Individualised Learner Record (ILR) training

Introduction

This presentation introduces the series of presentations.

These presentations were developed for the 2020-21 ILR specification and you should be mindful of changes that have been introduced for the 2021-22 ILR specification, as summarised in the overview of this guide.

Content covered in this presentation

Higher education definition
How we use the Learning Aims Search (LARS)
Sub-contractual and collaborative provision
Our expectations for data management and its oversight at providers
Questions we may ask through an audit
Good practice for systems and processes.

Systems, processes and oversight

PDF, 218Kb

See the presentation slides

Frequently asked questions

Some of the fields are not an ILR validation requirement for higher apprenticeship and level 4+ non-professional courses, is there still a requirement for the OfS data for these learners?

We strongly encourage all fields to be completed for any students studying at level 4 or above.

If records are included in the ILR for activity at level 4 and above without higher education fields being completed, will errors be triggered?

No. The ILR return currently has limited validation around higher education fields. However, in some cases missing fields would be highlighted through the ILR verification process run by the OfS and we strongly encourage providers to engage in that process.

Would it be possible for an increased number of validations to be added to the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s (ESFA) Funding Information System (FIS) software to allow colleges to better check their higher education data?

The OfS is discussing this with the ESFA but the FIS software is not our direct responsibility. We continuously seek to improve the data checking tool that we provide to assist colleges in checking their higher education data.

We strongly encourage providers to upload data to the data checking tool early in the ILR verification process and to allow us to review the uploaded data at an early stage so that we can raise queries. This process is aimed at supporting providers in returning accurate data for higher education students.

Are students with activity at level 4 and above who are funded by the ESFA included in determining the banding for the fees charged to the provider by the OfS?

The load of all higher education students, that is those studying at level 4 and above, is used in determining the registration fee raised by the OfS. Field STULOAD from the ILR is used in this calculation so it is particularly important that this field is accurate.

See a description of our approach to calculating student numbers for regulatory purposes, including setting OfS registration fees, in our student numbers data. This page includes a technical document which explains the algorithms applied to ILR data to determine a provider’s higher education student numbers.

What is meant by a student being ‘registered’ by us?

The ‘provider with which a student is registered’ (for both HESES purposes and the appropriate student record) means:

For all courses except joint courses, the provider which has the full contractual responsibility to the student for the provision of educational services. This applies whether the provider provides all the teaching for the course or subcontracts out some or all of that teaching to another body.
- Where fee payments from the Student Loans Company are concerned, this will also be the provider that collects the student course fee.
- Where payments from the ESFA for apprenticeships are concerned, this will also be the provider that is paid by the ESFA.
For joint courses, the provider to which the student is assigned for data reporting purposes when they start their course.

Please note this guidance is taken from paragraph 2.f of Annex A of the HESES20 publication. We are not expecting to change this guidance significantly for 2021-22 but you should always check the HESES for the year when making ILR returns.

Should sub-contracted in higher education provision be included in the ILR, as the ILR provider support manual states that they should be?

The ESFA Provider Support Manual should be followed. The ESFA guidance should be referred to but, in summary, states that:

provision sub-contracted in from a school or HEI (Registered with the OfS) should not be returned in the ILR
higher education provision sub-contracted in from another further education college must not be included in the ILR
Learners sub-contracted in from another provider (not a school, HEI or FEC) should be included in the ILR using funding model code 99.