1. Data Futures curriculum consultation
August 2019

2. Overview Structure of consultation Why are we consulting?
What are we proposing?
Scenarios from consultation
General questions from consultation
Questions

3. Structure of consultation

4. Structure of consultation
Introduction and background
Introduction to two proposals
General questions
Scenarios
Invite respondents to indicate a preference and provide any comments

5. Why are we consulting?

6. Why are we consulting?
The current Data Futures model
Course delivery

7. Why are we consulting? The current Data Futures model 2019/20 2020/21
2021/22
2022/23
Course Delivery 1: BA History, FT, year abroad
Course Delivery 2: BA History, FT
Course Delivery 3: BA History, FT
Course Delivery 4: BA History, PT

8. Student course session
Why are we consulting?
The current Data Futures model
Course delivery
Course Session
Student course session
Curriculum data
Student data

9. Why are we consulting?
We’ve received feedback from providers that this approach does not work well for them
In particular, this would have required curriculum data held within providers’ systems to be duplicated for submission to HESA e.g. course with and without a placement, or courses starting at different times during the year
We therefore want to invite providers to comment on the proposed alternative structures for this area of the model.

10. What do we need to consider?
Consistency across the sector
Consistency with other processes
Consistency over time
Assumptions
Constraints
The OfS and other statutory customers need to be able to analyse the data for all providers in a consistent way. - Diverse sector now that we are regulating and we need set structure in data so that we can ensure we are treating a provider where all their provision starts in September consistently with a provider where they have three intakes a year.
Consistency with processes run with by the SLC, Tier 4 etc.
Still need to be able to produce time series and comparable metrics over years.
We don’t want to be making assumptions about providers provision or students because the data hasn’t been returned consistently. - Need structure to the data, for example if we allowed providers to return student course sessions of any length then if a session starts in Sept and ends in April, we don’t know whether the student has got a really long summer break or if they’ve gone inactive but the provider has forgotten to tell us this in the data.
Certain terms and concepts rely on us associating students’ study with time periods of 12 months, this is a fixed requirement in both options. - Mode of study, fees and funding.

11. What are we proposing?

12. What are we proposing?
Two proposed structures for this area of the model
These follow a number of workshops with statutory customers and providers.

13. What are we proposing? Option A
Remove Course delivery and Course session.
Course entity replaces these and contains high level information about that course
No dates are held against the curriculum data. This means there is no concept of the planned start or end date for a course.
Course links directly to Student course session which must be 12 months

14. What are we proposing? Option A
Curriculum data
Student data
Includes information about the type of activity the student is undertaking e.g. foundation year, placement

15. What are we proposing? Option A
Student course sessions must be a year

16. What are we proposing? Option B
Remove Course delivery and have a Course entity
Replace Course session with Session year
The Session year is an entity that contains just a start and end date and must be a year long
A new Session year is not needed to reflect different student activity e.g. different modes, locations
A new Session year is required to reflect different entry points e.g. One for September 2019 starters, one for January 2020 starters, one for September 2020 starters.

17. What are we proposing? Option B
Curriculum data
Student data
The dates on the Session year indicate the planned start dates of each year and therefore provide context to the Student’s activity e.g. have they started later than expected?

18. What are we proposing? Option B
The Session years must be a year
The Student course sessions could reflect the dates the student engaged

19. The two options…
Option A is simple for students that follow standard patterns of study.
However, due to the requirement of being able to capture activity in periods of 12 months, it means that extra flags are needed and providers may need to compile the data in an unnatural way in certain situations.
This is demonstrated in the Scenarios 5ii, 9ii and 9iii, where due to the 12 month requirements different parts of different years would need to be combined into a single student course session.
Therefore although fewer entities are required in this option, complexity is introduced through the way in which student course sessions must be constructed

20. The two options…
Option B introduces another entity, session year, which therefore introduces complexity.
By introducing this additional entity it gives a better indication of what the proposed structure of a course might be.
The session years provide the skeletal structure of the course which means students can be moved on to the more appropriate session years if their activity dictates, this is again demonstrated in Scenarios 5ii, 9ii and 9iii.

21. Scenarios

22. Scenario 1: full-time
Option A

23. Scenario 1: full-time
Option B

24. Scenario 2: part-time
Option A

25. Scenario 2: part-time
Option B

26. Scenario 3: Placement
Option A

27. Scenario 3: Placement
Option A

28. Scenario 3: Placement
Option B

29. Scenario 3: Placement
Option B

30. Scenario 4: Foundation year
Option A

31. Scenario 4: Foundation year
Option A

32. Scenario 4: Foundation year
Option B

33. Scenario 4: Foundation year
Option B

34. Scenario 5i: Full-year resit

35. Scenario 5i: Full-year resit
Option A

36. Scenario 5i: Full-year resit
Option B

37. Scenario 5ii: Part-year resit

38. Scenario 5ii: Part-year resit
Option A
Student course sessions must be 1 year long
Contains activity spanning two academic years

39. Scenario 5ii: Part-year resit
Option B
Session years show the planned course years the student is interacting with
Student course sessions can be shorter than a year to reflect the student’s pattern of study

40. Scenario 6: Late starter
Option A

41. Scenario 6: Late starter
Option A
Late starter flag returned

42. Scenario 6: Late starter
Option B

43. Scenario 6: Late starter
Option B
Session year indicates the planned start date
So late starter flag is not required

44. Scenario 7, transfer within HEP: Option A

45. Scenario 7, transfer within HEP: Option B

46. Scenario 8: Postgraduates
Option A

47. Scenario 8: Postgraduates
Option B

48. Scenario 9i: whole year dormant

49. Scenario 9i: whole year dormant
Option A

50. Scenario 9i: whole year dormant
Option B

51. Scenario 9ii: whole year dormant 2

52. Scenario 9ii: whole year dormant 2
The first Student course session is closed when the student becomes dormant
Option A
The period from December 2019-January 2021 is not reported.

53. Scenario 9ii: whole year dormant 2
The first Student course remains open and the Session status entity indicates the student is dormant
Option A
The period from December 2019-January 2021 is returned using the Session status entity to indicate when the student is dormant/active.

54. Scenario 9ii: whole year dormant 2
Option B

55. Scenario 9iii: part-year dormancy
Option B

56. Scenario 9iii: part-year dormancy
Option A

57. Scenario 9iii: part-year dormancy
Option B

58. Scenario 10: 15-month curriculum
Option A

59. Scenario 10: 15-month curriculum
Option B

60. Scenario 11: fully flexible
Option A

61. Scenario 11: fully flexible
Option B

62. Option B: All One set of session years Full time, three year student
Late starter
Full-year resit
Placement year
Foundation year

63. Option B: Different Session years
September intake
January intake
April intake

64. General questions

65. General questions: funding level
Current funding level field contains two concepts:
Level
Length of year
We propose separating this into two fields:
Level: curriculum data
Length of year: student course session

66. General questions: accreditation and initiatives
These elements are proposed to sit with the Course entity
We know that this information can change for a course e.g. a course gains accreditation
Would providers consider this a new Course if an accreditation/initiative changes?
How should this be recorded:
On Course entity, without dates?
Sub entity of Course, with dates?

67. General questions: Year of Programme
Do you have provision for which returning Year of Programme is challenging?
There is a need to collect some information about students’ progression e.g. direct entrants, students resitting
If we did not collect Year of Programme, we would need a way of identifying this e.g. a resit field to flag students resitting.

68. General questions: Sandwich
Need to understand where a sandwich option is available
Propose a field on the Course entity to indicate this
It records the option of a sandwich placement, so different Courses would not be needed for students who do/do not take up the option.

69. The consultation Responses are required by 11 September
To enable different members of your organisation to influence your response you are able to use the ‘save and come back later’ option. Once you click the ‘save and come back later’ option you will receive a unique link.
Once the required questions have been completed, a ‘Finish’ button will appear at the bottom of the consultation. Pressing this will complete the consultation and send your responses for analysis. Please do not click through to finish until you are satisfied with all of your answers.
On completion, a copy of your responses will be generated as a PDF and sent to the address you entered at the beginning of the consultation.

70. Questions?

71. Thank you for listening
Training team:
Liaison team: