Key Information Set (KIS) Aims • Give an overview of the KIS data requirements and common issues • Explain the validation and data submission process • Cover how KIS will be used • Provide opportunity for questions and answers around the KIS requirements Data requirements Data model Defining the institution Institution bed number • INSTBEDS records the number of institution owned/sponsored beds available to undergraduate students… • ....it does not record the number occupied as in the EMS record • It is expected that where institution owned bed spaces exist there will be no more than 15000 for any single institution Accommodation costs • INSTLOWER and INSTUPPER record the upper and lower quartile annual cost of institution owned beds • PRIVATELOWER and PRIVATEUPPER record the same information but for private sector accommodation • Institutions should include full details within the Institution.ACCOMURL field • Where the institution has multiple campuses in different cities, the quartiles returned should include all campuses • Not required where all courses are distance learning Defining KIS courses Coverage Who and what? • Mandatory for all UK institutions… • …covering (FT & PT) undergraduate courses starting within the reporting period i.e. 1 August 2013 and 31 July 2014… • …that can be applied to by Home/EU students What is a course? • For KIS purposes a course is defined as a programme of study that a student can apply to either through UCAS or directly to the institution • Thus, 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 Defining Undergraduate courses • For the purpose of KIS, undergraduate courses are defined as: - Course.COURSEAIM beginning H, I, J and C, and integrated masters courses M22 and M26 - LAD/LARA are those with a Learning Aim Type of 0031, 0032, 0394, 1406, 1407, 1408, 1409, 9000, 9002, 9107, E007, 1449, 9110, 9111 or 9112 Courses not included • Courses where the total FTE of the course is one year or less when studied full-time (i.e.120 credits or less for its entirety) • Closed courses (as defined in Course.CLSDCRS) - courses that are not open to any suitably qualified candidate and will typically be courses offered only to employees of particular organisations • Courses offered mainly overseas with a location of study mainly overseas, which the funding body has not specifically sanctioned as eligible for funding. A course is considered to be offered mainly overseas if, for all students, the majority (over 50%) of their study is overseas. • Intercalated degrees • Part-time courses that are also offered on a full-time basis and a KIS is produced for the full-time course Defining KIS courses Data requirements Determining KIS types • There are three types of KIS records that can be returned… • …and depending on the course and its attributes will depend on which type is used • The three types are: - KISTYPE 1 - Full course level KIS - KISTYPE 2 - Multiple subject course placeholder KIS - KISTYPE 3 - Subject level KIS KISTYPE 1 • KISTYPE 1s are full KIS records required for specific courses: - All single subject courses (those with only one JACS code) regardless of intake size - All multiple subject courses (those with more than one JACS code) where the intake size is greater than 20 students - All teacher training courses (KISCourse.TTCID = 1 or 2) regardless of the number of JACS codes or intake size KISTYPE 1 • In addition to those courses that require a full KIS, institutions may choose to produce a full KIS for multiple subject courses with intakes of fewer than 15 students… • …however only where the course is marketed and managed as a single indivisible entity (and thus have a single programme specification) • For example ‘BA in Finance and Accounting’ KISTYPE 2 • KISTYPE 2s are 'placeholders' for multiple subject courses for which a KISTYPE 1 record is not required i.e. the intake size is less than 20 students and/or the multiple subject course is not treated as one course • Each KISTYPE 2 KIS record can be linked to up to three KISTYPE 1 or three KISTYPE 3 KIS records but not a mixture of both types… • …this is to avoid misleading students with data from different levels KISTYPE 3 • KISTYPE 3 records provide information about a subject that forms part of a multiple subject course for which no KISTYPE 1 can be produced • Subject level KIS should be produced for every JACS level 2 subject that is included within a multiple subject course except where a KISTYPE 1 KIS exists for each of the subjects that make up the multiple subject course Example • Poppleton University offer a joint honours French and Music course with an intake of only 10 students and therefore completes a KISTYPE 2 KIS record. Poppleton offers a single honours French course (KISTYPE 1 KIS record) but does not offer a single honours Music course. The institution will therefore have to link the KISTYPE 2 course to KISTYPE 3 records as there are not the corresponding KISTYPE 1 records KISCOURSEID • Records a unique identifier for the KIS course • The field will be used by the KIS widget to identify the course to which the widget relates… • …and also links KISTYPE 2s to KISTYPE 3s • Institutions are advised not to update this field annually as this would require an annual update to all widget links • Care should be taken around KISCOURSEID and other course Ids within systems URLs • It is the institutions responsibility to ensure that urls provided within KIS remain active and relevant through the reporting year • Only the structure will be checked by validation • A Welsh url is available for each where the institution is in Wales • Can we add multiple course URLs for a type 2 KIS? - Institutions should provide a link to a generic page. Maximum occurrences for this field, including KISTYPE 2, is set at 1 Defining KIS courses Accreditation Recording accreditation • Any one KIS can have up to 10 accreditations • For each accreditation a type, accrediting body, whether it is an option a student elects, and urls providing further information ACCTYPE • The field is required for accreditations where the student gains something and where they do not • Should provide a short textual description of the type of accreditation (as used by the body’s website) - Chartered, Membership, Fellowship • Where provided, the 30 character word will be inserted into a sentence… Accreditation sentence • “This course is recognised by YYYY for the purposes of XXXX” • Where XXXX equals accreditation type and YYYY equals accreditation body - What do institutions think of this rewording? - Can institutions support an increase in character length for ACCTYPE? ACCBODYID • This field must exist for all accreditations • Records the body providing accreditation to the course • Where accreditation is at the institution level as opposed to the course level, all KIS courses will need the accreditation recorded • Coding frame to be expanded in March release ACCDEPEND • Records whether accreditation is dependent on student choice… • …for example does a very particular pattern of modules have to be followed in order to gain accreditation • The ACCDEPENDURL field will record further details about the dependency of choice (i.e. what modules must be selected to gain accreditation) where ACCDEPEND=1 • Important information so that students are aware where a course is heavily constrained Defining KIS courses Employability and student satisfaction data DLHE and NSS data • Some of the most significant data items (information on employability and student satisfaction) on the KIS are generated through linking with the HESA Student record and ILR • Where a corresponding course record exists on the HESA record or ILR the KIS should be linked to this using the HESACOURSEID or ILRAIMID fields • Only KISTYPE 1s can be linked to a HESA or ILR course KIS courses can be linked to up to 500 courses on the HESA Student or 25 on the ILR… • …to take into account where there are multiple occurrences of the same course However… • Institutions should not link a single KIS course to multiple different HESA or ILR courses • For example, Poppleton University offers a BA History as well as a BA History with French. A KIS record is therefore produced for both • The KIS course for BA History should only be linked to the BA History and not to BA History with French as well • This is to avoid customised aggregation HESACourse fields • HESACourse.HESACOURSEID - Field must exist once but only once within the entity and must contain a valid Course.COURSEID from the HESA Student Record - Validation will check that the HESACourse.HESACOURSEID recorded in this field exists in the C09051 and C10051 Student record • HESACourse.HESAYEAR - Field must exist once but only once within the entity and records the year the HESACOURSEID relates to - HESAYEAR can be completed with 'BOTH', or '2010', but not '2009' alone ILRAims fields • ILRAims.ILRAIMID - Field must exist once but only once within the entity and must contain the qualification aim reference code used in the year • ILRAims.ILRYEAR - Field must exist once but only once within the entity and indicates which year the ILR qualification reference code relates to - The ILRAims entity for a ILRAim can contain ILRYEARs with 'BOTH', or '2010', but not '2009' alone - If ILRAims.ILRYEAR = Both then the same ILRAIMID must exist in both the 2009/10 and 2010/11 ILR Linking issues • Exception validation will ensure that the HESACOURSEID or ILRAIMID exists on the HESA record or ILR • Where no link can be made, institutions will fail validation… meaning the ID will need to be revised or additional fields completed • What if we have recently changed our course identifiers on HESA or ILR? - Where a link to course information on HESA or ILR can be made (i.e. the course existed) then HESACOURSEID or ILRAIMID on KIS should contain the values returned on HESA or ILR in 2009 and/or 2010 Course ID changes example • Poppleton University run a course that has been returned on HESA Student record for the last 3 years • However, the institution in 2010 changed the COURSEID from BAHIS1 to BAH HESACourse HESACOURSEID HESAYEAR HESACourse BAH 2009 HESACourse BAHIS1 2010 • (Providing the COURSEID does not change again), in the future BOTH can be returned in HESAYEAR What is a professional or managerial job for KIS? • Graduate jobs within KIS are defined through the DLHE record as: • An employed destination i.e. (full-time, part-time, self-employed/freelance)… • …where the activity has been coded within SOC major groups 1-3 • A preview of this data is available within DLHE check documentation Thresholds for DLHE/NSS • The publication thresholds for the NSS are that 50% of the eligible students must have responded and that these must represent at least 23 students • The publication thresholds for the DLHE differ in that the number of students covered by the indicator must be at least 23 (a 50% threshold is not applied) • However, for salary information, at least 50% of the students who are employed full-time. Thus, for salary data to be published at least 23 students who are employed full-time must have given a salary and these must represent at least 50% of the students employed full-time Aggregating DLHE/NSS data • Where NSS and DLHE data for a particular course fail to meet the publication thresholds then data will be aggregated in the following order until data that meet the thresholds are achieved: Course level most recent two years JACS subject level 3 most recent year JACS subject level 3 most recent two years JACS subject level 2 most recent year JACS subject level 2 most recent two years JACS subject level 1 most recent year JACS subject level 1 most recent two years Example • Poppleton University offer a BA (Hons) Medieval History • 24 out of 50 students from the course responded to the NSS in 2009/10 and 2010/11 • 25 out of 60 leavers from the course completed a DLHE survey and were in FT employment (of which 10 gave salary information) DLHE/NSS for new courses • Where a course is new or a link to a HESA or ILR course cannot be made, institutions must complete the following fields… - JACS - LEVEL - PTONLY - TTCID • …allowing a link to be made to existing DLHE/NSS data meeting the criteria New courses and DLHE/NSS Defining KIS courses Fee information and UCAS UCAS information • Where the KIS course recruits through UCAS the following fields will need to be completed: - UCASPROGID (the programme code) - UCASCOURSEID (the code for the specific course within the programme - only need to be given where different courses within the same UCAS programme will have a separate KIS produced) Fees for UCAS courses • Where a UCASPROGID has been returned, the fee information for the course will automatically be populated in the KIS • Institutions should ensure that the UCASPROGIDs are consistent with those held at UCAS • Institutions are required to provide course-level fee information to UCAS • Submitted via manual process using UCAS Net.update from May until July Fee information • The following fields will be populated automatically where UCASPROGID exists: • ENGFEE/NIFEE/SCOTFEE/WAFEE – records the average maximum annual fee for the course • MEASSUP – records whether means tested support available • OTHSUP – records whether non-means tested support available • WAIVER – records whether fee waivers are available • VARFEE – records whether the fee varies by year • FEETBC – records whether fees are yet to be confirmed Non-UCAS courses • For courses that do not recruit through UCAS the fee information should be provided directly on the KIS record… • …populating all of the relevant fee fields • Institutions should record only record FEETBC as 1 ‘Fees confirmed’ where fees for all domiciles are confirmed • Validation will ensure fee information for each devolved administration does not exist where FEETBC=0 Fees • All fees displayed on KIS will be for standard full-time study (except where a course is offered part-time only)… • …thus if the fees differ only on variations to mode of study there is no requirement to return separate KIS’ • This is even the case where a course is offered predominantly through a part-time mode e.g. 200 part-time enrolments, 3 full-time. In such cases it will still be the full-time fee returned Fees 2 • Where the course contains optional components that reduce the fee, for example a sandwich placement, then it should be assumed that the student does not take these components when determining the fee level • It is anticipated that 0 can be returned in SCOTFEE for Scottish HEIs Part-time fees • Where a course is offered through a parttime mode only, and thus a separate KIS is produced, the fee should be based on 120 credits (i.e. the full-time equivalent) • The fees should not be determined using a ‘norm’ of number of modules selected Defining KIS courses Course stages Course Stage entity • This entity records details of the learning and teaching and assessment methods for the course stage… • …and is required for KISTYPE 1 and 3 • The entity can be returned up to 7 times for each KIS course… • …thus covering each of the potential course stages • For example a 3 year degree will have 3 course stages CourseStage.STAGE • Records the course stage that the learning and teaching methods and assessment methods relate to… • …and can contain a value between 1 and 7 • Must exist once but only once • For full-time courses this will usually be equivalent to a course year (Student.YEARPRG in the student record) • For part-time students this should relate to the fulltime pattern of study, therefore a part-time degree would normally have stages 1 to 3 CourseStage.LTACT • Indicates whether the learning and teaching methods are based on actual student choices or the institution's estimates of the modules that students will choose - A ‘Based on actual student choices’ - B ‘Based on institutional estimates’ • Whilst using E ‘estimates’ is permissible in the first year of KIS reporting, it is expected that actual student choices will be used in subsequent years Learning and teaching methods • CourseStage.INDEPENDENT, CourseStage.SCHEDULED, CourseStage.PLACEMENT - record the percentage of the student’s time for the stage that is spent in guided independent study/scheduled learning and teaching activities/on placements or in work experience • Time spent in summative assessments not included • Each field can contain a value in the range 0 – 100 • Should refer to 2011/12 (if actual data) or 2013/14 (if institutional estimates) • The sum of these fields must equal 100 Categorising teaching and learning methods Activity type KIS category Lecture Scheduled Seminar Scheduled Tutorial Scheduled Project supervision Scheduled Demonstration Scheduled Practical classes and workshops Scheduled Supervised time in studio/workshop Scheduled Fieldwork Scheduled External visits Scheduled Work based learning Scheduled Guided independent study Independent Placement Placement Year abroad Placement CourseStage.ASSACT • Indicates whether the assessment methods are based on actual student choices or the institution's expectations of the modules that students will choose: - A ‘Based on actual student choices - E ‘Based on institutional estimates • Whilst using E ‘estimates’ is permissible in the first year of KIS reporting, it is expected that actual student choices will be used in subsequent years Assessment methods • CourseStage.COURSEWORK, CourseStage.WRITTEN, CourseStage.PRACTICAL - record the percentage of the assessment for the stage that is through coursework/written exams/practical exams • Each field can contain a value in the range 0 – 100 • Should refer to 2011/12 (if actual data) or 2013/14 (if institutional estimates) • Each field must exist once but only once • The sum of these fields must equal 100 or 0 (where there is no summative assessment as part of the course stage) Categorising assessment methods Activity type KIS category Written exam Written Written assignment, including essay Coursework Report Coursework Dissertation Coursework Portfolio Coursework Project output (other than dissertation) Coursework Oral assessment and presentation Practical Practical skills assessment Practical Calculating assessment, teaching and learning methods • The proportions in each of the assessment methods and learning and teaching methods should be calculated based on the module choices of (all – international included) students in the 2011/12 academic year • The number of students taking each module should be determined and modules with the highest number of students registered selected until one FTE (120 credits) worth of modules have been selected. The proportions reported in each method category will then reflect the proportions in the combination of the selected modules • Where the process above leads to the inclusion of modules on which less than 10% of students are registered, institutions should make a reasonable judgement as to whether the selection of modules is representative Method 1. Determine the modules that are available to a KISCourse 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. Calculate an average value from these modules… 5. …therefore overall proportion in scheduled teaching and learning = (Sum of (Credit value of module * Proportion in scheduled teaching and learning of module )) / 120 Example Module Credit value Number of students Physics 1 Maths 1 Computing 1 Computing 2 Maths 2 30 30 20 10 30 100 100 100 40 30 Proportion in scheduled teaching and learning 60 50 30 30 40 Physics 2 20 20 Disregard Project 10 10 Disregard Proportion in independent study 40 50 70 70 60 Placement 0 0 0 0 0 For scheduled teaching and learning: ((30*60)+(30*50)+(20*30)+(10*30)+(30*40))/120 = 45 Calculation issues • Where using this method leads to the module selection not being representative, the institution should include an estimate of the typical pattern for students on the course • Where a typical student calculation is going to lead to two placement modules being included then they should be treated as a single module… • …this might form the approach to other modules where two or more fall into the typical calculation. For example where only one would be taken as part of that course the most popular should be used Determining for KISTYPE 3 • The proportions in each of the learning and teaching methods and assessment methods should be based on the modules with the largest number of students registered that add up to up to half an FTE (60 credits) • In the first instance only modules taken by students studying multiple subject courses should be used and only those modules whose JACS subject matches the subject of the KIS should be included • Where considering only students taking joint honours courses leads to unreliable splits between the assessment methods and learning and teaching methods then students studying the subject as a single honours should also be included Example • A student is taking a joint honours course in Mathematics and Philosophy for which subject level KIS are being produced • If the student takes 6 20 credit point modules with JACS codes of G110, G120, G300, V520, V550 and R100 then the modules with JACS codes G110, G120 and G300 would be included in the list from which those selected for calculation of assessment methods and learning and teaching methods for mathematical sciences subject based KIS are taken. Similarly, the modules with JACS codes V520 and V550 would be included in the calculation for the philosophy, theology and religious studies subject based KIS. The single module in French (R100) would not be included Example (cont.) Different types of course New courses • For all new courses there will be a number of additional fields to be completed due to a HESA or ILR course not existing • JACS or LDCS, LEVEL, TTCID, PTONLY, and DISTANCE will need to be returned so that where the institution already runs courses in the same JACS subject areas then NSS and DLHE data for the subject will be included in the KIS until data for the course become available • The learning, teaching and assessments for the course stage will be based off estimates in the first year, and then actual and estimated data in subsequent years Franchised courses • KIS records for franchise courses must be provided by the franchising institution that is responsible for registering students and returning them to HESA/ILR • The institution who registers the student should report the KIS and the institution which the student applies to should display the widget… • …thus the UKPRNAPPLY field should be completed accordingly • UKPRNAPPLY must not equal UKPRN Sandwich courses • Where a course includes a sandwich placement as part of the programme specification a KIS will be produced detailing 4 course stages • Where a course includes an optional sandwich placement (that a student may or may not take up) two KIS courses should be returned – one detailing the 3 course stages, with the other detailing 4 course stages. The widget of both should then be recorded on both KIS courses Part-time courses • Where FT exists no need for PT even if fees differ • For wholly part-time courses, and where a HESA or ILR course does not exist, PTONLY should equal 1 Distance courses • Accommodation costs not required if all courses are distance learning • DISTANCE cannot be recorded against KISTYPE 2 records… • …therefore a KISTYPE 3 will need to be produced for both ‘distance learning only’ and for ‘normal’ methods of study File format Understanding XML Record format • KIS must be submitted in an XML format • XML stands for eXtensible Mark-up Language… • …and is the international data standard for data transfer • Hierarchical data structures in a single file • All KIS files submitted must be encoded with UTF-8 XML file • Contains fields (sometimes referred to as an element)… • …with tags to define the start and end of a field <LDCS>AA.3</LDCS> • …fields can exist more than once… <LDCS>AA.3</LDCS> <LDCS>CC.1</LDCS> …or not at all where the field is not required e.g. the ILRAims entity exists for the KIS course XML file 2 • Fields are nested… <KISCourse> <LDCS>AA.3</LDCS> </KISCourse> • …as are entities <KISCourse> <LDCS>AA.3</LDCS> <CourseStage> <STAGE>1</STAGE> </CourseStage> </KISCourse> Data collection using XML • We define the element names… • ….and types… • …and nesting structure… • …and some of the rules of completion… • ..in an XML Schema Definition (XSD) file XSD • Controls the anarchy… • …ensuring that all fields and entities are ordered correctly in the XML file • XSD is available from HESA website Help with XML • Institutional Liaison • Schema trees • Editing files - Ultra Edit is your friend! • Student contacts • FAQs Producing an XML file • Many institutions will have software systems capable of producing an XML file… • …there will however be some institutions for which the KIS requirements are significant enough to purchase or develop an additional software module • As an alternative Microsoft Excel can be used to generate a KIS file… Demonstration… Using Excel • Create a KIS template in Excel and complete the relevant data items – remember to delete the rows which are not relevant to the KIS course • Highlight all of the cells and copy • Paste into Notepad • Highlight a ‘tab’ space and then select the ‘Replace’ option from the edit menu • Paste the tab space into the ‘find what’ box and leave the ‘replace with’ box empty • Select ‘save as’ from the File menu and give it an extension of .xml and select ‘All files’ in the ‘save as type’ box Validation Validation process and using the kit Insert-stage XML splits validation rules into 2 types of check: – Schema: ‘well formedness’ • Conformity to the .XSD • Missing fields • Tagging • Invalid codes – Business: logic of the submission • Coverage • Consistency between fields • Consistency between entities Remember! • Validation will always check the schema rules first • Until schema errors are resolved you will not know how many business rules errors your submission has • Schema errors can be more difficult to interpret Exception • Exception validation will take place at the point of data submission • Any UCASPROGID or UCASCOURSEID returned on KIS must exist in the data provided to HEFCE by UCAS • Any HESACOURSEID or ILRAIMID returned on KIS must exist in the data provided to HEFCE by HESA and Data Service • Prevent PRIVATELOWER/UPPER and accommodation urls from existing where all courses are entirely distance learning First stage -schema -business Exception Valid data Validation kit • User friendly interface • One kit for all HESA XML data collections • Framework connects to web to download latest rule versions *We recommend that the kit is downloaded onto each PC rather than onto a local network* Validation kit • Business rule switches can be applied to focus data checking • Details of errors/warnings triggered can be downloaded to Excel & printed • Configuration tab – can set to local preferences www.hesa.ac.uk/validation_help Configuring the validation kit • Recommended minimum specification of a Dual core processor and 2 GB RAM • Kit validates in batches • Can change size of batch to alter processing times: Reduce size = less memory but greater processing times Increase size = less processing times but greater memory Demonstration… Data submission Submission timeline Data quality checking • HEFCE will not conduct credibility checks on the data • It is up to institutions to ensure the data are credible and the links between the KIS and NSS/DLHE data are correct • Institutions will be given a preview of the linked NSS/DLHE data in July • HEFCE intends to provide a number of tools and reports to aid institutions in checking their data • The precise checks have not been finalised but are likely to include reports showing the HESA/ILR courses linked for each KIS, NSS/DLHE target populations, HESA/ILR courses not linked to any KIS, etc. Updating KIS • For example to confirm fee information or to make amendments to mistakes • Updates will be routinely published via the KIS widgets and official web-site • To update KIS institutions have to submit a complete file containing all KIS records even where only one update has been made – no AMAL process Updating KIS example Submission 1 86 records Submission 2 100 records Data collection system 100 186 86 records records Submission 3 186 records Updating KIS issues • Systems will need to be able to store different course data for different academic years… • …for example a new course for c13061 should not be included in updates made to c12061 To the extranet… Further help and support 01242 211472 training@hesa.ac.uk 01242 211144 liaison@hesa.ac.uk