Update to expected arrival of HESA Track data

Updates from Jisc

Jisc reassured us that they have been doing all they can to get this data to us as quickly as possible. However, due to the new Data Futures collection model, extensive quality assurance needed to be conducted. This was necessary to ensure a high-quality, accurate dataset with integrity. Data integrity is particularly important for our longitudinal dataset which must be consistent and as complete as possible over time.

We have been alerted by Jisc 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 (HE) providers.

Jisc are still working internally to finalise the methodology they are using for Continuation status. They said that the methodology has changed due to the change in the student data model and that this would almost certainly affect timeseries analysis. As Jisc’s quality assurance work on this field is still on-going, they have not been able to confirm that the field will be available for newly tracked students in our next linked set, although they are working towards doing so.

We also asked Jisc whether these delays were likely to occur next year, with the following cohort. They said they hoped that the data would be available far earlier next year, likely the Summer.

As per our previous update concerning the refresh of the HESA Snapshot for the 2022/23 Dataset Year, we are now working on extracting the refreshed data from the database in preparation for sending the up-to-date data off to HESA for linking.