As reported by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), a record number of UK Higher Education institutions missed the published 31 May 2023 submission deadline for the student return for Data Futures.
While there might be several reasons that this crucial first deadline was missed by many (and I won’t pretend to know the ins and out of each of these universities’ management information systems) it is fair to say 21 institutions failing to provide indicative data by the deadline says a bit about the challenges the sector faces.
Data Futures is sector-wide transformation programme that sees every Higher Education Institution in the UK report in detail on student-level data to regulators. The data collected might include the student’s highest qualification when they joined the institution, their parent’s occupation and their study location, for example. The information is then used by the Office for Students (OfS) to understand an institution’s performance, improve access and participation, ensure prospective students have reliable information, and understand trends and risks at a sector level.
Getting the HESA student return wrong causes more than reputational damage, it can impact funding. Getting it right means not just staying compliant, which is often paramount to institutions and was front of mind at our recent Showcase event, but also means gaining the right level of funding to allow an institution to deliver the world-class experience that UK universities are renowned for.
