1. HESA and Jisc Business Intelligence Project
Heidi Plus
HESA and Jisc Business Intelligence Project
Colin O’Prey
Planning Office

2. Background
Heidi - Higher Education Information Database for Institutions
Web-based management information service launched in 2007
Provides easy access to a rich source of quantitative data about higher education.
Heidi has been developed by Higher Educational Statistical Agency HESA, working in conjunction with the University of Leeds and the British Universities Finance Directors Group.
The development of Heidi was supported by UK funding bodies including DEL NI.

3. Heidi Data Sources
HESA data
Non-HESA data
Students
Staff
Finance
Estates
Destinations
HE-BCI
NSS
UCAS Applications
REF

4. Heidi at Queen’s
Queen’s have been a Heidi subscriber since 2007
Available to institutions by annual subscription
Unlimited user licence
Benchmarking analysis for Vision 2020 etc.
Currently over 60 Heidi users, 20 Finance users

5. Example Finance Report
Total Income £M 5yrs - Russell Group 8
Institution % Change
Birmingham %
Bristol %
Cardiff %
Glasgow %
Liverpool %
Newcastle %
Nottingham %
Southampton %
Peer Average %
Queen's %

6. HESA and JISC (Joint IS Committee) Business Intelligence Project established to improve business intelligence capability in HE
Heidi Plus (HESA)
Replacing Heidi with an enhanced service using Tableau
Increased analysis, dashboard and visualisation features
Serving a wider range of staff roles
Heidi Lab (JISC)
Heidi-Lab data analysis experts from institutions will attempt to design visualisations and analyses to answer priority business questions on behalf of the sector for new service content

7. Timetable
Heidi Plus went live in November 2015
Heidi will be decommissioned in November extended to April 2017
Existing Heidi accounts will no longer exist
Saved work will be lost

8. Benefits
Unlimited user licence
Developments costs borne by HESA and JISC
Improved accessibility via desktop, smartphone or tablet
Improved functionality and data content
Broadens appeal to wider range of staff through roles
Provides access to dashboards and the ability to create visualisations

9. Project Infrastructure
Heidi Plus offers users the required access to specific functionality and data according to the user role assigned
Support Centre
HESA Dashboards
Shared Workbooks
Data Sources
Personal Workbooks

10. Data Protection
Heidi applies a rounding strategy to individualised data, which is hard coded into the software.
No access to unrounded data
<3 = 0
>2 = 5

11. Data Protection
Tableau software cannot restrict access to unrounded data (hard-coding not possible)
Data extracts may include sufficient detail to allow for the identification of individuals
To mitigate the potential for breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998 data sources in Heidi Plus will be split into two separate areas

12. Data sources
Non-affected data (Silver data)
Affected data (Gold data)
Does not contain data relating to individuals
Does not constitute ‘Personal data’ as defined by the DPA
Does not require data protection training
Finance, Estates, Non-HESA data
Contains data relating to individuals and therefore may constitute ‘personal data’ as defined by the DPA
Must only be used in accordance with the terms set out in the Heidi Plus agreements and the DPA
Requires data protection training
Students, Staff data

13. Access rights and Demo
Bronze
Read only access – Support Centre, HESA Dashboards
Silver
Create visualisations from data sources that do not relate to individuals (silver data sources) eg. Finance data
Gold
Create visualisations from data sources that do relate to individuals (gold data sources) eg. Student and Staff data

14. Lead Contact responsibilities
Ensure Heidi Plus gold users at Queen’s comply with the Data Protection Act and HESA terms and requirements whilst using Heidi Plus
Approve new Heidi Plus requests, and ensure staff requesting Gold level access have an appropriate business requirement
Ensure gold user’s data protection training is up-to-date

15. Request Heidi Plus access from Lead Contact
Requesting Access
Request Heidi Plus access from Lead Contact
Read and sign Heidi Plus user agreement from HESA
Undergo Data Protection training (Gold access only)
Access is available via PC and tablet
Lead Contacts:
Colin O’Prey –
Liam Wright –

16. Questions
Colin O’Prey
Planning Office

17. HESA Dashboard (bronze, silver and gold) – 5 mins HESA Student non-UK domicile FPE dashboard Shared workbooks (silver and gold) – 5 mins Amend visualisation Income analysed by source – RG8 updates Add Queen’s Create group for Queen’s figures Biggest disparity in tuition fees Create visualisation (gold) – 5 mins Queen’s 1st yr FPE and Tariff Columns and rows domicile postcode district Marks label domicile postcode provider Filter academic year Domicile basic = UK size FPE first year tariff filter pages academic year