Overview

Background

Data Futures is a transformational project run by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) to modernise and improve the way in which data is collected and delivered to a range of users including statutory customers.  It aims to provide information for national and local decision making which is more up to date than can be achieved through the current annual returns and to reduce the burden on institutions of information provision by reducing the number of separate external reports required  and eventually sourcing them from a single return.  Data Futures will replace the current annual HESA Student Return with three in-year returns starting from 2020/21 (periods are Aug-Nov, Dec-Mar, Apr-Jul).

Pilot

The University of Edinburgh is actively engaged in the Data Futures project and is one of 14 Alpha Pilot sites assisting with the design of the Collection System.   The Alpha Pilot commenced in 2017 and completed in November 2018.  We have also been accepted as a Beta Pilot site.  The (delayed) Beta Pilot runs from early 2019 until autumn 2019.  The Beta Pilot gives us the ability to test our developments to ensure we are able to meet the statutory deadlines.   The University of Edinburgh is also represented on the Tribal Data Futures Working Group and is part of a Scottish HE sectorSFC group on Data Futures.

Current State

We have a statutory obligation to return a Data Futures return and a Scottish Funding Council (SFC) return as a condition of our public funding. 

Currently SITS has not been developed to provide statutory returns to support the student operations as UoE has made a choice to customise SITS. Workarounds have been developed to compensate for that. This prevents us from using the standard SITS functionality.  As a result a separate local solution is used, that sits on top of EUCLID/SITS. It is an internal programme that produces Early Statistics for the SFC and internal Teaching Load (TL) allocation, as well as doing the data transformation and populating the HESA tables within SITS so we can generate the xml file for the HESA Student return.

A number of issues have been identified, which need to be overcome to proceed with completion of Data Future returns. SITS doesn’t do these now.

Future State

Data Futures project will be replacing elements of the programme that currently produces the HESA student return.

The programme also currently provides data for the early statistics required for SFC and TL used in internal resource allocation modelling. A Data Futures solution will not be able to meet these requirements and the additional SFC for the transition year (19/20) return will not be addressed by the projects changes. Therefore a solution based on generating script outside SITS is required for SFC and TL returns.

We acknowledge that Data Futures is not solely a software project. We will need to work with partners across the University.  Data Futures will require culture changes in addition to University processes being revised to enable the project to be delivered.  Key to the successful implementation of Data Futures will be developing our data capability in terms of quality and timeliness if we are to continue to make robust, on-time statutory returns without manual intervention and verification.

HESA has already delayed the implementation of Data Futures.  We do not anticipate HESA or the sector being able to push back the implementation date further.  Whilst the detailed requirements are not fully defined we know the following:

• The proposed HESA Data Futures process
• The data items that are to be collected
• The Tribal SITS solution (the software is already being rolled out)

As with the current HESA Student Return there is always an amount of flux in requirements and this is normal for this type of project right up to the point the returns are made.  Access will be available to the Beta test system for Beta Pilot participants from January 2019 so a test environment is available to us. However, there may be a delay in HESA launching the Beta Pilot.

Information relating to Data Futures is published on the HESA website (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/innovation/data-futures ).  The coding manual can be found at https://www.hesa.ac.uk/collection/student/datafutures/a .

Scope

This project will scope the development required and estimate the resource needed. It will deliver the mandatory ‘live’ test deadline of January - March 2020 for a full submission to the HESA Collection System.  It has to be assumed that Data Futures will be implemented in the currently published timescales.  This project therefore will enable the University to start resource planning to meet the statutory deadlines and minimise the monetary and reputational risk of failing to do so.

The project will aim to deliver:

 1. Data futures requirements gathering. HESA’s transformation programme will deliver a more efficient data collection process. This work will enable an understanding of what is required to meet the requirements of the new HESA return across UoE (data, process and system).

 2. This will inform the priority to implement changes to enable the 1^st test HESA return completion in Jan- March 2020 and for the full year 2019-20 return in Aug-Sept 2020.

3. Now in scope as revised by the project board (Jan 2019): 

SFC is required for the transition year 19/20 only, when it is then replaced by Data Futures. Decision to be made once go/no decision made by HESA. Impact will be to write sql scripts outside SITS to ensure SFC and TL returns are generated

We use a programme to generate the data for early statistics SFC and TL as the data needed is calculated off system (particularly STULOAD).  The point of the Data Futures project is to get as many of the important data items into SITS as possible e.g. student status, mode and fee status codes that are compatible with external reporting and student load calculated correctly and populated in the correct fields.  If we can do this we don’t need to use the external programme to generate the early statistics SFC return and TL from 2020/21.  But for 19/20 a solution will be require; it is likely that SQL scripts  will extract the data needed by GaSP directly off the system – this is a pretty standard approach across the sector and is the way we produced resource allocation and HESES data at English universities. 

Timeline of changes

Not in Scope:

1. Capture statutory enrolment data as part of the student re-registration starting in June 2019. This work will be delivered by a separate SSP project (Sac078), planned to start in Feb 2019.
2. Changes to support the current HESA Student Return.  These will be taken forward in the annual Statutory Returns Project (i.e. SAC073)
3. This project will not assess or address changes to downstream systems/BI reports. It will only articulate and communicate the required changes to system owners.

We can’t cover the impact on BI within this project and we certainly can’t assess the impact of changes on all the BI suite reports that are in existence – that’s going to be up to report owners to assess changes and manage the impact.  What we can do is provide guidance and time-frames for BI users so they can factor changes into their workloads.  Much of that work is going to come to the Student Systems Information team anyway given we’ve created a lot of the content and manage the BI Suite universes that feed from SITS.Communication is required with other downstream systems owners.

Objectives

1. To produce a plan based on the analysis of the requirements for HESA Data Futures, the National Student Survey process and any associated reporting based on the HESA Data Futures return
2. To analyse and report on any cultural and business process change that is required around the UoE to support the Data Futures agenda
3. To manage the conversion of JACS to HECoS code in EUCLID. Provide a plan with resource estimates for the conversion of JACS subject codes to HECoS codes in EUCLID.  Data Futures requires the return of HECoS codes and therefore the conversion must be carried out in time for the statutory deadlines
4. To implement the new processes required to complete in year HESA student returns
5. To address the system design options and how Tribal software can be best used to capture data. Implement system changes to support the new processes
6. To ensure that Student Systems Operations teams have the capacity and ability to support the Data Futures returns after the project closes

Deliverables

Benefits

• The plan will allow development and implementation to be planned to allow the University to make best use of the opportunities provided as part of the Beta Pilot and to meet the statutory deadlines for the introduction of the new Data Futures return.
• The Data Futures returns are statutory and  the Scottish Funding Council intend to use the return to confirm or amend teaching funding.  The Data Futures data is also used for League Tables.
• To secure SFC future teaching funding (£65 million+) which will be confirmed or amended by the student return.
• Enhanced reputation. If not completed, the university cannot appear in the domestic league table, cannot run NSS survey, and cannot provide data to return its graduate outcomes survey.
• Focusing on improved source data quality will have additional benefits for improved internal reporting by having a more reliable MI.

Success Criteria

• A plan is developed to understand the full requirements to meet the Data Futures returns and to inform the resources required to implement such change within the deadlines.
• The University adopts the cultural and business changes to commit to such returns
• The University moves from single annual return to multiple in-year returns
• Submission of Data Futures return within statutory deadline
• Student Systems Operations are resourced to ensure the ongoing successful delivery of returns after the project closes

Project Milestones