Student outcome and experience measures
Data quality notes for student outcome and experience measures
Our student outcome and experience measures relating to the 2022-23 academic year are affected by more data quality issues than other years. This page helps users of the data by giving further detail about the various issues, including notes for specific providers.
All higher education providers (excluding further education and sixth form colleges) are required to submit student data to the designated data body (Jisc). For the 2022-23 Student Record, Jisc introduced a new data model and a new data platform known as ‘Data Futures’, leading to delays in data collection. Consequently, additional risks for the quality of data over and above what we would normally accept were tolerated in some areas of the 2022-23 data returns. We’re assessing the impacts of those risks for each of our data outputs on a case-by-case basis.
For the student outcome and experience data outputs, our data quality assessment has included releasing an indicative version of these outputs to providers that submitted a 2022-23 student data return to Jisc. In doing so, we invited these providers to further check the quality of data before its publication, because we considered that providers themselves were best placed to identify any anomalies in the data.
Through this process, several providers have reported quality issues affecting the data, and we have also identified significant issues affecting some providers’ data. We have provided explanations below where users may need to exercise some caution when interpreting the data of particular dashboards for the affected providers.
We are working with Jisc and providers to ensure data quality improves for the next collection.
OfS quality observations
Our data quality assessment has identified some quality issues in the 2022-23 student data, as shown in the table below. The issues tend to concern elevated proportions of data categorised as either ‘missing’ or recorded by providers as ‘unknown’. The proportions of ‘unknown’ values in certain data fields has increased overall at sector level but also varies greatly by provider.
To mitigate some of these issues, particularly where the approximate scale is moderate or large, we have included student-level data from 2021-22 to fill gaps for particular variables which have elevated levels of unknowns this year.
For ethnicity, sex, socioeconomic classification (SEC) and parental education, wherever the data is missing or reported as not available, we will instead use known data from the same student in the previous year.
In all places where data has been reported in 2022-23, including ‘refuse to answer’, we will use the data as reported in 2022-23. This approach was taken for these four variables because there is a higher amount of missing data, across multiple providers, and these variables are unlikely to change between years. This approach reduces the need to suppress indicators due to missing data.
In general we consider the data is fit for purpose and facilitates robust measures of student outcomes and experiences. Users may however wish to exercise some caution when interpreting data about the following student or course characteristics:
|
Issue |
Aspects that could be impacted |
Relative scale of the issue |
|---|---|---|
|
Elevated proportions of ethnicity data recorded as ‘unknown’ |
Derivation of ABCS quintiles Ethnicity and ABCS split indicator values Benchmark values informed by the use of ABCS quintiles as a benchmarking factor |
Large |
|
Elevated proportions of parental education data recorded as ‘unknown’ |
Derivation of ABCS quintiles ABCS split indicator values Benchmark values informed by the use of ABCS quintiles as a benchmarking factor |
Moderate |
|
Missing entry profile data leading to missing values of socioeconomic classification, parental education and highest qualification on entry |
Derivation of ABCS quintiles ABCS split indicator values Benchmark values informed by the use of ABCS quintiles or entry qualifications as benchmarking factors |
Moderate |
|
Elevated proportions of students with an unknown domicile |
Derivation of ABCS quintiles Domicile and ABCS split indicators Benchmark values informed by the use of ABCS quintiles as a benchmarking factor Population restrictions applied to the access and participation data dashboard |
Small |
|
Elevated proportions of sex identifier data recorded as ‘refused’ or ‘not applicable’ |
Derivation of ABCS quintiles Sex and ABCS split indicator values Benchmark values informed by the use of ABCS quintiles as a benchmarking factor |
Small |
|
Erroneous recording of full-time entrants who left early as having a part-time mode of study |
Access measures included in the access and participation data dashboard for 2022-23 entrant populations |
Small |
|
Jisc has only linked back one year in deriving Z_LEVEL, so some dormant students (with no student course session) have an unknown level of study. In the small number of cases where such students have a qualification awarded, the OfS has used level of the qualification awarded in the derivation of our level of study fields. |
Degree outcome measures included in the access and participation data dashboard for 2022-23 qualifier populations |
Small |
Provider-specific notes
The 2022-23 Student data return submitted by the University of Bedfordshire did not meet our data quality requirements in full and it is known that there remain outstanding issues with multiple areas of its data that have the potential to impact on its onward use. We are publishing indicators for this provider because impacts are expected to be marginal, but users should be aware they have the potential to extend to:
- the accuracy with which we can identify and count students when these are defined at a low level of granularity and reported at provider-level
- the accuracy with which some student or course characteristics have been reported for some students in 2022-23
- the information used to determine the continuation, completion or degree outcomes for students in 2022-23.
Dashboards affected: access and participation, student outcomes, TEF indicators
There is a data quality issue known to affect the populations calculated for this provider, where some students have been reported as studying for qualifications in 2022-23 data when they were actually studying for credits.
The impact of this issue leads us to suppress indicators in the access and participation dashboard that relate to the part-time population in 2022-23.
Dashboards affected: access and participation
There is a data quality issue known to affect the identification of inactive students in 2022-23, where some students have been reported without any activity but not returned by the provider as dormant, as is required. There is a slight risk that any indicators of continuation and completion outcomes for this provider may consequently be overstated to marginal extent.
Dashboards affected: access and participation, student outcomes, TEF indicators
There is a data quality issue known to affect partnership arrangements data for this provider, where some students who were registered at a different provider were erroneously recorded by that provider as under a validation arrangement with University of Central Lancashire.
At this stage, the impact of this issue is limited to student outcome indicators shown in the partnerships view of the provider’s student population.
Dashboards affected: student outcomes
There is a data quality issue known to affect partnership arrangements data for this provider, where some students who were taught at a different provider in 2022-23 were instead recorded as both registered and taught at the University of Chester.
Dashboards affected: TEF indicators
There is a data quality issue known to affect partnership arrangements data for this provider, where some students who were registered at a different provider were erroneously recorded by that provider as under a validation arrangement with The University of Chichester.
At this stage, the impact of this issue is limited to student outcome indicators shown in the partnerships view of the provider’s student population.
Dashboards affected: student outcomes
The 2022-23 Student data return submitted by the University of Hertfordshire did not meet our data quality requirements in full and it is known that there remain outstanding issues with multiple areas of its data that have the potential to impact on its onward use. We are publishing indicators for this provider because these impacts are expected to be marginal, but users should be aware they have the potential to extend to:
- the accuracy with which we can identify and count students when these are defined at a low level of granularity and reported at provider-level
- the accuracy with which some student or course characteristics have been reported for some students in 2022-23
- the information used to determine the continuation, completion or degree outcomes for students in 2022-23.
Dashboards affected: access and participation, student outcomes, TEF indicators
There is a data quality issue known to affect partnership arrangements data for this provider, where some students who were registered at a different provider were erroneously recorded by that provider as under a validation arrangement with Loughborough University.
At this stage, the impact of this issue is limited to student outcome indicators shown in the partnerships view of the provider’s student population.
Dashboards affected: student outcomes
There is a data quality issue which may affect the population of taught students for this provider, where some students who were registered at a different provider but taught by Navitas UK Holdings Limited may have been erroneously reported as being taught by a different provider.
At this stage, the impact of this issue may extend to any indicators based on the taught, or taught or registered views of a provider’s student population.
Dashboards affected: student outcomes, TEF indicators
There is a data quality issue known to affect the identification of full-time students in 2022-23, where the mode of study reported for some entrants to short courses means that they may not be correctly classified as full-time.
At this stage, the impact of this issue is limited to access indicators in the access and participation dashboard.
Dashboards affected: access and participation
There is a data quality issue known to affect partnership arrangements data for this provider, where some students who were registered at a different provider were erroneously recorded by that provider as under a validation arrangement with Teesside University.
At this stage, the impact of this issue is limited to student outcome indicators shown in the partnerships view of the provider’s student population.
Dashboards affected: student outcomes
There is a data quality issue in this provider’s 2022-23 data that is known to have impacted on how the continuation outcomes are determined for full-time entrants to undergraduate courses with postgraduate components in 2021-22.
The impact of this issue leads us to suppress continuation indicators in the access and participation, student outcomes and TEF indicators dashboards for these entrants.
Dashboards affected: access and participation, student outcomes, TEF indicators
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