HESES20 training webinar session one: Introduction to HESES20 and changes from HESES19

Instances for sandwich students working abroad and students on a study year abroad as part of an exchange should normally be included in the HESES population.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, providers may be offering students an alternative 'year abroad' experience involving, for example online learning while remaining in the UK. Under these particular circumstances, students prevented from travelling abroad for their overseas year of study (as part of a degree from a UK higher education provider) due to the pandemic will still be considered as attending the overseas institution if both of the following criteria are met:

1. That overseas higher education provider (rather than the provider in England) is providing the learning online. Sandwich years abroad will therefore not meet this criterion.
2. The fees charged to the student for the year are no higher than the regulated fee limit that would apply had the student been able to take the year abroad as normal.

For additional information, please see Annex K of the HESES guidance.

Non-completion forecasts should be made using historical data. Providers should ensure that the historical data used to make their estimates of non-completion is not skewed by exception circumstances. The coronavirus pandemic is such an exceptional circumstance; therefore, we do not expect providers to use data on non-completions in 2019-20 when making estimates for HESES20. For additional information on non-completions, please see Annex D of the HESES20 guidance document.

You may also find it helpful to review the exceptional guidance that has been issued for both the 2019-20 ILR and 2019-20 HESA collections.

Every year we generate recreations for all providers by applying our algorithms to HESA/ILR student data to produce derived fields. These derived fields are then aggregated to produce recreations of the original HESES aggregate return.

Where the comparison of a recreation and an original aggregate return indicates discrepancies exceeding any of the annual selection criteria, we ask the provider to respond with an action plan that details how they will reconcile the two data sources.

See further information on data reconciliation

In HESES20, students are classified as 'Home and EU' if they can be regarded as eligible as defined in Schedule 1 of the Education (Fees and Awards) (England) Regulations 2007 (Statutory Instrument 2007 No. 779), as amended.

On 28 May 2019, the UK government confirmed that EU students starting university in academic year 2020-21 will have guaranteed home fee status and financial support for the duration of courses in England. Any changes for academic year 2021-22 will be reflected in HESES21 guidance.

Please see Annex F in the HESES guidance for more information on residential and fundability status.