Data Collection Schedule

Student record 2022/23 - Data collection schedule

The document below is designed to guide providers through the stages of data submission for the Student record (22056). 

At a glance

May 2023 interim submission: requirements

Data and system requirements

The deadline for the May interim submission is Wednesday 31 May 2023.

You must submit real student data in the May and August interim submissions.

All providers must make their interim submission on HESA Data Platform (HDP). The HDP has additional functionality and visibility so we can support you with your interim submission.

We will not require a complete file (as we anticipate that not all the data will be available) but the file will need to pass schema and the file should contain approximately 50% of students.

Your submission must reflect a real-life submission, so be sustainable, using your software solution or data entry tool.

Sign off

Your Accountable Officer does not need to sign off the May 2023 interim submission.

HESA and Statutory Customers will monitor interim submissions as part of our commitment to full transparency and shared intelligence to prepare all providers for the 2022/23 collection. 

We will require you to confirm via the Issue Management System (IMS) messaging function that your submission meets the listed requirements: this correspondence will be visible to Statutory Customers.

August 2023 interim submission: requirements

Data and system requirements

The deadline for the August interim submission is Friday 18 August 2023.

You must submit real student data in the August interim submission.

All providers must make their interim submission on HESA Data Platform (HDP). The HDP has additional functionality and visibility so we can support you with your interim submission.

The file will need to be very close to a complete file and should contain 90% or higher of student and course information.

The file will need to pass schema and include all mandatory structural elements. Unknown/not available codes should be used where required data is not available.

The file will be subject to full quality assurance processes; however, it is not expected that all outstanding issues will be resolved. If possible, we would encourage you to engage with the Issue Management System (IMS) by responding to a query or uploading a new file to resolve a query.

Your submission must reflect a real-life submission, so be sustainable, using your software solution or data entry tool. 

Sign off

Your Accountable Officer does not need to sign off the August 2023 interim submission.

HESA and Statutory Customers will monitor interim submissions as part of our commitment to full transparency and shared intelligence to prepare all providers for the 2022/23 collection.

We will require you to confirm via the IMS messaging function that your submission meets the listed requirements: this correspondence will be visible to Statutory Customers.

18 August to 27 October 2023: Quality Assurance period

This is an iterative process during which providers may need to submit and review their data several times to ensure the final submission can be approved. The suite of web reports available on the HESA Data Platform (HDP) should be reviewed by the provider to ensure that the data submitted is a credible representation of your organisation.

At the end of August all quality rules triggering in the HDP will be automatically raised as queries in the Issue Management System (IMS) and will be updated following each submission. Please note that the Statutory Customers can also raise data quality queries for providers during this time. Providers will know their specific circumstances and how this affects their data better than anyone else, therefore providers are required to either resubmit their data to correct any errors or provide an explanation and a tolerance request in the IMS as to why the data is genuine.

Responses to data quality queries raised by HESA will be reviewed within 2 working days. However, during busy periods i.e. around the final deadlines please be aware that this may take slightly longer.

Upon satisfactory completion of this process data will be set to approved.

27 October 2023: Final submission to HDP

Providers are required to submit their final file on the HDP by 23:59 on 27 October 2023.

Once the file has been submitted the HDP and IMS will again re-run validation as per all other submissions that may result in additional data quality queries that require a response. Should there be outstanding issues after this deadline providers should ensure they have sufficient time to make any required changes based on these queries and/or respond to these queries ahead of the sign off deadline. If a further submission is required this will be marked as a missed deadline. All data quality queries need to be resolved before the data can be set to approved.

03 November 2023: Sign off

Providers are required to have their data marked as signed off on the HDP by 03 November 2023. The sign-off form needs to be emailed to Liaison before 17:00 on 03 November to guarantee sign off on the deadline.

Once a provider's data has been set to approved on the HDP, users with the ‘Provider HDP Sign Off – Student’ role will be able to progress the submission to the final 'sign off’ stage. Providers are required to complete a sign-off form, which is available to be downloaded from the sign-off webpage.. The sign off form must be completed by the provider’s Accountable Officer (England) or the Head of Provider. Once completed, the form should be emailed to [email protected]. Please note that the File ID on the sign-off form must correspond to that of the data being signed off.

Sign-off completes the submission process. Timely sign off ensures that your data is included in any data deliveries to statutory customers, as well as onward uses of the data for publications and analysis.

Missed Deadlines

English providers should notify the OfS via [email protected] if you foresee any issues with meeting the sign off deadline. If the sign off deadline is not met, a HESA Late Sign Off form will be required by HESA, signed by your Accountable Officer.

Providers in Scotland should notify SFC via [email protected] if you foresee any issues with meeting the sign off deadline.

Providers in Wales and Northern Ireland are required to complete an extension form if they anticipate that the sign off deadline will be missed.

If you do foresee any issues, please get in touch as early as possible so that we can provide additional support and guidance as required.

HESA is required to report any providers who miss any of the deadlines detailed in the schedule to the relevant statutory customer. These are the May and August interim deadlines, nil-return confirmation, final commit and sign-off deadlines.

Post collection information

Providers should download and keep copies of all relevant reports that they are likely to need during the year. This will be necessary as access to the site will be restricted after the collection has closed. Providers are advised to review their expected population reports in preparation for the following collection.

Targets that were set during the collection will be sent to providers and should be reviewed. The record contact will be notified by email once targets have been assigned in the IMS and providers should ensure that processes are put in place to implement any changes to data collection required.

If a provider is aware of any errors in their data, then they should inform their primary funder or regulator. Providers in England should notify Office for Students through the data amendments process. This may result in a request for the provider to go through fixed database. Providers should also notify HESA so a data intelligence note can be created.