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HESA HEI User Group Wednesday 7 December 2011 UUK, Woburn House, London Present: Emma Woollard, University of Portsmouth (BUFDG) Ian Carter, University of Sussex (ARMA) Jenny Patchitt, University of Nottingham (AGCAS) Lucy Hodson, De Montfort University (AUA, National Planners Group) Peter Tinson (UCISA) Ruth Drysdale (JISC) Russell Roberts, University of Derby (SROC) Ruth Adams, University of Strathclyde (Scottish Planning Group) Sue Holmes, Leeds Metropolitan University (AUDE) Apologies: Alison Allden, Chief Executive (Chair) Catherine Benfield, Head of Business Development Jackie Hood, Secretary to HEI User Group Jane Wild, Director of Operations In Attendance: Adrian Graves (AHUA) Denise Thorpe, University of Anglia Ruskin (UHR) Sue Grant, University of Hertfordshire (ARC) Action 1. Welcome and introductions Alison Allden, Chief Executive of HESA welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made. 2. Minutes from the previous meeting and Matters Arising The minutes from the previous meeting were agreed by the User Group subject to a minor amendment to the wording - as detailed below. 4.1 HE Information Landscape and Information Flows (para 4) The Group observed that the vision was very compelling and positive as the ability to cross-reference data is a very useful activity. There were some concerns, for example, more regular HESA returns could be problematic, especially along with SLC collections, NSS etc. and this would be a significant amount of work if not rationalised. This rationalisation was at the core of the project. The actions from the previous meeting were discussed: Actions from this meeting: Page 1 of 6 Document5 Higher Education Statistics Agency Ltd is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England at 95 Promenade, Cheltenham, GL50 1HZ. Registered No. 2766993. Registered Charity No. 1039709. Certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 27001. The members are Universities UK and GuildHE. The actions from the previous meeting had all been dealt with. 3. User Group ‘Round Table' updates 3.1 Sue Holmes (AUDE) Association of University Directors of Estates AUDE has had a significant input into EMS review. It will be proposed that new health and safety information be collected along with further information on emissions will go out for sector consultation in the New Year. Alison Allden reported that the HESA Board had raised some concerns about the additional burden collecting this new data would place on the sector. Sue reported that AUDE also had some concerns about the H&S data in relation to the quality and potential publication. It had therefore been agreed that this data would not be published for the first year; the data would be reviewed and a decision taken thereafter. The EMS Review Group was meeting at HESA the next day and will agree definitions and common data sets. There has also been an opportunity to review historical data records which are no longer used and this will assist in reducing the burden to the sector. Freedom of information is also a topical issue in the estates community with press interest in buildings not in use or in poor condition. The AUDE Executive committee will also meet tomorrow and are expected to commission a piece of work to produce a report on the published data. IPD will be responsible for this and it will be interesting to see what impact, if any, this has on the future of the record. AUDE have also been having some useful dialogue on benchmarking with partnering bodies in USA, Australia and South Africa. There is not a lot of value in international benchmarking although it does not specifically look at EMS methodology, sharing best practice and areas of excellence such as green buildings and timetabling is of interest. Ruth Drysdale (JISC) Joint Information Systems Committee Work on the courses data programme has reached the end of stage 1 with a good response from institutions. It is hoped that approximately 70 will take part in stage 2. External data needs are being looked at as well as how to create a KIS data feed. Andy Youell, HESA has been working closely with JISC on course definitions with publication of the report anticipated very soon. The next stage will be to build on the business intelligence and improve the commonality of definitions as well as look at the high level mapping of processes. The programme of work to create digital literacy between staff and students has commenced and requires some more in-depth work. Further information can be found on the JISC website. The JISC toolkit has been published on info net and improvements to course data should be realised in due course. A new area of work is the transformation programme with a small amount of money available to look at existing resources and see how it can be used to implement changes. There are many other projects currently being run by JISC and Ruth encouraged support from the peer groups with shared services being high on the Agenda and of particular interest to the User Group members. There is currently a fundamental review of JISC in progress looking at whether JISC should reinvent itself and be a company in its own right. Alison Allden is a member of the Transition Group undertaking this review. 3.2. Lucy Hodson (AUA National Planners Forum) Association of Universities Administrators Lucy reflected on discussions at a recent Planners Group meeting and the need to have a better understanding of the rich data source that HESA data offers. This was also felt by a number of colleagues around the table. It was also felt that institutions should be making better use of the data supply files available during the data collection process. It was agreed that running an event or participating at an event such as SROC would be a good Page 2 of 6 Document5 opportunity to showcase the HESA data and this will be taken forward. It was also acknowledged that there is a huge amount of training information provided by HESA and it may be that some relevant information could be extracted from the manuals to provide some guidance to colleagues. Continual change creating additional data burden was also an issue for planners however it is felt that the changing funding regime may present an opportunity to challenge such requirements and only collect information that is essential. However the different requirements from the devolved administrations need to be taken into consideration. Catherine Benfield pointed out that in 2005 the Better Regulation Taskforce commissioned a review, field by field across all of the records, with the conclusion at that stage being that there was very little that could be removed. It was felt that queries to institutions via Minerva can be very detailed and time-consuming for colleagues. However Jane Wild pointed out that there is actually nothing different about the level of queries in the data quality process with Minerva being a more efficient method, as previously contact was by emails and proved to be a lengthy audit trail, whereas the intelligence is now all captured in one place. The additional burden this year may have been due to the late AAB policy which resulted in the need to compare historic data and current data and this proved to be a timely exercise as sector colleagues found it very difficult to recreate the algorithms. This is an issue that HESA will be following up with HEFCE and it would be useful if User Group members could obtain feedback from their respective groups about their experience regarding this. It was felt that FAQs or a clear definition on the HEFCE website would also have been helpful. There was also a discussion about government requirements for more data transparency however it was acknowledged that this brings with it a risk from third party use. Actions: User Group members provide feedback in relation to the submission of AAB data to Jane Wild for further consideration at the next User Group meeting. HESA to consider a workshop or an event (potentially with HEFCE input) which would enable planners to better understand the HESA data and the files made available during the data collection process. 3.3 Ruth Adams (Scottish Planners) Ruth focused on KIS (Key Information Set) explaining that Scotland was way behind the rest of the UK with an understanding on what was going to be required and with SFC providing very little guidance to date. Scottish institutions are going to need further assistance and Catherine Benfield said that HESA would do all it could to provide more information and guidance. Scottish Planners are also interested in the Spending Review and the need for the Scottish Funding Council to bridge the funding gap between England and Wales. There will be a stronger need to rely on HESA data as it will be used to measure the Scottish Government Outcome Agreements which will become a condition of funding. The fees imposed on the rest of the UK will have an impact on Scottish institutions (particularly Edinburgh and St Andrews) and the situation was being closely monitored as fee levels shifted. Scottish institutions are also looking at the learner journey and the possibility of a greater number of Scottish students who have completed a 6th year at school entering higher education directly into the second year to remove duplication. There is also new teaching funding methodology emerging which will no longer be based on headcount but will be validated against the TRAC model. This is a cause for concern until the two different systems migrate to the new process and discussions will need to take place to understand how this will work. Ruth was grateful to HESA for putting in place the web service which enabled SFC to present final figures during the data collection to Scottish institutions.