Student record 2022/23 - Understanding student continuity and the USN link

What is the USN?  

USN is the linking mechanism used by HESA to track continuing student instances of study between HESA reporting periods. The USN is a combination of three fields, the submitting provider’s UKPRN, the Student.SID, and Engagement.NUMHUS, which uniquely identify an engagement The UKPRN identifies the provider at which the student is registered, the Student.SID identifies the student and the Engagement.NUMHUS identifies particular studies leading to a qualification aim.

USN = UKPRN + SID + NUMHUS

For example, the USN 1000000098116812345621 represents the registration of Peter Smith on a BSc Mathematics course at The University of Poppleton.

USN = 1000000098116812345621

Within a given collection the same USN cannot be used more than once. A student can have more than one engagement but each engagement must be identified by a unique USN. Records with the same USN will fail validation.

The engagement entity

The engagement entity is defined as a student's commitment to an educational aim (qualification or credit) and its realisation over time. The Engagement.NUMHUS uniquely identifies studies leading to a qualification aim. A student registered at a provider undertakes one or several courses; a course being a combination of subject and qualification that together define what the student is aiming for e.g. BSc Mathematics, MA in French etc. Where a student has a single commitment, they will have a single engagement in a collection. Only where a student is undertaking two entirely independent courses will they have two engagements in a collection.

Peter Smith is studying two courses at The University of Poppleton

Further guidance is available in the Engagement guidance page. 

How the USN link works

The USN is a  linking mechanism which is used to track the progression of the student on the engagement from one collection to the next, and thus from commencement of the engagement through to completion. A USN of 1000000098116812345621 represents the registration of Peter Smith on the BSc Mathematics course at The University of Poppleton. Whenever an engagement that details Peter Smith's progress on this BSc Mathematics course is returned to HESA by the provider, the engagement must have the USN of 1000000098116812345621.

Once an engagement has been returned for one HESA collection, an engagement with the same USN will be required for subsequent collections, until an explicit end statement has been received indicating that the student has:

• ended the engagement (the Leaver entity completed)
• or become dormant (code 02 returned in SessionStatus.STATUSCHANGEDTO)

Dormant records

HESA will not assume that a student is dormant on an engagement (on which they were active in the previous collection) if details of the engagement have not been included in the current return. Providers must account for all engagements on which a student was active in the previous collection (and who did not end or suspend study on that programme). This is the case even where the student has been dormant throughout the current reference period; when it is necessary to submit the student course session with a dormant status (code 02 in SessionStatus.STATUSCHANGEDTO). This will satisfy the requirements of the expected engagement continuity checks (QR.STUDENT.Engagement.NUMHUS.002 and QR.STUDENTEngagement.NUMHUS.005).

Where dormant or suspended engagements are re-opened, an engagement with the same USN will continue to be required until a new explicit end statement is received. If the student withdraws from the course from a dormant status, an engagement with Leaver entity should be submitted in order to provide a permanent end statement and where relevant, the QualificationAwarded entity returned.

A dormant status is required in the first year that the student becomes dormant (and did not complete or suspend study on that course) following a period of active study. Once this dormant status has been submitted, it is not necessary to continue submitting dormant engagements every collection, unless a qualification is being returned from the dormant status, or the student resumes study.

USN expected instance population for next collection

In order to assist providers with making their returns to HESA, a list of students for whom a record is required is provided. This population file will be produced by the HESA Data Platform, following a successful submission, and will be applicable to the following collection’s return. The report lists all continuing students for whom a USN record is expected to be returned in the following collection.

Breaking the USN link

The USN link is broken when a provider incorrectly changes the Student.SID and/or the Engagement.NUMHUS assigned to a student engagement. Breaks in the USN link will cause continuity validation errors when the data is submitted.

Breaking the USN that links the records by incorrectly changing Engagement.NUMHUS

Changing the data returned in Engagement.NUMHUS between collections could result in the incorrect conclusion that the engagement relates to Joe Blogg’s progress onto another engagement. This can be caused by a program error mistakenly updating Engagement.NUMHUS on an annual basis.

Breaking the USN that links the records by incorrectly changing Student.SID

Incorrectly assigning more than one Student.SID to a single student may occur if there is more than one student record system in use, e.g. a main student record system and a departmental record system. Once a Student.SID has been assigned to a student, it should be used throughout their experience at the provider. The Student.SID assigned to a given student must never be used for another student.

Assigning the Engagement.NUMHUS to an engagement

When should the USN change?

A student should be allocated a new USN (different NUMHUS) when:

• the student transfers to a course at a different level of study*
• the student completes a course and proceeds to take another, unless it is part of a coherent progression

* Levels of study are defined broadly as: undergraduate, postgraduate taught, postgraduate research. When determining if the different qualifications fall within the same level, providers should refer to the guidance of the relevant funding council/regulating body.

Details of which Qualification.QUALCATs are categorised at each level of study are listed in derived field Level of Study Grouping 2 (Z_LEVELGRP2).

Failure to maintain the USN link from one collection to the next makes tracking the progression of the student on the engagement problematic.

Maintaining the USN Link 

The following examples set out the guidelines for assigning Engagement.NUMHUS and maintaining the USN link.

a) Student continues to study at the same level but on a different course - do not change the Engagement.NUMHUS

If a student continues to study at the same level (i.e. undergraduate, postgraduate taught or postgraduate research) at the same provider but on a different course, then this is treated as the same engagement and the Engagement.NUMHUS should not be changed from one year to the next. This also applies where a student transfers courses by changing subject. 

There are some cases when it is not expected that Engagement.NUMHUS will be retained. This includes cases where the previous engagement has been successfully completed, unless it’s part of a coherent progression.

b) Concurrent study - allocate a new Engagement.NUMHUS to the new course

Where a student follows two distinct engagements concurrently, a new Engagement.NUMHUS should be assigned to the second course, in order to uniquely identify the studies leading to the second qualification aim.

In this example the engagements are distinct in that credits from one engagement cannot count towards the other engagement. Where the qualification aim is provider credit and credits from several courses can be used towards the same qualification, a single engagement should be returned; in these cases multiple USNs should not be generated.

Further guidance is available in the Engagement guidance page. 

c) Normal progression

When a student follows a normal progression route from their original educational aim within the broad level (undergraduate, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research) to a higher qualification (e.g. level 4, 5 or 6) then the same USN should be kept. 

The same student engagement number should be returned where a student registers first for an MPhil and then progresses onto a PhD, if this is regarded as the normal progression route for this qualification aim at the provider.

This would also be the case where a foundation degree and top-up are combined within one course of study.

d) Intercalated degrees

When students intercalate to a second qualification (regardless of level) as part of their overall programme, the intercalation should be reported on the same engagement of study. Engagement.NUMHUS should be retained and Engagement.ENGSTARTDATE should not be updated.

To identify the intercalating year the linked course in StudentCourseSession.COURSEID should be altered for that year of the course. StudentCourseSession.YEARPRG will be the actual year of the course for the current qualification aim. StudentCourseSession.INTERCALATION should be populated with 01 for the duration of the intercalation.

For example, the student below intercalates from their Integrated Masters in Medicine to the third year of a Bachelor degree in Biotechnology.

The student follows the first two years of the medical degree, then intercalates for one year to join the third year of a BSc degree course, and then returns to the original medical degree. In effect the student is recorded as StudentCourseSession.YEARPRG 3 twice: once for the intercalation and once for the medical degree. The length of study undertaken by the student is shown through the Engagement.EXPECTEDENDDATE field.

How should a student be returned by the provider at which they intercalate?

Where a student joins another provider for the intercalating year, the provider at which they are intercalating must return the student in the Student record. For example, a student intercalates in their third year. The provider at which they undertake the intercalated year records the student with an Engagement.ENGSTARTDATE reflecting the date at which the student comes to the provider rather than the commencement date of the engagement at the first provider. StudentCourseSession.YEARPRG should reflect that this is the intercalating year, therefore if the intercalation occurs in the third year StudentCourseSession.YEARPRG should be coded 3. The StudentCourseSession.INTERCALATION flag must be completed in the intercalating year.

e) Withdrawals

Where a student withdraws part way through the course, and then returns within 1 year to the same provider to study at the same level, this can be treated as the same student engagement. The fact that the USN has been closed (by completing Leaver entity) should not preclude the provider from re-opening the record when studies commence again in a future reporting period.

i. Student withdraws and returns to study (course resumed) at the same level in a future reporting period - no requirement to change the Engagement.NUMHUS

ii. Student withdraws and returns to study (new course started) at the same level in a future reporting period - no requirement to change the Engagement.NUMHUS

It is recognised that some student record systems do not allow the Engagement.NUMHUS to be retained for withdrawals. If this is the case allocating a new Engagement.NUMHUS is acceptable. However, maintaining the USN is seen as best practice, to ensure that information relating to the Engagement prior to withdrawal, such as intermediate qualifications awarded and original expected end date can be correctly associated with the new Engagement.

f) Students who spend part of their time overseas

i. Where it is known at the beginning of the course that the student will spend more than 8 consecutive weeks in the UK as part of their course they should be included in the Student record throughout, and will appear on the expected population list until the engagement is closed. Where a student commences studies in the UK but then unexpectedly moves to complete their studies abroad they will need to remain in the Student record until the engagement is closed.

For the year(s) where the student spends part or all of the year abroad, StudyLocation.PRINONUK field should be coded as '01' to indicate the student has spent more than 8 consecutive weeks in the UK. StudentCourseSession.STULOAD or ReferencePeriodStudentLoad.RPSTULOAD should be reduced in these years to reflect only that part of the course undertaken in the UK.

ii. Where study in the UK is optional and it is not known at the outset whether or not the student will come to the UK they should be included in the Aggregate offshore record initially. A full Student record, including entry profile, will need to be returned if and when the student comes to the UK. The Engagement.ENGSTARTDATE returned in the Student record should reflect the start of the engagement rather than the date at which they came to the UK.

Understanding Student Continuity validation

USN is the linking mechanism used by HESA to track continuing student engagements of study between HESA reporting periods.

As for other areas of validation, Continuity checks involve assigning tolerances. To satisfy these checks it is necessary to resolve/explain all issues generated in the Issue Management System.

Full details of the Continuity rules for each data collection are provided within the Quality rules page on the coding manual. This can be filtered on Category to show Continuity rules only.

Continuity checks in the HESA Data Platform 

The Continuity checks ensure consistency in the key data defining the life of the engagement. The USN link is therefore important as it is used to track progression of an engagement through to completion and to analyse retention rates. The quality of individual level data is important to ensure that there is confidence in using the Student record for onwards analysis. Note that this analysis is only ever conducted against anonymised data and never in ways that could affect individuals.

Fuzzy matching

Fuzzy matching is carried out where a USN link cannot be found for an incoming continuing student engagement. Fuzzy matching highlights cases where the Student.SID and/or Engagement.NUMHUS (and sometimes Engagement.ENGSTARTDATE) may have been changed incorrectly between years.

The fuzzy matching process looks at previous student engagements for the submitting organisation and attempts to match on:

• Student.BIRTHDTE where not null on the incoming record
• NAMECAT (Student.SURNAME + ',' + first character of Student.FNAMES (where SURNAME exists on the incoming record)
• Level of study (Derived field Level of Study Grouping 1 (Z_LEVELGRP1)

(An exception is made for students commencing or returning from an intercalating year)

Matching exclusions:

• The engagement is closed with a qualification obtained.
• The last year in which 'live' record was sent to HESA was more than or equal to 3 years ago.
• The engagement started and left within 2 weeks
• Incoming collaborative provision.

Updateability rules: Data inconsistencies in linked engagements

These are types of continuity validation, known as updateability rules, that check for inconsistencies between collections.

USN link found but there is conflicting data within the engagement

The validation considers a range of fields within the return where it is not expected that the data will change between collections. Quality rules are triggered where the data returned in a previous collection has been changed to a different valid entry. 

How to resolve:

• If the data submitted this reference period is incorrect, the record should be amended and resubmitted
• If the data submitted this reference period is correct and represents a genuine data improvement this should be confirmed via Issue Management System

Continuity rules: Continuing engagement not previously returned

No USN link can be found for a submitted engagement that has an Engagement.ENGSTARTDATE in a previous reporting period

Possible match found:  QR.STUDENT.Engagement.NUMHUS.005 and QR.STUDENT.Engagement.NUMHUS.006

Where a direct USN match cannot be located for a student engagement, fuzzy matching is undertaken against the HESA database to find potential matches.

No match found: QR.STUDENT.Engagement.NUMHUS.002 and QR.STUDENT.Engagement.NUMHUS.007 

Where no matches can be found for a continuing student (i.e. a 'live' engagement that did not commence in the current reference period).

Continuity rules: Expected engagement not returned

No USN link can be found for an engagement included on last collection’s expected population list

Possible match found: QR.STUDENT.Engagement.EntryProfile.002 

Where a direct USN match cannot be located for a student engagement fuzzy matching is undertaken against the HESA database to find potential matches.

No match found: QR.STUDENT.Engagement.EntryProfile.003 

Where no matches can be found for a student engagement listed on the expected engagement population report.

Contact Liaison by email or on +44 (0)1242 388 531.