KIS 2012-13 review

2012/13 collection feedback

2012/13 was the first collection of KIS so there were teething problems…

Key milestones:

System opened End of March 2012

NSS/DLHE data available July 2012

Last submission and sign-off August 22 2012

Submission stats

HE FECs

Average iterations 14 9

Most iterations 84 34

One-hit wonders 0 3 (2%)

Last submission after 22 August 9% 13%

Date of first submission:

MarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugust

HEIs

MarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugust

FECs

Common issues

How was it for you?

• In your groups discuss and list the key areas that proved problematic and any areas that you feel went well.

• For example….– Evolving guidance – Communication (both internal and external)– Collation of information– Particular fields/concepts

Audit

Background and process

• For 2012/13 HEFCE are undertaking pilot audits at 10 HEIs and 2 FECs chosen at random.

Pre-visitHigh level data review testing whether eligible courses have

been returned

On-siteTwo day visit with detailed

review of a sample of courses focussing on Accreditation data, LTA data, KISTYPE, JACS codes, URLs, links to HESA/ILR courses

Post-visit Formal report issued within a month of completion

Summary of findings

• At the majority of institutions HEFCE found a well managed process

• Generally good quality systems and processes, especially given this is the first time institutions prepared the KIS

• Some issues around interpreting guidance and maintenance of an adequate audit trail to the data returned were identified…

Coverage

KIS or no KIS?

1. A graduate entry medical programme

2. A 3 year full-time BA hons in Sociology

3. A HNC in English literature

4. A new undergraduate degree programme in French

5. A course available in 11/12 but no longer recruiting

KIS types

1. Full course level KIS

2. Multiple subject ss ‘placeholder’ KIS

3. Subject level KIS

Well Not well OK0

10

20

30

40

50

60

How well do the KISTYPE definitions and rules work for your institution?

(%)

Type one or type two?

Does the course have a single programme specification?

If no – type 2 required If yes – type 1 required

Does the course recruit 20 or more students?If yes – type 1 required If no – continue to next question

Does the course have more than 1 JACS code?Yes – continue to next question If no – type 1 required

Type 3 – subject level KIS

• Institutions should produce 1 type 3 KIS for every applicable JACS L2/LDCS subject – e.g. ‘other languages and area based studies’

• Learning & teaching calculation based on 60 credit split (50:50)– Ideally using only students on multiple subject courses

unless this is unrepresentative

• How many stages should a type 3 have? – Depends on level and the norm for the course

Type 2 – ‘placeholder’ KIS

• Type 2 records are used for multiple subject courses that don’t meet the criteria for a type 1.

• Type 2 records were used for approximately 20% of all courses in 2012/13

• This type of record (currently) contains limited information in its own right and instead directs users to the related KIS records which can be used to give a broad picture.

More burdensome?

Directly and indirectly funded numbers

• ‘…where the funding for a long established aim has moved from the franchising arrangement to be directly funded the NSS history etc is lost. Again, this is highly artificial as the aim is the same, the students are recruited in the same way with the same ultimate outcome. The lack of NSS data is not helpful to the student and maybe harmful to our recruitment’.

Feedback from the EEK survey (139/300 – 46.3%)

Part-time courses (guidance for 2012/13)

• Separate KIS records are not required for part-time courses where a full-time version is available

• Return information based on a full-time version of the course (total for 120 credits)• Even if the course is only available part-time

• Calculating LTA methods• Same number of stages as a FT course

This is changing for 2013/14….

Audit findings

Coverage

1. New courses or courses being subject to validation incorrectly not included in the KIS

2. Top-up courses incorrectly included in the KIS

3. Potentially KISable courses incorrectly not linked to the courses in the KIS – exist in HESA and in KIS, but no link between the two!

4. Sandwich courses incorrectly linked to HESACOURSEs that are their FT versions

Field requirements and concepts

Calculating learning, teaching and assessment methods• Non-credit bearing activity – add to the numerator and

denominator in the calculation:Module Credit

ValueNo. Students

Scheduled Teaching and Learning

Scheduled Teaching and learning hours

Independent Study

Placement

Business analysis 20 100 60 120 40 0Marketing essentials

40 100 65 260 35 0

International business

30 75 70 210 30 0

Online retail 30 70 50 150 50 0EU policy 20 49 60 200 40 0

In this year there is also a 2 hour careers talk aimed at business students which all are expected to attend.

(740+2)/(1200+2)*100

Total spent on Scheduled Learning and teaching is 61.8%

Calculation steps

1. Determine the modules that are available 2. Rank in order of number of students taking the module as part of the course in the relevant year.3. Determine the modules that contribute to 1 FTE/120 credits.4. Calculate an average value from these modules:Overall proportion in scheduled teaching and learning =

Hours in scheduled/total hours

Calculating learning, teaching and assessment methods continued…

• Additional placement hours can be a problem as they should be capped at 10 per credit…But where external requirements dictate that students spend significantly more than 10 hours per credit, follow the same treatment as non-credit bearing hours.

Test your knowledge!

• In your groups work through ‘Calculating learning, teaching and assessment methods’ tasks 1-4

Task oneUsing the information in the table below indicate which modules would be used to calculate the learning and teaching methods for the first stage of the BA Hons Business Studies degree. Each stage of this course is 120 credits.

Module Credit Value

No. Students Module status

Used for learning and teaching calculation?

Used for assessment calculation?

Business analysis 20 100 Core Yes YesMarket testing 20 40 Optional Managing people

30 30 Optional

International business

30 75 Optional Yes Yes

Online retail 30 70 Optional Yes YesMarketing essentials

40 100 Core Yes Yes

EU policy 20 49 Optional

Task two

Module Credit Value

No. Students

Scheduled Teaching and Learning %

Scheduled Teaching and learning hours

Independent Study

Placement

Russian revolution

20 100 60 120 40 0

Medicine and disease in Britain

40 100 65 260 35 0

The politics of protest

30 75 70 210 30 0

Cultural history of modern war

40 70 50 150 50 0

Globalisation 10 49 60 200 40 0Reformation 20 40 50 100 50 0

Using the table below select which modules would be used for calculating the learning teaching and assessment methods for the 120 credit stage of a BA Hons History degree:

Does this module selection pose any problems? (I.e. is it in line with the guidance/will the calculation work)

The sum of the credit values is 130 not 120

In the calculation you would need to scale back the last module by ¼ to make the calculation 120 credits

Task threePoppleton have used the modules below to calculate the learning and teaching methods for the KIS type 3 for Sociology. The last two modules in the list have been discounted because they have fewer students enrolled.Do you think their approach correct and why?

Type 3 – Sociology

Module Credit value Students on moduleReligion 30 70Gender and Society 20 68Intro to social analysis 30 68Crime and deviance 20 50Research methods 20 45Sociology of education 20 40Social theory of law 20 38

Type 3s should be based on 60 credits or ½ FTE

Task four

• In your groups match the activities to the categories Scheduled

Seminar

Tutorial Field trip to a gallery as part of an art course

Subject specific careers talk Webinars

Placement

Language study year in France Teaching placement on a veterinary course

Independent

Time spent reading course texts One-to-one feedback on assessments

Written

3 hour written examination

‘Take home’ exam

Coursework

Dissertation Field work report

Report on lab work Portfolio of art work Performance in a theatre production

Practical

German oral examination Debate

WBL or placement?

Work-based learning (scheduled)

Structured learning that occurs in the work place.

Work-based learning is a structured academic programme, controlled by the higher or further education institution, and delivered in the workplace by academic staff of the institution, staff of the employer, or both.

Placement (placement)

Learning away from the institution that is neither a year abroad nor WBL.

The term covers any learning, other than years abroad and work-based learning, that takes place through an organised work opportunity, rather than in a university or college setting, and includes managed placements.

For 2013/14 both appear under PLACEMENT

Estimate or accurate?

• 40% LTACT and ASSACT marked as estimates for 2012/13– expected to decrease for 2013/14

• When can ‘estimates’ be used?– The course is new– The course has been redesigned– If you are using data from a partner institution?

Non-credit assessment

• Indicates whether the course includes required assessments that cannot be associated with the award of credit, yet are nonetheless a requirement of successful completion of the course.

• Examples:– Placements and observations– Class tests

• What about CRB checks etc. that are required for entry to the programme?– These should not be included as they are on entry not during the course.

Audit findingsLearning, teaching and assessment

Incorrect blanket labelling of LTA data as estimate

Incorrect classification of L&T elements and assessment components, either due to errors or misunderstanding of guidance (in particular coursework often incorrectly treated as practical assessment)

Different modules used for L&T than for Assessment percentages calculations

LTA calculations incorrectly based on 120 credits for KISTYPE=3

More than 120 credits per stage included in the calculations where it was not appropriate

LTA percentages incorrectly weighted not only by module credit values but also by the number of students on the module

Core modules incorrectly not included in the LTA calculations

UCAS feed

The UCAS feed to KIS only includes courses for which all of the KIS specific fields have been completed so if a course is missing support information it will not be included in the file.

KISCOURSE.UCASCOURSEID1: Warning: UCASCourseids are not on the current list of courses supplied by UCAS. This was last updated on the XX-XX-XXXX

Fees

• How do I report zero fees?

If the students on a particular course would never pay fees a zero fee is needed. In 2012/13 this wasn’t possible so a fee of £1 had to be reported through UCAS or a switch requested through HESA/HEFCE.

For 2013/14 you are able to report zero fees through UCAS and HESA/HEFCE (but may need a switch)!

Fees for years out

• How do I report fees for sandwich years?

Compulsory sandwich years should be reflected in the learning and teaching methods (via a year with 100% placement) and in the fee data. For example:Year 1 = £9000Year 2 = £9000Year 3 = £1000 (sandwich year)Year 4 = £9000

The average maximum is therefore (9000+9000+1000+9000)/4 = £7,000

Fees continued…

Where any of the fields KISCourse.ENGFEE, KISCourse.SCOTFEE, KISCourse.WAFEE, KISCourse.NIFEE, KISCourse.WAIVER, KISCourse.MEANSSUP, KISCourse.VARFEE or KISCourse.OTHSUP exist then all must exist

…Or in other words if you return one you must return them all!

KISCourse.FEETBC must equal 1 when any of the following exist: KISCourse.ENGFEE, KISCourse.NIFEE, KISCourse.WAFEE, KISCourse.SCOTFEE, KISCourse.VARFEE , KISCourse.WAIVER, KISCourse.MEANSSUP, KISCourse.OTHSUP

For 2013/14 the link between fees and support is being broken so you can return partial information initially.

Audit findings – fields and concepts

Miscellaneous

Incorrect reporting of average fee for courses including placement years (HEFCE e-mailed the sector on 15.01.13)

Incorrect use of JACS codes (reflecting the subject of the department where the courses are taught and not the area of study)

Accreditation

Incorrectly claiming accreditation where it has only been applied for

Recording things as accreditation that do not meet the definition

DLHE data (for 2012/13)

DLHE data includes: Salary data includes:• Responses from those in

full-time employment (unless the KIS course is part-time only)

• Self-employed leavers but not voluntary

• Responses from full-time graduates unless the KIS course is Part-time only

• Responses from those in both full and part-time employment

This is changing for 2013/14….

Post-collection issues

• UNISTATS – Search facility– Data download

• Updates & sign off– The 12061 record is currently open for updates to be made– Updates need to be signed-off before they can be

published

Audit findings: Process and publication

Process Widget

Data not signed off by the Head of Institution (only appropriate in exceptional circumstances)

Widgets not clearly visible on the course websites

Poor audit trail to data, because programme and/or module specifications were not maintained up to date or are not detailed enough

Widgets not showing on the websites for PT versions of the courses

Unistats

User experiences

Who is using unistats

000 visits % of visitsEngland 171 83.6

N Ireland 3 1.7Scotland 8 3.9

Wales 6 2.7Other 16 8.1

Domicile of Unistats website users (based on Google Analytics data for number of visits, launch to 9 January 2013 inclusive)

• Much lower use at weekends- consistent with a substantial proportion of use by professionals or employees during their working day

• Suggests a substantial proportion of usage to date has been by careers professionals, others in advisory roles and HE staff

Awareness• There is both awareness and usage of the Unistats

site across all four nations of the UK, although dominantly in England (and across all its regions)

• However, 8% of visits were from outside the UK (and 15% within the last 2 months)

• Participants in the evaluation survey and user testing fieldwork did not identify any of Unistats’ direct competitors as having a higher level of brand recognition than Unistats

Used site (%)

Heard of but not used (%)

Not aware of site (%)

Unistats 59 15 26

How are they getting there

• Web analytics reveal that most users to date have come to the site directly by typing in the URL (73%), rather than following a link from another website (‘referrals’, 10%) or from a search engine (18%)

• Of those using a search engine, the majority (over 60%) searched for the term “Unistats”

• At this early stage, most (68%) of referrals to the site have been from the widgets on HEI sites

• Social media currently account for very few referrals to the site

How are they using the site

• The analytics data show that use of the site to date has been substantial, with the average length of visit over 8 minutes

• Analysis of user behavior suggests that 38% of visits involve use of the search function on the site

• Of these in-site searches, 21% of the 200 most commonly searched terms have been HE institutions (compared with 73% course subjects)

• This pattern of behavior is significant as the current search functionality does not produce results for institutions or locations (or information other than course titles)

What are their thoughtsUseful facts and figures.

Well summarized and presented. Important

data has been considered and well presented. (Parent)

I liked the clear layout of the site and how easily you can

get around it, I think the shortlist and comparison

button are very clever and useful rather than having 5

windows open and having to click back and forth to

compare statistics (Sixth Form Student)

Needs to be more clear where info

comes from, brand of site

(Parent)

Subject categories should be explained better e.g. Social Science included

Economics(Sixth Form Student)

Search by institution is ‘bizarre’. A-Z is not

easy to use. For example City of

Westminster is not under C but other

City institutions are. (Careers Adviser)

Comparison page is very easy to read. Shortlist option is

useful (Sixth Form Student)

You can see the differences in the levels of employment after

the course which is useful in decision which course to pick. I

also like how you can know how different courses are taught in different ways

(Sixth form student)

Next steps

• Unistats search facility- Improvements and optimisation of searches on current site

expected post-September 2013• Mobile phone app- Unistats mobile site is expected for this calendar year• Promotional activity- To take place this year and designed to raise Unistats profile• Revisions to the widget- Changes based on user feedback are expected• Presentation of data not meeting thresholds- A group is discussing the issue in March

KIS 2013/14

The context – EEK!

• A survey of providers was undertaken following their completion of data submission for year 1

• Designed to understand the issues and difficulties institutions had experienced

• 40% of providers responded to the survey (85 HEIs, 42 FECs and 3 alternative providers)

• Suggestions for change to the technical specification were encouraged…

• …much of the change for 2013/14 aligns with user requirements (both institutional and student)

Coverage

KISCourse.KISTYPE

• Institutions are now able to return KISTYPE 1s for all of their provision irrespective of cohort sizes

• KISTYPE 2s and 3s will still exist as concepts in the record specification for those institutions who find them useful

• This will allow teaching & learning methods etc to be returned for all courses

• KISTYPE 2s now have additional information returned for them e.g. fee information

NEW!

Coverage for franchise arrangements

• In general the KIS for franchised provision should be returned by the teaching institution…

• …even where the course contains students registered at different institutions (for example where an FEC has both direct and indirect funding)

• The exceptions to this rule are:- Where the entirety of an institution's provision is franchised out from

a single institution i.e. everything delivered at Poppleton College is from Poppleton University so that the college does not do a KIS – in such cases the registering institution (University) would return the KIS

- Where the course is delivered at two or more institutions as part of the same course – in such cases the registering institution would return the KIS

Example 1 and 2

• Washington University franchise out a course to Adams College (NF) and have no other franchise partners

- Washington University would do the KIS as the teaching institution is not able to submit KIS data

• Washington University (MF) franchise out a course to Jefferson College (MF)

- Jefferson College, as the teaching institution, would do the KIS

NF – not directly funded

MF – directly funded or mix of indirect funding partners

Example 3 and 4

• Franklin College (MF) (only) teaches a course with students from Washington Uni (MF) and Jefferson College (MF)

- In such cases the teaching institution, Franklin College, would do the KIS

• Washington (MF) franchise out a course to Franklin (MF) and Adams (NF) – a student will only study at one college

- Franklin return the KIS, as do Washington (on behalf of Adams)

NF – not directly funded

MF – directly funded or mix of indirect funding partners

Example 5

• Washington University (MF) franchises out to Jefferson College (MF) and Franklin College (DF)

- Jefferson College and Franklin College will do a KIS as teaching institutions

NF – not directly funded

MF – directly funded or mix of indirect funding partners

Full-time versus part-time

• A new mode field allows institutions to display part-time courses separately from their full-time equivalent within KIS (previously where full-time existed the distinction could not be made)

• This will mean students can see where the course is offered in a full-time and part-time mode

NEW!

KISCourse.KISMODE

• New field replacing KISCourse.PTONLY• Valid entries 1 Full-time, 2 Part-time or 3 Both• ‘Both’ should be used where the same course is offered in

both a full-time and part-time route• If the institution advertises the course as both full and

part-time, then code 3 'Both’ should be returned. This will produce two KIS in the output file, each with linked student data (NSS, DLHE, entry, continuation) from the correct mode…

• …i.e. the two outputs will have differing student data• FT = FT data only, PT = PT data only

NEW!

Optional components

• In 2012/13 KIS return additional components were either included or excluded from course stages within the KIS based on whether students were ‘expected’ to take them

• For 2013/14 the three main additional components will be captured through 3 new fields:

- KISCourse.FOUNDATION- KISCourse.SANDWICH- KISCourse.YEARABROAD• Where the components are optional the year should not be

reflected as a course stage or in fees• The new fields will facilitate searching and filtering on Unistats

NEW!

KISCourse.FOUNDATION

• The FOUNDATION field (returned for KISTYPE 1 or 2) should be completed to reflect the availability of an integrated foundation year:

• 0 ‘Not available’ 1 ‘Optional’ 2 ‘Compulsory’• If an institution advertises the course as having an

integrated foundation year and again separately as having no foundation year, then two KIS must be returned

NEW!

KISCourse.SANDWICH

• The SANDWICH field (returned for KISTYPE 1 or 2) should be completed to reflect the availability of a sandwich placement:

• 0 ‘Not available’ 1 ‘Optional’ 2 ‘Compulsory’• Sandwich components involve work placements only.

Work placements abroad should be returned in this field, and not in KISCourse.YEARABROAD

• Where KISCOURSE.SANDWICH = 2 then the sum of all KISCourse.CourseStage.PLACEMENT must be greater than 75

• Where SANDWICH=2, VARFEE must equal 11 or 21

NEW!

KISCourse.YEARABROAD

• The YEARABROAD field (returned for KISTYPE 1 or 2) should be completed to reflect the availability of a study year abroad:

• 0 ‘Not available’ 1 ‘Optional’ 2 ‘Compulsory’• Study years abroad relate only to years of study

abroad and not to work placements (which should be reflected in the SANDWICH field)

• Where YEARABROAD=2, VARFEE must equal 11 or 21

NEW!

Multiple options

• If two industry placements, or study times abroad equate to 100% of a single course stage, then KISCourse.SANDWICH and KISCourse.YEARABROAD should be coded as either 1 ’Optional’ or 2 ‘Compulsory’…

• …however if these two industry placements, or study times abroad do not equate to an entire course stage, then the fields should be coded as 0 ‘Not available’, however appropriate information should be included in the course stage information

• In the second stage of a course, the student can choose to complete a 3 month placement in industry. The course stage is 9 months long in total, and so the placement is 33% of the entire stage. This would mean that KISCourse.SANDWICH would be coded 0 ‘Not available’ as it does not total an entire course stage, however, the course stage information would reflect 33% of stage being undertaken as a placement.

Y2 3

021

Submitted would be 1!

Y1 - HND2

Y20 – not a year!00

Course title

The issue!

• This process resulted in misspelling of subjects and qualifications…

• …as well as a myriad of approaches to what should be included

• Course titles in KIS 2012/13 were determined through the free text field TITLE

The solution

• KISCourse.HONOURS- Records whether the course aim (on successful

completion) would result in honours degree- 0 ‘not an honours’ 1 ‘is an honours’• KISCourse.KISAIM- Records the course qualification e.g. 00 for BA - Field uses a lookup table• KISCourse.TITLE- Records the title of the course e.g. History- Use natural capitalisation only

NEW!

Location information

Location, location, location

• It was established that users of KIS would like to know the location of courses that they are applying to…

• …particularly important where a course is offered in multiple locations, and potentially a significant distance away from the providers main campus

• This could potentially result in misleading information about accommodation costs provided through KIS

• For 2013/14 the KIS record will include location information linked to by each individual KIS course

Location entity

• The entity belongs to the institution rather than to individual KIS courses and is used as meta data that is linked to

• Any given institution can have up to 50 locations to reflect where the course is taught

• A location is determined by the institution…• …however each must be at least 1km away from

each other• Every KIS course must be linked to a location through

the same LOCID being returned in both

NEW!

Defining a location

• Each location must have a unique LOCID (a two character alpha-numeric field)...

• …given a name within LOCNAME…• …and positioned using LONGTITUDE and LATITUDE

(returned as decimal degrees, to 6 decimal places i.e. Latitude: 51.898517, Longitude: -2.078651)…

• …and identified where it is being taught at a different institution (e.g. partner/franchise) through LOCUKPRN

Linking a course to a location

• KIS courses are linked to locations by returning the relevant Location.LOCID within the KISCourse.LOCID

• The location should reflect where the student will spend the majority of their first year

• If the course location will change after the first year then the KISCourse.LOCCHANGE field must be set to ‘1 The course does change location’

• Where it is possible to take the course at different locations then the KISCourse.LOCID field should be repeated within KISCourse to reflect each of them

Example

BA (Hons) HistoryLOCID = GL

BSc (Hons) PhysicsLOCID = GL

BA (Hons) Business StudiesLOCID = GLLOCID = CHLOCID = WR

HND Event PlanningLOCID = WR

Accommodation

• Accommodation information now relates to a location as opposed to the institution as a whole…

• …thus accommodation information (for example the number of beds, the lower and upper costs of institutional and private accommodation) will differ depending on the location

• Where two separate courses have different locations but utilise the same accommodation – the latter will need to be returned in both locations

NEW!

A1 00999999”””00000123

A2A3B%C1

2*A2

*and has to be to account for location change

B% 1

Accreditation

Recording accreditation

• In 2012/13 KIS accreditation information was displayed through completing a free text field (ACCTYPE) to describe the type and an ID to identify the accrediting body ID (ACCBODYID)

• This process has now changed with ACCBODYID removed from the record for 2013/14 and ACCTYPE changed

• It remains the case that if accreditation is at institution level rather than course level and provided it applies to all courses offered by the institution, the information should be returned on every KIS

• Accreditation can now be recorded against KISTYPE 2s

Accreditation fields

• ACCTYPE is now a 5-character composite code incorporating both the body (as the prefix) and type of accreditation (as a suffix)

• ACCDEPEND captures where accreditation is dependent on student choice e.g. module selection

- 1 dependent on choice 0 not dependent on choice

NEW!

Contact the accrediting body

ACCDEPEND = 1, however if core then 0

Fee information

Fee data

• Fee data is still either provided directly by the institution or by UCAS (through returning KISCourse.UCASCOURSEID)…

• …and provides the average maximum fee (excluding any fee waivers or discounts offered) for the course for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales domiciled students

• Where a fee waiver is available this should be identified by setting KISCourse.WAIVER to 1

• Courses for which fees will vary between years should be flagged within KISCourse.VARFEE

• Where fees are yet to be confirmed then KISCourse.FEETBC should be set to 0

• KIS 2013/14 will require fee information to be provided for KISTYPE 2s as well

NEW!

Support data NEW!

• Support data such as WAIVER, MEANSSUP and OTHSUP are now required for KISTYPE 1 or (new for this year) 2, and are no longer allowed for KISTYPE 3

• Validation link between fees and support data has been broken…

• …allowing institutions to return support information for a course despite not knowing fee levels

Aggregation

2012/13 KIS principles

• Student, DLHE and NSS data added to KIS records at either a course level (where the thresholds allowed) or at subject level (where thresholds not met)

• Data added by either linking directly to a HESA/ILR course or using JACS and LEVEL fields for new courses

• KIS courses linked to two years worth of HESA/ILR• HEIs not able to link to ILR courses• FECs not able to link to HESA course• Where a single KIS course is linked to multiple HESA/ILR

courses then, when mapped to JACS level 3, the set of JACS codes for each HESA/ILR course must be the same

2013/14 KIS principles

• Student, DLHE and NSS data added to KIS records at either a course level (where the thresholds allowed) or at subject level (where thresholds not met)

• Data was added by either linking directly to a HESA/ILR course or using JACS and LEVEL fields for new courses

• KIS courses now linked to three years worth of HESA/ILR• HEIs now able to link to ILR courses• FECs now able to link to HESA course• Where a single KIS course is linked to multiple HESA/ILR courses then,

when mapped to JACS level 3, the set of JACS codes for each HESA/ILR course must be the same…

• …switch can now be requested in exceptional cases• When linked to HESA or ILR data KISCourse.KISAIM must be at the same

level e.g. first degree

NEW!

NEW!

NEW!

NEW!

NEW!

HESACourse and ILRAim

• Student, DLHE and NSS data is still linked through returning a HESACourse, ILRAim or (new for this year) both…

• …however the HESAYEAR and ILRYEAR fields now reflect 3 years worth of data…

- 2009, 2010, 2011• …with the ‘BOTH’ option removed• This means that the HESACourse or ILRAims entities

must be repeated to reflect each year the course existed

NEW!

How it works – in its simplest form

HESA/ILR data linked to by specifying the unique ID (COURSEID or ILRAIMID), the number of years (HESAYEAR or ILRYEAR)

OR

Where the course is new, the LEVEL and JACS fields must be completed allowing the linking to return any relevant data from that subject area for the specified level

The aggregation

The issues

• The number of courses not meeting the threshold is an issue that will not go away – thresholds are there to protect institutions and users of unistats

• Institutions involved in collaborative arrangements and where the NSS/DLHE data of such students appears…

• …with FECs wanting to be able to include NSS/DLHE results from students taught at their institution…

• …as well as institutions who wish to exclude those students not taught at their institution

HEI FEC

Student allocation for NSS/DLHE 2012/13

HEI FEC

Student allocation for NSS/DLHE 2013/14

How it will work

• Institution.OTHERINST – identifies those institutions who are partners of the returning institution that has provision franchised in from

• A number of other fields then determine where the students are allocated:

- KISCourse.TEACHUKPRN – indicates the institution undertaking the teaching for new courses only

- HESACourse/ILRAims.TEACHUKPRN – indicates the institution undertaking the teaching where a HESA or ILR course exist

- HESACourse/ILRAims.REGUKPRN – indicates the registering institution for the HESA or ILR course

NEW!

Example 1

• Washington University franchise out a course to Adams College (NF) and have no other franchise partners

- Washington University would do the KIS as the teaching institution is not able to submit KIS data

NF – not directly funded

MF – directly funded or mix of indirect funding partners

OTHERINST TEACHUKPRN REGUKPRN HESACOURSEID ILRAIMID

NO YESAdams College

NO YESTheir own

NO

Example 2

• Washington University (MF) franchise out a course to Jefferson College (MF)

- Jefferson College, as the teaching institution, would do the KIS

OTHERINST TEACHUKPRN REGUKPRN HESACOURSEID ILRAIMID

YESWashington’s

NO YESWashington’s

YESWashington’s

YESTheir own

NF – not directly funded

MF – directly funded or mix of indirect funding partners

Example 3

• Franklin College (MF) (only) teaches a course with students from Washington Uni (MF) and Jefferson College (MF)

- In such cases the teaching institution, Franklin College, would do the KIS

OTHERINST TEACHUKPRN REGUKPRN HESACOURSEID ILRAIMID

YESWashington’s

Jefferson’s

NO YESWashington’s

(HESA)Jefferson’s

(ILR)

YESWashington’s

YESTheir ownJefferson’s

NF – not directly funded

MF – directly funded or mix of indirect funding partners

Example 4

• Washington (MF) franchise out a course to Franklin (MF) and Adams (NF) – a student will only study at one college

- Franklin return the KIS, as do Washington (on behalf of Adams)

OTHERINST TEACHUKPRN REGUKPRN HESACOURSEID ILRAIMID

YESWashington’s

NO YESWashington’s

YESWashington’s

YESTheir own

OTHERINST TEACHUKPRN REGUKPRN HESACOURSEID ILRAIMID

NO YESAdams’

NO YESTheir own

NO

FRANKLIN’S RETURN:

WASHINGTON’S RETURN:

NF – not directly funded

MF – directly funded or mix of indirect funding partners

Example 5

• Washington University (MF) franchises out to Jefferson College (MF) and Franklin College (MF)

- Jefferson College and Franklin College will do a KIS as teaching institutions

NF – not directly fundedDF – directly funded

OTHERINST TEACHUKPRN REGUKPRN HESACOURSEID ILRAIMID

YESWashington’s

NO YESWashington’s

YESWashington’s

YESTheir own

OTHERINST TEACHUKPRN REGUKPRN HESACOURSEID ILRAIMID

YESWashington’s

NO YESWashington’s

YESWashington’s

YESTheir own

JEFFERSON’S RETURN:

FRANKLIN’S RETURN:

A few principles

• The data field Module.TINST from the HESA Student record will be used to allocate the correct students to franchised institutions…

• …thus ensuring that they are only allocated students they have taught

• Where an institution A teaches a course and also franchises out the same course to institution B (thus there are two KIS’), then it is possible there will be slight duplication if institution B claim their students as institution A will have all of those registered with them.

Y

-87654321HNDBUS

---

87654321

YES9999999999999999

-FILPRO

---

YES

-87654321

FILPRO---

87654321

YES---

ENVIRO---

YES

-87654321ENVIRO

PUENV

--

87654321

Course stages

Course stages recap!

• Each course stage within a KIS should be separately identified and defined (through CourseStage.STAGE) i.e. 1, 2 or 3…

• …and then by determining the percentage of the stage that is delivered through scheduled teaching and learning (CourseStage.SCHEDULED), independent study (CourseStage.INDEPENDENT), and placement study (CourseStage.PLACEMENT)…

• …and the percentage split of how the stage is assessed – COURSEWORK, WRITTEN, PRACTICAL

How are stages defined?

• The stage should be based on typical module selections of students on the course

• Thus all modules available to the course should be ranked in relation to the number of students who took the module. The credit values for these modules should then be summed to 1 FTE (120 credits) with all those after this point disregarded

• The 1 FTE worth of modules should then be used to determine the split between assessment and teaching and learning methods

• Where the process above leads to the inclusion of modules on which less than 10% of students are registered, institutions should make a reasonable judgement as to whether the selection of modules is representative

Changes

• If in an hour timetable slot the teaching typically lasts 50 minutes, with 10 minutes scheduled to move between buildings, this pattern should be recorded as 1 hour

• Work based learning has been moved out of scheduled learning, and into placements

NEW!

Course lengths for KIS type 2s

• Currently this is not possible and the length of study is determined through course stages returned for the type 3s it is linked to…

• …therefore the type 2 course might be 4 years in length but it is displayed as 3 years because it is linking to type 3s

KISCourse.NUMSTAGE

• New field which identifies the total number of stages for a KISTYPE 2…

• …and should only be returned where both a linked KISCourse.KISTYPE = 3 and KISCourse.KISTYPE = 2 exist

• The information will indicate where a KISTYPE 3 may not have the same number of stages as a KISTYPE 2

NEW!

1 – would be 2 if compulsory

3

Other new fields

• KISCourse.NHS - required to ensure that NHS placement questions are only displayed for courses that are funded by the NHS

• Institution.SUURL – required to link to student union from Unistats

• Location.SUURL has also been added to the data specification and is designed to be able to display the student union that belongs to a particular location

• Remember that all url fields have a Welsh equivalent!

NEW!

Data collection

C13061

Data collection

• From 2013/14 HEIs will submit data to HESA via the data collection system (https://submit.hesa.ac.uk)– FECs will continue submitting to HEFCE

• Timescales remain relatively unchanged:First release of validation kit March 2013System opens 29 May 2013DLHE & NSS data added June/July 2013

Last submission & sign-off deadline August 2013

Preview of UNISTATS and widgets August/September 2013

System re-opens for updates End of September 2013

Overlapping timescales

• Systems will need to be able to store different course

• Institutions will potentially be updating two separate records at the same time on two systems

• Need to maintain two years worth of data separately – take care which KIS is being updated!

Submitting data to HESA

• Data is submitted to HESA through the ‘Aardvark’ data collection system

• The ‘INSERT’ transaction allows the user to send data files to Aardvark

• Once data has been sent to HESA the validation process begins…

Submission process

• UCAS, DLHE and NSS data will be added when it becomes available

• When a new UCAS file is available the UCAS Fees report will be updated

Validation Kit

• The first stage validation checks carried out in the HESA and HEFCE systems are available within the validation kit that HESA provides for users to download

• Available to download from the HESA website • After validation checks are complete, the user is able

to switch off validation rules that need further investigation

• To be released March 2013

Stages of validation

Schema• Schema rules look at the structure of the file and check that

the submission conforms to the data type• Error: The ‘STAGE’ element is invalid – the value ‘0’ is invalid

according to its datatype ‘STAGEType’

Business• Business rules look at each KIS Course in turn and apply a

level of logic – if X = Y then Z must equal S• Accreditation.ACCDEPENDURL must exist where

Accreditation.ACCDEPEND = 1

Exception •Exception rules look at the file as a whole and then apply logic. This stage also includes look-ups to static data held behind the scenes.•Institution.PRIVATEUPPER.1 Error Must exist unless KISCourse.DISTANCE = 1 for all KISCourse.KISTYPE = 1 or KISCourse.KISTYPE = 3 KISCourses without KISCourse.ILRAIMS or KISCourse.HESACOURSE entities and all linked courses are distance learning.

Reports

• Raw data files– Once the data has been submitted HESA will save a copy of

the raw data for institutions to download and also an ‘enhanced’ raw data file which includes the relevant UCAS data

• UCAS Fees report– The UCAS file contains information on fees and a new full

file will be available every day– This data will be incorporated into the ‘Enhanced’ file

• UNISTATS file– This is the output xml file for your institution

Check Documentation

• The check documentation is the most substantial of the reports generated

• In 2012/13 HEFCE produced a large Excel workbook which presented back the raw data and also the supplied/calculated data

• HESA are splitting this into two outputs – one with the input data and one with the additional UNISTATS outputs

Reports on the data collection system

Validation

Raw data

UCAS data

NSS/DLHE/Student data

Verification

Post sign-off/go-live updates

• Following initial closure at the end of August, the system will re-open in September for updates to be made

• These will be published on a weekly basis, but a new sign-off will be required following each update

• For HEIs the sign-off will be handled through a paper form which can be returned electronically by email to Institutional Liaison

• Sign-off should be by the head or acting head of the institution

The HESA website

• We are currently reviewing the coding manual and additional support sections of our website

• Your views are sought on the usability of these pages

• If you have any specific comments you would like to share please email liaison@hesa.ac.uk

• http://www.hesa.ac.uk/c13061

Data collection and submission

The Institutional Liaison team are there to help with all aspects of the return from local collection of data items through to final submission and sign-off

Contact the teamliaison@hesa.ac.uk01242 211144

HESA-KIS@JISCMAIL.AC.UK

HESA information and discussion forum for staff involved in preparing and submitting the KIS

These lists are used to circulate email news alerts from HESA regarding data requirements, coding manuals and validation kit releases

Want to join? email liaison@hesa.ac.uk or visit www.jiscmail.ac.uk

Preparing for KIS

Using the downloadable files

• HESA generate a number of downloadable files from Student and DLHE submissions that can be used…

• …POPDLHE, UNISTATS (continuation rates), NSS from Student…

• …UNISTATS (employment data) from DLHE• Recommendation to ensure you have access to these

files…• …and use them to understand potential issues with

your KIS submission

Keep in touch

If you require additional training help, including bespoke visits to your institution, get in touch with the training department…w: www.hesa.ac.uk/traininge: training@hesa.ac.ukt: 01242 211472

Follow us on Twitter: @HESATraining