Information, Information, Information

Paul TravillAcademic Registrar

University of Wolverhampton

Good Afternoon

• Students at the heart of the system• What’s wrong with the present information• KIS • QAA Institutional Audit• Using our current information differently• Driving change and improvement from data

Well-informed students driving teaching excellence

• All students able to make more informed choices about the courses and institutions which best meet their needs.

• HEI’s to provide a standard set of information about courses, make it easier for applicants to find & compare this information.

• HEFCE to improve Unistats, so prospective students can make more useful comparisons between subjects at different institutions

• UCAS to make available, course by course, data showing type and subjects of actual qualifications held by previously successful applicants. This should help young people choose which subjects and qualifications to study at school

• Organisations that hold student data to make detailed data available, including on employment and earnings

• ‘I am committed to improving the information available to prospective students and their parents… it is in everyone's interest that students make well-informed decisions about what and where to study…we need to do better on careers advice and information’

• David Willets, September 2010 • ‘The relationship between the student and the

institution will be at the heart of the system….There will be improvements in the information and guidance given to students when they are choosing courses’

• Browne Review, October 2010

Well-informed students driving teaching excellence

• So what is wrong with our current data?• Where do applicants currently get their data?

Applicant Information

• UCAS• SLC• Institution website• Prospectus• Open Days• School, College• Unistats• Programme Specifications

KIS

• The KIS will contain areas of information that students have identified as useful.

- student satisfaction- course information- employment and salary data- accommodation costs and bed availability- financial information, such as fees and NSP- students' union information- Accreditation by PSRB- Programme Specification link

Data management

• For 2012 only: have choice of using actual 11/12 or estimated 12/13 data

• Future years should be based on retrospective actual, unless a new, or substantially changed course

• Has over 75 data fields to be returned for each KIS (and this doesn’t include the DLHE or NSS results – which

will be added later by HEFCE)

Website wigets

What data is in the KIS

Timescales to KIS

• October 2011 – HEFCE/ HESA documentation released• February 2012 – validation kit released• March 2012 – HEFCE system opens for data submission• July 2012 – NSS and DLHE 2011 data added to KIS

submissions• August 2012 – final deadline for submission and sign-off

of KIS data• September 2012 – official website and widgets go live• October 2012 – system re-opens for updates to

September 2012 KIS

Who publishes a KIS and for what

• Mandatory for institutions in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, optional for Scotland…

• ….covering (FT & PT) undergraduate courses starting within the period 1 August 2013 and 31 July 2014

• KIS records for franchise courses must be provided by the franchising institution that is responsible for registering students and returning them to HESA

What is a course?

• Is defined as a programme of study that a student can apply to either through UCAS.

• HESA currently undertaking a study on the different definitions of course across the UK

• What is a course at your Institution?

A KIS Course

• if students can apply separately to courses in Physics, Chemistry and Biology each would require a separate KIS, whereas if students could only apply to a course in Science and later choose to specialise, then only a single KIS needs to be produced.

• If a student can apply for either MEng and BEng then two separate KIS are needed. If all apply for MEng with a possibility of leaving with a BEng then only one KIS is needed

• Separate KIS must be produced for two presentations of a course if the fees differ

The KIS – bit by bit

NSS Data – from 2012 NSS

• Staff are good at explaining things• Staff have made the subject interesting• Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of my course• I have received sufficient advice and support with my studies• Feedback on my work has been prompt• Feedback on my work has helped me clarify things I did not

understand• The library resources are good enough for my needs• I have been able to access general IT resources when I

needed to

What does the course cost?

• Where the course contains optional components that reduce the fee, it should be assumed that the student does not take these components when determining the fee level

• The value should not be reduced to reflect any fee waivers or discounts that are offered – shown separately on a URL back to the HEI website

• For courses that recruit through UCAS this data will be supplied by UCAS and not collected as part of the KIS record

Accommodation

• Institution owned/sponsored accommodation:– average annual costs - upper and lower quartiles,– number of units (to which students can reasonably expect to have access)

• Private rental accommodation: – average annual costs - upper and lower quartiles

Employment

• The destinations of graduates six months after completing their course – comprising working, studying, working and studying, unemployed, and not available for work

• Salary data:– For 2011/12 this is being added to Unistats

Teaching and Assessment

• Proportion of time spent in various learning and teaching activities – by year/stage of study, with a link to further detail

• Mix of summative assessment methods – by year/stage of study

• Professional bodies that recognise this course, with a link to further detail

• Link to “reality” or what is validated

Categories of learning

•

What is a Typical Student

• 1. Determine the modules that are available to a KIS Course

• 2. Rank in order of number of students taking the module in the relevant year

• 3. Determine the modules that contribute to 1 FTE/120 credits

• 4. Use the modules with the most students enrolled on them, until the credit sum = 120

A simple example

For scheduled teaching and learning:

((30*60)+(30*50)+(20*30)+(10*30)+(30*40))/120 = 45

Does it all matter

• We already produce lots of information• It’s on the web• It’s – mainly up to date?– Accurate?– A whole new source of league table data!

• New commercial “Go compare” sites

Other information requirements

• HEAR, Higher Education Achievement Report– Incorporates transcript, European Diploma

Supplement, award detail of the student, prizes, medals, membership of clubs and societies

• Student Charter– To cover every student UGPT > PG(R)FT

• Internal demands on data use

QAA Institutional Audit

• From 2012-13, one of the judgments will be on the quality of information universities and other institutions publish.

• Including that produced for students and applicants, the institution's enhancement of students' learning opportunities.

• This is to provide assurance to students and prospective students that the information they use to make decisions is accurate and useful.

Using our current data as information sources

• Using the current systems to drive information demands

• Student records > management information• Different demands on the same data