Description and definition of student outcome and experience measures

This document describes the standard set of student outcome and experience measures the OfS uses in our regulation of student outcomes and access and participation, and to inform assessments through the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). It explains how we construct and present the data indicators we have published in a series of interactive data dashboards.

We have also published our data definitions in the form of algorithms that can be applied to individualised student records collected annually by the designated data body (DDB) or the Department for Education (DfE).

These resources form part of a wider set of technical documentation that can support providers to understand our construction of student outcome and experience indicators.

Ref:
OfS 2024.45
Date:
6 August 2025

Archive

Previous versions of these documents remain available to download.

Published 3 September 2024

Description of student outcome and experience indicators used in OfS regulation
Definition of measures and methods used to construct and present them, PDF, 2177Kb

Technical algorithms for student outcome and experience measures
Summer 2024 core algorithms, PDF, 1226Kb

Subject code mappings for constructing student outcome and experience indicators
2024 subject code mappings, XLSX, 190Kb

Published 28 March 2023

Description of student outcome and experience indicators used in OfS regulation
Definition of measures and methods used to construct and present them PDF, 2158Kb.

Technical algorithms for student outcome and experience measures
Spring 2023 core algorithms, PDF, 1040Kb.

Subject code mappings for constructing student outcome and experience indicators
2023 subject code mappings, XLSX, 193Kb.

Published 30 September 2022

Description of student outcome and experience indicators used in OfS regulation
Definition of measures and methods used to construct and present them. PDF, 2,636Kb.

Technical algorithms for student outcome and experience measures
Core algorithms. PDF, 2,404Kb.

Subject code mappings for constructing student outcome and experience indicators
2022 subject code mappings. XLSX, 190Kb.

Published 30 September 2022
Last updated 06 August 2025
06 August 2025
Published new editions of the three files and archived earlier editions.
03 September 2024
2024 documents updated to incorporate change to attributes for the Sex characteristic and to correct formatting.
25 July 2024
Published new editions of the three files and archived earlier editions.
16 June 2023
The ‘Technical algorithms for student outcome and experience measures: 2023 core algorithms’ document published on 28 March 2023 was updated in June 2023 to correct the definition of the IPCONTEXTPOP field used to identify the contextual populations reported in the size and shape of provision data dashboards. A methodological oversight meant that a qualifier who was (correctly) not included in the all students contextual population for a given year (on account of their course following an academic year which spans multiple data reporting periods, for example, to avoid double counting), was unintentionally excluded from the qualifiers contextual population. See page 71 of the document.
28 March 2023
Published new editions of the 3 files and added an archive for earlier editions.

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