Student Alternative record 2019/20 - Notification log
Student Alternative record 2019/20 - Notification log
This document summarises all communications associated with the 2019/20 Student Alternative collection, starting with the publication of known changes to the record in January 2019 all the way through to collection closure in October 2020. Please refer to the Revision history document for full technical list of changes to the specifications.
HESA issue regular communications during the life of a collection:
- Circulars: announcements to interested parties concerning or issues relating to the collection. Circulars are always made available on the HESA website for later reference, and emailed out to the mailgroup for the collection.
- Coding manual release overviews: these document iterative changes to the technical documentation that define the form of the data to be submitted, as well as being a place to host resources associated with collecting that data.
2020-11-13 Coding manual release overview - version 1.8
Version 1.8 of the coding manual includes the following changes:
- Guidance updates have been made to the fields Instance.GROSSFEE, Instance.NETFEE and QualificationsOnEntry.QUALGRADE.
2020-10-13 Coding manual release overview - version 1.7
Version 1.7 of the coding manual includes the following changes:
The list of valid entries for XINSTID01 has been amended within the Derived field specifications more detail in the derived field revisions page.
- Changes have been made to the following fields BIRTHDTE, NSS_LEV1, NSS_LEV2, NSS_LEV3, AGE31JUL and additional field OWNCOURSEID added within the File structures for National Student Survey (NSS), the XML Schema's have also been amended to reflect these changes.
2020-09-22 Coding manual release overview - version 1.6
Version 1.6 of the coding manual includes the following changes:
- Coverage update has been made to the field InstancePeriod.DISALL
- Guidance updates have been made to the fields Instance.NETFEE, Studentequality.DISABLE and QualificationAwarded.QUAL.
2020-08-07 Coding manual release overview - version 1.5
Version 1.5 of the coding manual includes the following changes:
A link to the support guide has been added to provide additional information under section 'Return' in the Data collection schedule.
- Guidance updates have been made to fields Course.CTITLE.
- A Coverage update has been made to the field InstancePeriod.CAMPID,
- Coverage and guidance updates have been made to the field InstancePeriod.LOCSDY.
2020-08-25 The XTPOINTS specification has been amended within the Derived field specifications more detail in the derived field revisions page.
2020-09-02 Additional information has been added to the Data collection schedule to advise the approach on deadlines due to COVID-19 pandemic.
2020-06-26 Coding manual release overview - version 1.4
Version 1.4 of the coding manual includes the following changes:
The following documents and schemas have been added to the coding manual under 'File structures for downloadable files' in the 'Submission process and quality assurance' section:
- File structures for data supply files,
- File structures for Expected instance population,
- File structures for National Student Survey (NSS),
- File structures for Unistats.
A link to the support guide has been added to provide additional information under section 'Commit' in the Data collection schedule.
A nil return sign-off form has been added under the 'Submission process and quality assurance' section of the coding manual.
- Guidance updates have been made to fields Instance.ENDDATE, Instance.INITIATIVES, QualificationAwarded.CLASS and QualificationAwarded.QUAL.
2020-05-19 Coding manual release overview - version 1.3
Version 1.3 of the coding manual includes the following changes:
- Covid-19 Exceptional guidance created for the C19054 Student Alternative return.
- Additional guidance has been added to the Coverage of the record to provide clarification.
- Multiple technical specifications have been updated in the Derived field specifications more detail in the derived field revisions page.
- Field length change has been made to InstancePeriod.INITIATIVES.
- Guidance updates have been made to InstancePeriod.MSTUFEE, InstancePeriod.STULOAD and EntryProfile.QualificationsOnEntry.
- Valid entry changes have been made to Course.COURSEAIM and QualificationsAwarded.QUAL.
2020-04-16 Coding manual release - version 1.2
Version 1.2 of the coding manual includes the following changes:
First release of the Derived field specifications for this collection, added under the 'Data specification' section.
The following documentation has been added under the 'Submission process and quality assurance' section:
Changes to supporting documentation:
- Additional guidance has been added to File structure and entity overview to provide clarification.
- Dates have been amended in the Coding manual release schedule to reflect the current HESA reporting year.
Changes to fields and entities:
- Guidance updates have been made to Instance.FUNDCODE, Instance.SPLENGTH, InstancePeriod.CAMPID, InstancePeriod.LOCSDY, InstancePeriod.MSTUFEE, InstancePeriod.QualificationsAwarded and Student.SSN.
- Coverage has been updated and clarified for Course.AWARDBOD.
- Valid entry changes have been made to QualificationsAwarded.QUAL, QualificationsOnEntry.QUALGRADE and QualificationsOnEntry.QUALSBJ
2020-03-02 Coding manual release - version 1.1
Version 1.1 of the coding manual includes the following changes:
Changes to supporting documentation:
- The guidance in Coverage of the record 'General definition' has been updated to clarify when a return is required and which students should be included. 'Exclusions to the coverage' applying to non-designated 'closed courses' and non-designated courses that are run in the UK but only for international and/or EU students have been removed. 'Exclusions to the coverage' applying to Students on employment-based routes (e.g. GTP, OTT and RTP) with the exception of students on the School Direct Training Programme has been clarified to state that this exclusion applies specifically to ITT students.
- The guidance in File structure has been updated to clarify which .xsd file should be used for submissions.
- The guidance and dates within the Data collection schedule has been amended.
Changes to fields and entities:
- Valid entry changes have been made to Instance.FUNDCOMP, Instance.FUNDLEV, Provider.RECID, QualificationsOnEntry.QUALGRADE and QualificationsOnEntry.QUALTYPE.
- Field length has been increased for QualificationsOnEntry.QUALGRADE.
- Guidance updates have been made to Course.COURSEAIM, Entryprofile.QUALENT3, Instance.ENDDATE, Instance.FUNDLEV, Instance.GROSSFEE, Instance.NETFEE, Instance.SPLENGTH, InstancePeriod.LOCSDY, InstancePeriod.PERIODEND, InstancePeriod.PERIODSTART, InstancePeriod.YEARPRG, InstancePeriod.YEARSTU, StudentEquality and StudentEquality.SEXID.
- Coverage has been updated and clarified for InstancePeriod.CAMPID, StudentEquality and QualificationsAwarded.CLASS.
- Coverage and guidance has been updated for Student.SSN.
- Minimum occurrences have been changed from 0 to 1 for StudentEquality, StudentEquality.DISABLE, StudentEquality.NATION, and StudentEquality.RELBLF.
- Minimum occurrences have been changed from 1 to 0 for InstancePeriod.CAMPID.
2019-10-09 Coding manual release - version 1.0
Version 1.0 of the coding manual includes the full technical specification of the record for the 2019/20 reporting period. The schema, field specifications, valid entries, and guidance are all now available.
Additional changes made to the specification of the record for the 2019/20 reporting period include:
- The following new fields have been added to the record: Course.AWARDBOD, Instance.FUNDCODE, Instance.FUNDCOMP and Instance.FUNDLEV, InstancePeriod.CAMPID
- The Instance.HEAPESPOP field has been removed from the record as it is no longer required.
- The maximum occurrences has been changed for Course.CourseSubject.
- The field length has been changed for CourseSubject.SBJCA.
- Valid entry changes have been made to Course.COURSEAIM, CourseSubject.SBJCA and InstancePeriod.INITIATIVES.
- Guidance updates have been made to Course.COURSEAIM, CourseSubject.SBJCA, Entryprofile.QUALENT3, InstancePeriod, InstancePeriod.INITIATIVES and InstancePeriod.MODE.
- Coverage changes have been made to Entryprofile.PREVINST, Instance.GROSSFEE, Instance.NETFEE, InstancePeriod.DISALL, InstancePeriod.LOCATION, Student.SSN, StudentEquality.DISABLE, StudentEquality.ETHNIC, StudentEquality.GENDERID, StudentEquality.NATION, StudentEquality.SEXID, StudentEquality.SEXORT.
- The Coverage of the record has been updated and added under the Data specification section of the manual.
- The Data collection schedule has been added under the Overview section of the manual.
- The Further guidance on returning postgraduate students to the Student Alternative Record has been updated and added under the Further guidance section of the manual.
- The Understanding student instance continuity and the UHN link has been updated and added under the Further guidance section of the manual.
- All coding manual documentation has been amended to replace AP Student record with Student Alternative record.
Please note that the guidance for CourseSubject.SBJPCNT will be added shortly.
For reference, please find a link to the notification of changes. This documents the changes which have been implemented for 2019/20 and was issued to contacts in August 2019.
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