Data intelligence

For the 2022/23 return, coverage has been updated for the RELBLF and SEXORT fields, which became mandatory for providers in England and Wales but remained optional for providers in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Coverage for the GENDERID field has also been updated to exclude providers in Scotland. As this marked the first time some HE providers submitted this specific information, survey completion and the return of information varied among staff, leading to a notable percentage of data being marked as 'Not available.' Due to this, we advise caution when interpreting these data.

As some HE providers submitted information for these fields for the first time, there was variability in survey completion and information return among staff. Consequently, a significant proportion of the data was marked as 'Not available.' Given this, we advise caution when interpreting these data.

The University of Surrey admitted its first small cohort of undergraduates into its new School of Veterinary Medicine in 2014/15. In subsequent years the cohorts will be larger and the degree lasts for 5 years, so it is expected to see noticeable year on year increases in undergraduate numbers in Veterinary Science for The University of Surrey up until 2019/20.

In 2008/09, the London School of Economics and Political Science misreported 305 full-time other undergraduate visiting students as non-exchange students. As a result these students appear in the provider's other undergraduate figures, where they would normally have been excluded from the HESA session and standard registration populations.

Plymouth College of Art submitted incorrect figures for 4 waste fields in the Estates management return in 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2016/17 due to their waste provider supplying them grossly incorrect estimated figures based on overall lorry capacity, rather than kg per bin. Revised estimated figures based on average kg per bin have been supplied to replace this data as per the table below.

King's College London have made us aware that following a review of their 2014/15 Waste Mass returns, they have made the following recalculations:

• Non-Residential Waste Mass Recycled (ENRWMREC) should have been 641.999 tonnes
• Non-Residential Waste Mass Incineration (ENRWMINC) should have been 171.6 t
• Non-Residential Waste Mass Anaerobic Digestion (ENRWMADI) should have been 45.546t
• Non-Residential Waste Mass Landfill (ENRWMLAN) should have been 0.321t
• Non-Residential Waste Mass Used to Create Energy (ENRWMENE) should have been 721.978t
• Non-Residential Waste Mass Other (ENRWMOTH) should have been 85.8t
• Residential Waste Mass Recycled (ERWMREC) should have been 72.414t
• Residential Waste Mass Used to Create Energy (ERWMENE) should have been 174.151t
• Other Works Waste Mass Recycled (EOWMREC) should have been 20.470t
• Other Works Waste Mass Landfill (EOWMLAN) should have been 0.000t
• Other Works Waste Mass Used to Create Energy (EOWMENE) should have been 0.65t

In 2021/22, there were significant reductions observed in the values reported by The University of Leeds for measures related to waste mass across various fields. Over the past few years, construction has been the primary contributor to waste mass. However, with the completion of major construction projects and no new projects initiated, there have been genuine reductions in waste levels.

In 2021/22, The University of St. Andrews reported reductions in various waste-related fields which were driven by an increase in energy derived from waste and a decrease in landfill waste.

The Water consumption figure (D38b.C01) for The University of Strathclyde appears blank within their data, this is due to a component part of this total being returned blank rather than zero. The figures should be:

D38b.C13: Water consumption Total Non-Residential (m3) = 242093

D38b.C14: Water consumption Residential (m3) = 0

D38b.C01: Water consumption Total HEI (m3) = 242093

In 2020/21, there was an error in the census year referred to in the Welsh language version of the Graduate Outcomes survey.

There were just over 3,280 responses received from graduates who had the option to complete the survey in Welsh at these providers. Of these responses, approximately 300 were completed in Welsh. Around two thirds of these Welsh responses were collected via Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) and, following extensive checks of recordings, we could confirm that interviewers corrected the census year at the time of interview. These responses could therefore be confirmed as referring to the correct census year and retained as part of the dataset. The remaining third of these responses were completed online and could not be verified as relating to the correct census year. As a result, due to the data quality concerns, all the online survey responses to the Welsh language version of the survey have been removed from the dataset.

These graduates were not removed from the surveyable population dataset used as a base population to calculate response rates; they will appear as ‘non-respondents’ to the survey.

In 2019/20, an error existed in two of the opt-in research questions for the Welsh language version of the Graduate Outcomes survey (Collaborating with others in different subject and Collaborating with others outside HE research). Whilst the question text was displayed correctly, the selectable answer options displayed blank (empty) boxes. Therefore, graduates who were eligible to answer these questions and chose to complete the survey in Welsh would not have known what answer option they were selecting. This issue affects 5 graduate responses.

The Open University has a significant proportion (99%) of their students with an unknown year of course. The flexible nature of study at The Open University means that the concept of a year of course does not have any meaning and hence almost all taught students are returned as unknown.

In 2017/18, De Montfont University incorrectly reported staff on zero hours contracts, due to a technical issue. 5610 staff were incorrectly reported as being on a zero hours contract. Of these, 3250 were included in the staff contract population at 1 December. All staff at the provider should have been reported as not on a zero hours contract.

In 2017/18, Staffordshire University incorrectly reported 1595 full-person equivalents as being on zero hours contracts. These should have been recorded as not on a zero hours contract. For the same year Staffordshire University incorrectly reported 1265 full-person equivalents as hourly paid. These should have been recorded as salaried.