Title: Key Information Set (KIS)
1Key Information Set (KIS)
2Aims
- Give an overview of the KIS data requirements and
common issues - Explain the validation and data submission
process - Cover how KIS will be used
- Provide opportunity for questions and answers
around the KIS requirements
3Data requirements
4Data model
5Defining the institution
6Institution bed number
- INSTBEDS records the number of institution
owned/sponsored beds available to undergraduate
students - ....it does not record the number occupied as in
the EMS record - It is expected that where institution owned bed
spaces exist there will be no more than 15000 for
any single institution
7Accommodation costs
- INSTLOWER and INSTUPPER record the upper and
lower quartile annual cost of institution owned
beds - PRIVATELOWER and PRIVATEUPPER record the same
information but for private sector accommodation - Institutions should include full details within
the Institution.ACCOMURL field - Where the institution has multiple campuses in
different cities, the quartiles returned should
include all campuses - Not required where all courses are distance
learning
8Defining KIS courses
9Who and what?
- Mandatory for all UK institutions
- covering (FT PT) undergraduate courses
starting within the reporting period i.e. 1
August 2013 and 31 July 2014 - that can be applied to by Home/EU students
10What is a course?
- For KIS purposes a course is defined as a
programme of study that a student can apply to
either through UCAS or directly to the
institution - Thus, if students can apply separately to courses
in Physics, Chemistry and Biology each would
require a separate KIS, whereas if students could
only apply to a course in Science and later
choose to specialise, then only a single KIS
needs to be produced. - If a student can apply for either MEng and BEng
then two separate KIS are needed. If all apply
for MEng with a possibility of leaving with a
BEng then only one KIS is needed - Separate KIS must be produced for two
presentations of a course if the fees differ
11Defining Undergraduate courses
- For the purpose of KIS, undergraduate courses are
defined as - Course.COURSEAIM beginning H, I, J and C, and
integrated masters courses M22 and M26 - LAD/LARA are those with a Learning Aim Type of
0031, 0032, 0394, 1406, 1407, 1408, 1409, 9000,
9002, 9107, E007, 1449, 9110, 9111 or 9112
12Courses not included
- Courses where the total FTE of the course is one
year or less when studied full-time (i.e.120
credits or less for its entirety) - Closed courses (as defined in Course.CLSDCRS) -
courses that are not open to any suitably
qualified candidate and will typically be courses
offered only to employees of particular
organisations - Courses offered mainly overseas with a location
of study mainly overseas, which the funding body
has not specifically sanctioned as eligible for
funding. A course is considered to be offered
mainly overseas if, for all students, the
majority (over 50) of their study is overseas. - Intercalated degrees
- Part-time courses that are also offered on a
full-time basis and a KIS is produced for the
full-time course
13Defining KIS courses
14Determining KIS types
- There are three types of KIS records that can be
returned - and depending on the course and its attributes
will depend on which type is used - The three types are
- KISTYPE 1 - Full course level KIS
- KISTYPE 2 - Multiple subject course placeholder
KIS - KISTYPE 3 - Subject level KIS
15KISTYPE 1
- KISTYPE 1s are full KIS records required for
specific courses - All single subject courses (those with only one
JACS code) regardless of intake size - All multiple subject courses (those with more
than one JACS code) where the intake size is
greater than 20 students - All teacher training courses (KISCourse.TTCID 1
or 2) regardless of the number of JACS codes or
intake size
16KISTYPE 1
- In addition to those courses that require a full
KIS, institutions may choose to produce a full
KIS for multiple subject courses with intakes of
fewer than 15 students - however only where the course is marketed and
managed as a single indivisible entity (and thus
have a single programme specification) - For example BA in Finance and Accounting
17KISTYPE 2
- KISTYPE 2s are 'placeholders' for multiple
subject courses for which a KISTYPE 1 record is
not required i.e. the intake size is less than 20
students and/or the multiple subject course is
not treated as one course - Each KISTYPE 2 KIS record can be linked to up to
three KISTYPE 1 or three KISTYPE 3 KIS records
but not a mixture of both types - this is to avoid misleading students with data
from different levels
18KISTYPE 3
- KISTYPE 3 records provide information about a
subject that forms part of a multiple subject
course for which no KISTYPE 1 can be produced - Subject level KIS should be produced for every
JACS level 2 subject that is included within a
multiple subject course except where a KISTYPE 1
KIS exists for each of the subjects that make up
the multiple subject course
19Example
- Poppleton University offer a joint honours French
and Music course with an intake of only 10
students and therefore completes a KISTYPE 2 KIS
record. Poppleton offers a single honours French
course (KISTYPE 1 KIS record) but does not offer
a single honours Music course. The institution
will therefore have to link the KISTYPE 2 course
to KISTYPE 3 records as there are not the
corresponding KISTYPE 1 records
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21KISCOURSEID
- Records a unique identifier for the KIS course
- The field will be used by the KIS widget to
identify the course to which the widget relates - and also links KISTYPE 2s to KISTYPE 3s
- Institutions are advised not to update this field
annually as this would require an annual update
to all widget links - Care should be taken around KISCOURSEID and other
course Ids within systems
22URLs
- It is the institutions responsibility to ensure
that urls provided within KIS remain active and
relevant through the reporting year - Only the structure will be checked by validation
- A Welsh url is available for each where the
institution is in Wales - Can we add multiple course URLs for a type 2 KIS?
- Institutions should provide a link to a generic
page. Maximum occurrences for this field,
including KISTYPE 2, is set at 1
23Defining KIS courses
24Recording accreditation
- Any one KIS can have up to 10 accreditations
- For each accreditation a type, accrediting body,
whether it is an option a student elects, and
urls providing further information
25ACCTYPE
- The field is required for accreditations where
the student gains something and where they do not - Should provide a short textual description of the
type of accreditation (as used by the bodys
website) - Chartered, Membership, Fellowship
- Where provided, the 30 character word will be
inserted into a sentence
26Accreditation sentence
- This course is recognised by YYYY for the
purposes of XXXX - Where XXXX equals accreditation type and YYYY
equals accreditation body - What do institutions think of this rewording?
- Can institutions support an increase in character
length for ACCTYPE?
27ACCBODYID
- This field must exist for all accreditations
- Records the body providing accreditation to the
course - Where accreditation is at the institution level
as opposed to the course level, all KIS courses
will need the accreditation recorded - Coding frame to be expanded in March release
28ACCDEPEND
- Records whether accreditation is dependent on
student choice - for example does a very particular pattern of
modules have to be followed in order to gain
accreditation - The ACCDEPENDURL field will record further
details about the dependency of choice (i.e. what
modules must be selected to gain accreditation)
where ACCDEPEND1 - Important information so that students are aware
where a course is heavily constrained
29Defining KIS courses
- Employability and student satisfaction data
30DLHE and NSS data
- Some of the most significant data items
(information on employability and student
satisfaction) on the KIS are generated through
linking with the HESA Student record and ILR - Where a corresponding course record exists on the
HESA record or ILR the KIS should be linked to
this using the HESACOURSEID or ILRAIMID fields - Only KISTYPE 1s can be linked to a HESA or ILR
course KIS courses can be linked to up to 500
courses on the HESA Student or 25 on the ILR - to take into account where there are multiple
occurrences of the same course
31However
- Institutions should not link a single KIS course
to multiple different HESA or ILR courses - For example, Poppleton University offers a BA
History as well as a BA History with French. A
KIS record is therefore produced for both - The KIS course for BA History should only be
linked to the BA History and not to BA History
with French as well - This is to avoid customised aggregation
32HESACourse fields
- HESACourse.HESACOURSEID
- Field must exist once but only once within the
entity and must contain a valid Course.COURSEID
from the HESA Student Record - Validation will check that the HESACourse.HESACOUR
SEID recorded in this field exists in the C09051
and C10051 Student record - HESACourse.HESAYEAR
- Field must exist once but only once within the
entity and records the year the HESACOURSEID
relates to - HESAYEAR can be completed with 'BOTH', or '2010',
but not '2009' alone
33ILRAims fields
- ILRAims.ILRAIMID
- Field must exist once but only once within the
entity and must contain the qualification aim
reference code used in the year - ILRAims.ILRYEAR
- Field must exist once but only once within the
entity and indicates which year the ILR
qualification reference code relates to - The ILRAims entity for a ILRAim can contain
ILRYEARs with 'BOTH', or '2010', but not '2009'
alone - If ILRAims.ILRYEAR Both then the same ILRAIMID
must exist in both the 2009/10 and 2010/11 ILR
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35Linking issues
- Exception validation will ensure that the
HESACOURSEID or ILRAIMID exists on the HESA
record or ILR - Where no link can be made, institutions will fail
validation meaning the ID will need to be
revised or additional fields completed - What if we have recently changed our course
identifiers on HESA or ILR? - Where a link to course information on HESA or ILR
can be made (i.e. the course existed) then
HESACOURSEID or ILRAIMID on KIS should contain
the values returned on HESA or ILR in 2009 and/or
2010
36Course ID changes example
- Poppleton University run a course that has been
returned on HESA Student record for the last 3
years - However, the institution in 2010 changed the
COURSEID from BAHIS1 to BAH -
- (Providing the COURSEID does not change again),
in the future BOTH can be returned in HESAYEAR
HESACourse HESACOURSEID HESAYEAR
HESACourse BAH 2009
HESACourse BAHIS1 2010
37What is a professional or managerial job for KIS?
- Graduate jobs within KIS are defined through the
DLHE record as - An employed destination i.e. (full-time,
part-time, self-employed/freelance) - where the activity has been coded within SOC
major groups 1-3 - A preview of this data is available within DLHE
check documentation
38Thresholds for DLHE/NSS
- The publication thresholds for the NSS are that
50 of the eligible students must have responded
and that these must represent at least 23
students - The publication thresholds for the DLHE differ in
that the number of students covered by the
indicator must be at least 23 (a 50 threshold is
not applied) - However, for salary information, at least 50 of
the students who are employed full-time. Thus,
for salary data to be published at least 23
students who are employed full-time must have
given a salary and these must represent at least
50 of the students employed full-time
39Aggregating DLHE/NSS data
- Where NSS and DLHE data for a particular course
fail to meet the publication thresholds then data
will be aggregated in the following order until
data that meet the thresholds are achieved - Course level most recent two years
- JACS subject level 3 most recent year
- JACS subject level 3 most recent two years
- JACS subject level 2 most recent year
- JACS subject level 2 most recent two years
- JACS subject level 1 most recent year
- JACS subject level 1 most recent two years
40Example
- Poppleton University offer a BA (Hons) Medieval
History - 24 out of 50 students from the course responded
to the NSS in 2009/10 and 2010/11 - 25 out of 60 leavers from the course completed a
DLHE survey and were in FT employment (of which
10 gave salary information)
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42DLHE/NSS for new courses
- Where a course is new or a link to a HESA or ILR
course cannot be made, institutions must complete
the following fields - JACS
- LEVEL
- PTONLY
- TTCID
- allowing a link to be made to existing DLHE/NSS
data meeting the criteria
43New courses and DLHE/NSS
44Defining KIS courses
45UCAS information
- Where the KIS course recruits through UCAS the
following fields will need to be completed - UCASPROGID (the programme code)
- UCASCOURSEID (the code for the specific course
within the programme - only need to be given
where different courses within the same UCAS
programme will have a separate KIS produced)
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47Fees for UCAS courses
- Where a UCASPROGID has been returned, the fee
information for the course will automatically be
populated in the KIS - Institutions should ensure that the UCASPROGIDs
are consistent with those held at UCAS - Institutions are required to provide course-level
fee information to UCAS - Submitted via manual process using UCAS
Net.update from May until July
48Fee information
- The following fields will be populated
automatically where UCASPROGID exists - ENGFEE/NIFEE/SCOTFEE/WAFEE records the average
maximum annual fee for the course - MEASSUP records whether means tested support
available - OTHSUP records whether non-means tested support
available - WAIVER records whether fee waivers are
available - VARFEE records whether the fee varies by year
- FEETBC records whether fees are yet to be
confirmed
49Non-UCAS courses
- For courses that do not recruit through UCAS the
fee information should be provided directly on
the KIS record - populating all of the relevant fee fields
- Institutions should record only record FEETBC as
1 Fees confirmed where fees for all domiciles
are confirmed - Validation will ensure fee information for each
devolved administration does not exist where
FEETBC0
50Fees
- All fees displayed on KIS will be for standard
full-time study (except where a course is offered
part-time only) - thus if the fees differ only on variations to
mode of study there is no requirement to return
separate KIS - This is even the case where a course is offered
predominantly through a part-time mode e.g. 200
part-time enrolments, 3 full-time. In such cases
it will still be the full-time fee returned
51Fees 2
- Where the course contains optional components
that reduce the fee, for example a sandwich
placement, then it should be assumed that the
student does not take these components when
determining the fee level - It is anticipated that 0 can be returned in
SCOTFEE for Scottish HEIs
52Part-time fees
- Where a course is offered through a part-time
mode only, and thus a separate KIS is produced,
the fee should be based on 120 credits (i.e. the
full-time equivalent) - The fees should not be determined using a norm
of number of modules selected
53Defining KIS courses
54Course Stage entity
- This entity records details of the learning and
teaching and assessment methods for the course
stage - and is required for KISTYPE 1 and 3
- The entity can be returned up to 7 times for each
KIS course - thus covering each of the potential course
stages - For example a 3 year degree will have 3 course
stages
55CourseStage.STAGE
- Records the course stage that the learning and
teaching methods and assessment methods relate
to - and can contain a value between 1 and 7
- Must exist once but only once
- For full-time courses this will usually be
equivalent to a course year (Student.YEARPRG in
the student record) - For part-time students this should relate to the
full-time pattern of study, therefore a part-time
degree would normally have stages 1 to 3
56CourseStage.LTACT
- Indicates whether the learning and teaching
methods are based on actual student choices or
the institution's estimates of the modules that
students will choose - A Based on actual student choices
- B Based on institutional estimates
- Whilst using E estimates is permissible in the
first year of KIS reporting, it is expected that
actual student choices will be used in subsequent
years
57Learning and teaching methods
- CourseStage.INDEPENDENT, CourseStage.SCHEDULED,
CourseStage.PLACEMENT - record the percentage of
the students time for the stage that is spent in
guided independent study/scheduled learning and
teaching activities/on placements or in work
experience - Time spent in summative assessments not included
- Each field can contain a value in the range 0
100 - Should refer to 2011/12 (if actual data) or
2013/14 (if institutional estimates) - The sum of these fields must equal 100
58Categorising teaching and learning methods
Activity type KIS category
Lecture Scheduled
Seminar Scheduled
Tutorial Scheduled
Project supervision Scheduled
Demonstration Scheduled
Practical classes and workshops Scheduled
Supervised time in studio/workshop Scheduled
Fieldwork Scheduled
External visits Scheduled
Work based learning Scheduled
Guided independent study Independent
Placement Placement
Year abroad Placement
59CourseStage.ASSACT
- Indicates whether the assessment methods are
based on actual student choices or the
institution's expectations of the modules that
students will choose - A Based on actual student choices
- E Based on institutional estimates
- Whilst using E estimates is permissible in the
first year of KIS reporting, it is expected that
actual student choices will be used in subsequent
years
60Assessment methods
- CourseStage.COURSEWORK, CourseStage.WRITTEN,
CourseStage.PRACTICAL - record the percentage of
the assessment for the stage that is through
coursework/written exams/practical exams - Each field can contain a value in the range 0
100 - Should refer to 2011/12 (if actual data) or
2013/14 (if institutional estimates) - Each field must exist once but only once
- The sum of these fields must equal 100 or 0
(where there is no summative assessment as part
of the course stage)
61Categorising assessment methods
Activity type KIS category
Written exam Written
Written assignment, including essay Coursework
Report Coursework
Dissertation Coursework
Portfolio Coursework
Project output (other than dissertation) Coursework
Oral assessment and presentation Practical
Practical skills assessment Practical
62Calculating assessment, teaching and learning
methods
- The proportions in each of the assessment methods
and learning and teaching methods should be
calculated based on the module choices of (all
international included) students in the 2011/12
academic year - The number of students taking each module should
be determined and modules with the highest number
of students registered selected until one FTE
(120 credits) worth of modules have been
selected. The proportions reported in each method
category will then reflect the proportions in the
combination of the selected modules - Where the process above leads to the inclusion of
modules on which less than 10 of students are
registered, institutions should make a reasonable
judgement as to whether the selection of modules
is representative
63Method
- Determine the modules that are available to a
KISCourse - Rank in order of number of students taking the
module in the relevant year - Determine the modules that contribute to 1
FTE/120 credits - Calculate an average value from these modules
- therefore overall proportion in scheduled
teaching and learning (Sum of (Credit value of
module Proportion in scheduled teaching and
learning of module )) / 120
64Example
Module Credit value Number of students Proportion in scheduled teaching and learning Proportion in independent study Placement
Physics 1 30 100 60 40 0
Maths 1 30 100 50 50 0
Computing 1 20 100 30 70 0
Computing 2 10 40 30 70 0
Maths 2 30 30 40 60 0
Physics 2 20 20 Disregard
Project 10 10 Disregard
For scheduled teaching and learning ((3060)(30
50)(2030)(1030)(3040))/120 45
65Calculation issues
- Where using this method leads to the module
selection not being representative, the
institution should include an estimate of the
typical pattern for students on the course - Where a typical student calculation is going to
lead to two placement modules being included then
they should be treated as a single module - this might form the approach to other modules
where two or more fall into the typical
calculation. For example where only one would be
taken as part of that course the most popular
should be used
66Determining for KISTYPE 3
- The proportions in each of the learning and
teaching methods and assessment methods should be
based on the modules with the largest number of
students registered that add up to up to half an
FTE (60 credits) - In the first instance only modules taken by
students studying multiple subject courses should
be used and only those modules whose JACS subject
matches the subject of the KIS should be included - Where considering only students taking joint
honours courses leads to unreliable splits
between the assessment methods and learning and
teaching methods then students studying the
subject as a single honours should also be
included
67Example
- A student is taking a joint honours course in
Mathematics and Philosophy for which subject
level KIS are being produced - If the student takes 6 20 credit point modules
with JACS codes of G110, G120, G300, V520, V550
and R100 then the modules with JACS codes G110,
G120 and G300 would be included in the list from
which those selected for calculation of
assessment methods and learning and teaching
methods for mathematical sciences subject based
KIS are taken. Similarly, the modules with JACS
codes V520 and V550 would be included in the
calculation for the philosophy, theology and
religious studies subject based KIS. The single
module in French (R100) would not be included
68Example (cont.)
69Different types of course
70New courses
- For all new courses there will be a number of
additional fields to be completed due to a HESA
or ILR course not existing - JACS or LDCS, LEVEL, TTCID, PTONLY, and DISTANCE
will need to be returned so that where the
institution already runs courses in the same JACS
subject areas then NSS and DLHE data for the
subject will be included in the KIS until data
for the course become available - The learning, teaching and assessments for the
course stage will be based off estimates in the
first year, and then actual and estimated data in
subsequent years
71Franchised courses
- KIS records for franchise courses must be
provided by the franchising institution that is
responsible for registering students and
returning them to HESA/ILR - The institution who registers the student should
report the KIS and the institution which the
student applies to should display the widget - thus the UKPRNAPPLY field should be completed
accordingly - UKPRNAPPLY must not equal UKPRN
72Sandwich courses
- Where a course includes a sandwich placement as
part of the programme specification a KIS will be
produced detailing 4 course stages - Where a course includes an optional sandwich
placement (that a student may or may not take up)
two KIS courses should be returned one
detailing the 3 course stages, with the other
detailing 4 course stages. The widget of both
should then be recorded on both KIS courses
73Part-time courses
- Where FT exists no need for PT even if fees
differ - For wholly part-time courses, and where a HESA or
ILR course does not exist, PTONLY should equal 1
74Distance courses
- Accommodation costs not required if all courses
are distance learning - DISTANCE cannot be recorded against KISTYPE 2
records - therefore a KISTYPE 3 will need to be produced
for both distance learning only and for
normal methods of study
75File format
76Record format
- KIS must be submitted in an XML format
- XML stands for eXtensible Mark-up Language
- and is the international data standard for data
transfer - Hierarchical data structures in a single file
- All KIS files submitted must be encoded with
UTF-8
77XML file
- Contains fields (sometimes referred to as an
element) - with tags to define the start and end of a field
- ltLDCSgtAA.3lt/LDCSgt
- fields can exist more than once
- ltLDCSgtAA.3lt/LDCSgt
- ltLDCSgtCC.1lt/LDCSgt
- or not at all where the field is not required
e.g. the ILRAims entity exists for the KIS course
78XML file 2
- Fields are nested
- as are entities
ltKISCoursegt ltLDCSgtAA.3lt/LDCSgt lt/KISCoursegt
ltKISCoursegt ltLDCSgtAA.3lt/LDCSgt ltCourseStagegt ltSTA
GEgt1lt/STAGEgt lt/CourseStagegt lt/KISCoursegt
79Data collection using XML
- We define the element names
- .and types
- and nesting structure
- and some of the rules of completion
- ..in an XML Schema Definition (XSD) file
80XSD
- Controls the anarchy
- ensuring that all fields and entities are
ordered correctly in the XML file - XSD is available from HESA website
81Help with XML
- Institutional Liaison
- Schema trees
- Editing files - Ultra Edit is your friend!
- Student contacts
- FAQs
82Producing an XML file
- Many institutions will have software systems
capable of producing an XML file - there will however be some institutions for
which the KIS requirements are significant enough
to purchase or develop an additional software
module - As an alternative Microsoft Excel can be used to
generate a KIS file
83Demonstration
84Using Excel
- Create a KIS template in Excel and complete the
relevant data items remember to delete the rows
which are not relevant to the KIS course - Highlight all of the cells and copy
- Paste into Notepad
- Highlight a tab space and then select the
Replace option from the edit menu - Paste the tab space into the find what box and
leave the replace with box empty - Select save as from the File menu and give it
an extension of .xml and select All files in
the save as type box
85Validation
- Validation process and using the kit
86Insert-stage
- XML splits validation rules into 2 types of
check - Schema well formedness
- Conformity to the .XSD
- Missing fields
- Tagging
- Invalid codes
- Business logic of the submission
- Coverage
- Consistency between fields
- Consistency between entities
87Remember!
- Validation will always check the schema rules
first - Until schema errors are resolved you will not
know how many business rules errors your
submission has - Schema errors can be more difficult to interpret
88Exception
- Exception validation will take place at the point
of data submission - Any UCASPROGID or UCASCOURSEID returned on KIS
must exist in the data provided to HEFCE by UCAS - Any HESACOURSEID or ILRAIMID returned on KIS must
exist in the data provided to HEFCE by HESA and
Data Service - Prevent PRIVATELOWER/UPPER and accommodation urls
from existing where all courses are entirely
distance learning
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90Validation kit
- User friendly interface
- One kit for all HESA XML data collections
- Framework connects to web to download latest rule
versions - We recommend that the kit is downloaded onto
each PC rather than onto a local network
91Validation kit
- Business rule switches can be applied to focus
data checking - Details of errors/warnings triggered can be
downloaded to Excel printed - Configuration tab can set to local preferences
- www.hesa.ac.uk/validation_help
92Configuring the validation kit
- Recommended minimum specification of a Dual core
processor and 2 GB RAM - Kit validates in batches
- Can change size of batch to alter processing
times - Reduce size less memory but greater processing
times - Increase size less processing times but
greater memory
93Demonstration
94Data submission
95Submission timeline
96Data quality checking
- HEFCE will not conduct credibility checks on the
data - It is up to institutions to ensure the data are
credible and the links between the KIS and
NSS/DLHE data are correct - Institutions will be given a preview of the
linked NSS/DLHE data in July - HEFCE intends to provide a number of tools and
reports to aid institutions in checking their
data - The precise checks have not been finalised but
are likely to include reports showing the
HESA/ILR courses linked for each KIS, NSS/DLHE
target populations, HESA/ILR courses not linked
to any KIS, etc.
97Updating KIS
- For example to confirm fee information or to make
amendments to mistakes - Updates will be routinely published via the KIS
widgets and official web-site - To update KIS institutions have to submit a
complete file containing all KIS records even
where only one update has been made no AMAL
process
98Updating KIS example
Submission 1
Submission 2
Submission 3
86 records
100 records
186 records
Data collection system
86 records
100 records
186 records
99Updating KIS issues
- Systems will need to be able to store different
course data for different academic years - for example a new course for c13061 should not
be included in updates made to c12061
100To the extranet
101Further help and support
- 01242 211472
- training_at_hesa.ac.uk
- 01242 211144
- liaison_at_hesa.ac.uk