes.