Further Guidance on Returning Venues and StudyLocations

Depending on the type of activity a student is undertaking their location activity is recorded in different ways and to different levels of detail.

The following fields and entities record locations information:

• Venue entity: records the name, postcode and delivery organisation for a Venue
• StudyLocation: either links the StudentCourseSession to the Venue the student is studying at or that the student is distance learning or outside the UK (where they will spend the majority of their Engagement outside the UK)
• StudentCourseSession.PLACEMENT: records if the StudentCourseSession contains a placement and whether it meets the definition of thick or thin sandwich
• StudentCourseSession.STUDYABROAD: records if the student is studying abroad for some or all of the StudentCourseSession
• OffVenueActivity: records details of placements and study abroad activity

Relationship between StudyLocation and OffVenueActivity

The below principles should be followed when determining whether to record activity in 
StudyLocation or OffVenueActivity.

• Whilst a StudentCourseSession can have both StudyLocation and OffVenueActivity returned, the same activity should be recorded in one or the other, and not both.
• A StudyLocation is required to be returned where:
  • The student is studying in the UK at the provider's or a partner's venue
  • The student is distance learning
  • The student will spend the majority of their Engagement outside the UK and is currently outside the UK (if they are currently in the UK, their activity is recorded in the same way as other students).
• An OffVenueActivity is required to be returned where:
  • The student is undertaking a placement in the UK, with the exceptions of teacher training placements in Scotland and clinical placements.
  • The student is outside the UK, with the exceptions of where they are writing up or where they will spend the majority of their Engagement outside the UK
  • The above activities are 20 days or longer in duration, (including where OffVenueActivities that are between 5 and 20 days duration have a combined duration of at least 20 days) with the exception of teacher training placements in England which are returned irrespective of duration.
• If a student will be outside the UK for the majority of their Engagement:
  • StudentCourseSession.PRINONUK must be coded 01 for each StudentCourseSession within the Engagement, not just those StudentCourseSessions where they are outside the UK.
  • Any StudentCourseSession with time spent outside the UK is reported using StudentCourseSession.STUDYABROAD.
  • No OffVenueActivity is returned for this time.
  • Their time in the UK is reported in the same way as any other student.
• If the student is writing up:
  • Their time outside the UK would have SessionStatus returned and no StudyLocation or OffVenueActivity
  • Their time in the UK would have SessionStatus returned and StudyLocation linking to the Venue that the student is associated with.

The location and venue flow chart illustrates this. This may need to be followed more than once for a given StudentCourseSession if the student undertakes more than one type of activity or in 
more than one location.

VENUE ENTITY

The Venue entity records details of the Venues of the reporting provider or partners in the UK. This includes students studying on an apprenticeship at the provider or partner's venue but not the workplace venue(s).

Providers in England

A separate Venue should be returned if 25 or more students are studying at the Venue and it is at least 1km away from another location. In exceptional circumstances Venues that are over 1km 
apart may not need to be separately identified, if for example they are advertised as one and students frequently move between the two locations.

Occasionally, it may be appropriate to return campuses with fewer students, provided these are geographically distinct and separately marketed to students.

Providers in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales

A separate Venue should be returned if a significant number of students, for example 25 or more, are studying at a Venue that is in a different city/town. Occasionally, it may be appropriate to 
return campuses with fewer students, provided these are geographically distinct and separately marketed to students.

This entity records the following:

• Venue name
• Venue postcode
• UKPRN of the provider delivery learning at the Venue (England only)

STUDY LOCATION ENTITY

The StudyLocation entity provides the link between the Venue and all relevant StudentCourseSessions.

This entity records the following:

• The Venue the student is studying at (not required if the student is distance learning)
• If the student is distance learning and whether they are inside or outside the UK
• For students who will spend the majority of their Engagement outside the UK, this entity records any periods they spend outside the UK
• The proportion of the StudentCourseSession applicable to the StudyLocation

The StudyLocation is recorded at the StudentCourseSession level and so the proportions relate to the proportion of the full StudentCourseSession applicable to each StudyLocation. This must 
be returned in each reference period that the StudentCourseSession spans so it is recognised that the proportions may change between reference periods if the intended locations change 
(see example 4 below).

Where the StudentCourseSession does not have any associated OffVenueActvitiy entities, the total proportions returned should add up to 100. Where the student does undertake OffVenueActivity (e.g. study abroad or industrial placement), the proportions should be reduced to reflect this.

If the entire activity for a StudentCourseSession was recorded in OffVenueActivity (for example if the student takes a full year placement), the StudyLocation entity would not be required to be returned.

EXAMPLES

Example 1

A student will spend their entire StudentCourseSession at the Venue of the reporting provider, taught by the reporting provider.

One StudyLocation would be returned in each reference period linking to the provider's Venue with a proportion of 100.

Example 2

A student spends 75% of a StudentCourseSession at the reporting provider's Venue (Provider A) and 25% at a franchise partner's Venue (Provider B). Both providers are undertaking the 
teaching at their own Venues.

The provider would return two Venues:

Two StudyLocations would be returned for the StudentCourseSession in each reference period:

Example 3

A student is distance learning for the full StudentCourseSession.

One StudyLocation entity would be returned in each reference period with StudyLocation.DISTANCE indicating that they are distance learning and no associated Venue. 
The proportion field would be returned as 100 to indicate the student is distance learning for the full StudentCourseSession.

Example 4

A student is expected to be studying for their entire StudentCourseSession at the Venue of the reporting provider, taught by the reporting provider.

In the first reference period they were therefore returned with one StudyLocation linking to the provider's Venue with a proportion of 100.

Half-way through the StudentCourseSession, it is agreed that the student will continue their study via distance learning due to extenuating circumstances. As the student hasn’t been studying via distance learning for the whole of the StudentCourseSession, the DISTANCE flag would not be returned.

Just one StudyLocation entity would then be returned:

Example 5

A student will spend the majority of their Engagement outside the UK.

In their second year they spend half of the StudentCourseSession in the UK and half outside the UK, studying via distance learning. As the student hasn’t been studying via distance learning for the whole of the StudentCourseSession, the DISTANCE flag would not be returned.

One StudyLocation entity would be returned for the StudentCourseSession associated with their second year:

The StudyLocation.PRINONUK field would be returned as 01 in StudyLocation to indicate that the majority of their Engagement is outside the UK.

This activity outside the UK would not need to be recorded in OffVenueActivity as the student is spending the majority of their Engagement outside the UK.

Example 6

A student will primarily be studying in the UK for their Engagement but is doing a year abroad.

Their third StudentCourseSession will be spent entirely outside the UK.

No StudyLocation entities would be returned in the third StudentCourseSession as this activity would be recorded as OffVenueActivity and StudentCourseSession.STUDYABROAD would be returned.

Example 7

A student will be studying half of their StudentCourseSession on an industrial placement and will 
spend the remainder at the reporting provider's Venue.

One StudyLocation would be returned:

The total of all study proportions would not add up to 100 as this records the proportion of the full activity for the StudentCourseSession and half of this activity (the placement) is recorded in OffVenueActivity. The StudentCourseSession.PLACEMENT field would also be returned.

Example 8

A student is writing up for their full StudentCourseSession outside the UK.

The SessionStatus entity would indicate that they are writing up and the StudentCourseSession.STUDYABROAD field would indicate that they are outside the UK. No StudyLocation would be returned.

Example 9

A student is writing up for their full StudentCourseSession in the UK.

The SessionStatus entity would indicate that they are writing up. One StudyLocation entity would be returned in each reference period linking to the Venue that the student is associated with, with a proportion of 100.

Example 10 (providers in England)

A student will be spending their full StudentCourseSession at the Venue of the reporting provider.

75% of the delivery is being undertaken by the reporting provider, the remaining 25% is being undertaken by a partner at the reporting provider's Venue.

Two Venues would have been returned:

Two StudyLocations would be returned for the StudentCourseSession in each reference period:

Example 11A

A student is taught by Poppleton University, which has a campus in Newcastle and a campus in London. 

One Course entity would be returned and two Venues. 

Example 11B

A student at Poppleton University is taught by their franchise partner Poppleton College. Poppleton College has a campus in Newcastle and a campus in London. 

Providers have a choice whether to return one or two Course entities for this scenario - but the different locations must be made clear. Two Venue entities should be returned.