HEIFES05

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HEIFES05

• Higher Education in Further Education Students
  Survey
• Purpose of the survey
• Changes since last year
• Definitions
• The tables
• Timetable for 2005-06
• Common errors and frequently asked questions
• Examples

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Purpose of HEIFES

• Early indication of the number of HE students at
  FECs in the academic year 2005-06
• Compare student load with allocations made for
  the academic year 2005-06
• Inform the allocation of teaching funds for the
  academic year 2006-07
• Data is also used for
• the standard and assumed resource calculations
• monitoring and setting student number controls

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Changes to HEIFES since last year

• No separate table for below degree level
  provision
• New table for home / EC split, new entrants and
  franchised out
• All PGR students are non-fundable
• Can record FD SWOUT
• Clarification of non-completion definition for
  students that defer assessment
• Separate table for HEFCE-recognised funding
  consortia (only filled in by heads)

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HEIFES05 population

• Includes students who
• are actively pursuing studies with the college
  for at least part of the academic year 2005-06
• are studying towards a recognised HE
  qualification aim
• have an individual student record returned on the
  LSC ILR
• not being returned on any other institutions
  HESES or HEIFES
• Does not include
• students whose sole qualification aim is an NVQ
• incoming exchange students
• students franchised-in from other institutions
• students spending most of the course outside the
  UK

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Recognised courses of higher education

• higher degrees (PhD, MPhil, MSc, MA, MBA)
• postgraduate diplomas
• PGCE
• first degrees (foundation degree, BSc, BA, BEd)
• foundation degree bridging courses
• HND
• DipHE, DipSW
• HNC
• CertEd
• Not included
• Professional qualifications
• NVQs
• Free-standing foundation years

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Counting student activity

• A student may only be returned on HEIFES05 once
  for each year of programme of study that they
  undertake
• To be counted, a student within the HEIFES05
  student population must meet the following
  criteria
• A tuition fee is charged (this may be waived)
• The FTE for the year of programme of study ?
  0.03

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Standard academic years

• All activity for a year of programme of study
  falls within one academic year (1 August - 31
  July)
• Countable at the start of each year of programme
  of study

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Non-standard academic years

• Activity for a year of programme of study spans
  two academic years
• Countable on 1 August of each academic year in
  which they are active except the first

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Fundability status
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Home and EC island and overseas

• Generally those from the Channel Islands or the
  Isle of Man or from outside the EC.
• Not included in any of our funding allocations or
  student number targets.
• Students who are not island and overseas are home
  and EC.

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HEFCE-fundable non-fundable

• HEFCE non-fundable students are
• Students otherwise HEFCE-fundable whose places
  are funded by another EC public source
• ITT (QTS) students, INSET (QTS) students
• NHS/Department of Health funded students
• Students franchised to an institution other than
  a publicly funded HEI or FEC
• Students on closed courses

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HEFCE-funded independently-funded

• HEFCE-fundable students who receive enough
  resources from non-public sources to cover the
  HEFCE standard resource
• Would not expect to see many independently-funded
  students returned on HEIFES

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Price groups

• B
• C
• D
• Media Studies (weighted at B, C, D or a
  combination)
• ITT (QTS)
• INSET (QTS)
• Price group is determined by the learndirect
  code of the course the student is on

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Mode of study

• Full-time and sandwich
• 24 weeks, 21 hours a week, full-time fee
• Includes self-led study as well as guided
  learning hours
• Full-time sandwich year-out
• Includes language year abroad students who are
  working whilst they are abroad
• Part-time
• All students on a course following a similar
  pattern of activity for a year of programme of
  study should have the same mode

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Level of study

• Undergraduate
• first degree (including foundation degree),
  foundation degree bridging course, HND, HNC,
  DipHE, CertEd
• Postgraduate
• normal requirement for entry is qualification to
  degree level (level H of the QAA national
  qualifications framework)

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Long years of programme of study

• Required to attend for 45 weeks or more within
  the year of programme of study, or
• Year of programme of study includes a
  within-course short period of study, awarded as a
  summer school through an ASN bid and notified by
  HEFCE
• Standard length otherwise

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Tables 1, 2 and 3 - student counts and full-time
equivalents

• Tables 1, 2 and 3 collect full-time, sandwich
  year-out and part-time counts respectively
• Column 1 Students countable between 1 August
  2005 and 1 November 2005
• Column 2 Forecast of students expected to
  become countable between 2 November 2005 and 31
  July 2006
• Column 3 Estimated non-completions after 1
  November (negative values)
• Column 4 Estimated completions for the year
  sum of Columns 1, 2 and 3
• Column 4a (Table 3 only) Assumed FTE of
  estimated part-time completions

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Table 4 - home and EC fees

• All home and EC students
• Collects data from Columns 1 and 2 of Tables 1, 2
  and 3 by mode of study, level of study and level
  of fee
• Data is used to calculate assumed fee income in
  the teaching model

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Table 5 home / other split, new entrants,
franchised out

• Home and EC student counts from Columns 1 and 2
  in Tables 1, 2 and 3, split into home and
  other students
• New entrant student counts
• Number of students franchised out
• HNDs identified separately
• Data used for government monitoring purposes

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Table 6 HEFCE-recognised funding consortia

• Count of home and EC fundable students that are
  part of a HEFCE-recognised funding consortia, and
  where they are studying
• Only completed by heads
• Data used for monitoring purposes (replaces
  separate consortia survey)

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Workbook

• Available for download in November, college
  principals and HEIFES contacts to be issued with
  passwords
• Password protected to preserve formulae, formats
  and loading information
• Worksheets contain a number of validation checks,
  which must be passed before submission
• Data should not be cut/copied and pasted from
  cell to cell as this disrupts formulae
• Extra worksheets comparison tables, holdback
• Self check questions

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Timetable for HEIFES 2005-06

• September 2005 HEIFES05 survey sent to colleges
• Early November 2005 HEIFES05 workbook available
  for colleges to download
• Tuesday 22nd deadline for survey data
• November 2005 to be uploaded to HEFCE

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Common errors and frequently asked questions from
previous surveys

• Which tables to fill in
• Column 2 - forecast of countable years
• Price groups
• FTE for part-time courses
• Non-completions
• Audit trail
• Validation checks

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Which tables to fill in

• Table 1 - all full-time students, all levels of
  study
• Table 2 - all sandwich year-out students, all
  levels of study
• Table 3 - all part-time students, all levels of
  study
• Table 4 - all home and EC students returned in
  Columns 1 and 2 on Tables 1, 2 and 3, whatever
  their fee level
• Table 5 - all home and EC students returned in
  Columns 1 and 2 on Tables 1, 2 and 3
• Table 6 all home and EC fundable students
  returned in Columns 1 and 2 on Tables 1, 2 and 3
  that are part of a HEFCE-recognised funding
  consortia (heads only)

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Column 2 - forecast of years countable

• Would not expect to see many students returned in
  Column 2
• Should include
• Students on short courses of recognised HE which
  start after 1 November and finish before the end
  of the academic year
• New courses which start after 1 November because
  of start-up difficulties but then follow a
  standard academic year
• Should not include
• Students on non-standard academic years whose
  year of programme of study starts after 1
  November - they are counted at 1 August in each
  academic year in which they have activity except
  the first and are therefore in Column 1
• Late starters who intend to catch up with others
  on a standard academic year

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Price groups

• In all cases, the learndirect code of the course
  should be used to determine price group
• A mapping from HE learner aim to (up to 3)
  learndirect code(s) is on our website

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FTE for part-time courses

• Calculated by comparing the time taken to study
  for a course part-time to the time taken to study
  for it full-time - see table in Annex F of
  HEIFES05
• The FTE returned in Column 4a of Table 3 should
  be the total FTE of all the students returned in
  Column 4

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Non-completions

• Estimate should usually be based on
  non-completion rate for the previous year for the
  particular course
• Completion is determined by whether student has
  completed the final assessment, or passed, all
  modules

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Audit trail

• Should keep
• Record of basis for making estimations of
  non-completions and forecast countable years
• Relevant printouts and working papers
• Audit trail retained for at least three years
• Return has to be reproducible

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Validation checks

• Validation checks are to
• Inform colleges of inconsistencies between tables
• Identify possible input errors
• Any validation failures must be corrected before
  submission to HEFCE

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Frequently asked questions

• Why do we collect HEIFES data when the same
  information is available through the ILR?
• Are asylum seekers eligible for HEFCE funding?
• Are there any age limits for HEFCE funding?

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Example 1 - Standard academic year, part-time HNC

• A two year part-time HNC runs from 5 September
  2005 to 31 July 2007
• 34 students start in September 2005, all are new
  entrants
• 2 students are unable to start until 10 November
  2005
• 1 student withdrew on 1 October 2005
• The students are HEFCE-funded, all are new
  entrants
• The learndirect code of the course is XS (price
  group C)
• In the previous year, 2 out of 37 students on the
  first year of programme of study withdrew after 1
  November 2004

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Example 2 - Non-standard academic year, full-time
foundation degree

• A two year full-time foundation degree runs from
  January 2005 to December 2006
• 26 students start in January 2005
• The students are HEFCE-funded, all are new
  entrants
• The course has learndirect code DA (price group
  D)
• One out of 25 students failed to complete the
  year after November 1st when a similar HND course
  was run.

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HEFCE web-site

• HEIFES FAQs
• Publications
• General guidance for FECs

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Further information

• HEFCE web-site - www.hefce.ac.uk, under
  Questions, then HEIFES FAQs
• Gemma Harper, tel [phone]
• or e-mail heifes_at_hefce.ac.uk