Supplying data

The OfS portal provides a means to securely transfer data between the OfS and providers.

If you need to submit data to or download data from the OfS portal you need to have a portal account. Each provider will have one or more portal users nominated as user administrators. User administrators can create accounts for their colleagues and grant access to sections of the portal.

If you need a portal account to be created for you, contact your user administrator. If you do not know who your user administrator is please contact us at [email protected].

User administrators should use this link to access their user administrator account, which is separate to their standard portal user account.

After signing into your portal account you will see a list of the sections of the portal that you currently have access to on the home page.

If you have access to any surveys these will be listed at the top of the home page. Surveys are sections of the portal that allow specific data to be uploaded by providers. For example, an XML file containing ILR data would be submitted to the 2017-18 ILR data checking tool.

Beneath any surveys will be a list of download-only file groups, which contain downloadable data. For example, the 2016-17 HESA post-collection outputs group contains information showing how we have used providers’ data in calculating and monitoring funding allocations.

Some sections of the portal that grant access to very sensitive or personal data have a further level of security, and can only be accessed by entering an access key. When making such data available to providers we send access keys to named contacts by post. User administrators cannot grant access to these more restricted groups. To activate an access key or to change your password, click ‘My account’ and then select the link that you need.