Statutory Returns
Planning and Information is responsible for the collation of data and the production of timely, valid and accurate student number related statutory returns required by government agencies.
Two key returns are:
- HESES (Higher Education Students Early Statistics) Survey
- HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) Student Record
They are both used by central government to allocate funding and are also used by other organisations that report on the HE sector.
Other returns are:
- HESA NCBC (Non Credit-Bearing Course) Record
- RAS (Research Activity Survey)
- Training and Development Agency (TDA) Census Return
Data collated also informs:
- Financial forecasts provided to the Funding Council
- TRAC (Transparent Approach to Costing) Return
Reconciliation of data is undertaken to ensure consistency between these and other statutory returns (e.g. HESA Student Record / HESES / RAS, HESA Student / Staff / Finance Records etc.).
The non credit-bearing course (NCBC) record is an annual return to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), including all UK students (on or off campus) who do not come within the scope of the HESA individualised student return. The Return comprises two fields per student: costcentre and contact hours. Coverage includes:
- All students who are registered/enrolled with the reporting institution or a subsidiary company on programmes of study that do not lead to a qualification or credit (typically those courses leading to ‘certificates of attendance / proficiency’)
- Students who are studying on credit-bearing programmes of study but on a not-for-credit basis employees attending in-house programmes of study run by institutions.
The HESA NCBC takes 3 major stages as follows
- May - Verification of NCBC courses being run
- July - Gathering of relevent data for return
- August - Return run and returned to HESA
The Academic Planning Team are responsible for providing the student number data to inform the Research Activity Survey. The survey asks institutions to update data from that years survey on fundable research students who are eligible to pay home and EC fees. HEFCE use these data in order to distribute the Research Degree Programme support funding for the next academic year.
The trainee numbers census is an annual data collection of trainee registrations at LJMU, as an Initial Teacher Training (ITT) provider, in each academic year. The survey collects information on the numbers of trainees registered (or are planning to register) on TDA-funded ITT courses during the current academic year. The census date for each year is the second Wednesday in October.
The information is used to:
- Determine funding and holdback for ITT providers
- Monitor the recruitment of under-represented groups in ITT
- Monitor the recruitment of new entrants against intake targets.
The TDA website link can be found here TDA
Financial forecasts represent the institution’s strategic plan in financial terms and are integral to it. As such, they reflect the financial strategy to underpin an institution’s mission and objectives. HEFCE use the financial forecasts:
- To monitor the financial health of institutions, and identify which ones have, or may have, financial difficulties.
- To find out whether institutions’ strategic, physical infrastructure and financial plans are integrated.
- To inform advice to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills on the financial needs and prospects of the HE sector.
