AOR major review and Student record expansion Scotland and Northern Ireland

Overview

The purpose of this consultation is to gather feedback on proposed amendments relating to the collection of data on transnational education (TNE) students in Northern Ireland and Scotland. These include measures to fill the current gap in our knowledge of these students, for example, in relation to the subjects that they study and the types of TNE activity in which they engage. The specific proposals are set out in the main body of the consultation.

The aim of these proposals is to ensure that HESA and our Statutory Customers have the necessary data to perform our functions, while ensuring that our data requirements from higher education providers remain proportionate. In drafting these proposals, we have worked alongside Statutory Customers, providers, sector representatives and member organisations to understand their requirements and wishes for the future collection of TNE data.

The change proposals set out in this consultation are for the 2025/26 collection year.

This consultation is intended for providers in Northern Ireland and Scotland, but we would also welcome responses from anyone with an interest in the data collected in relation to transnational education arrangements involving UK higher education providers.

A separate version of the consultation is available for providers in England and Wales. For providers in England and Wales, the proposals for the review aim to replace the Aggregate Offshore record and expand the Student record to collect TNE data. This consultation also includes the expansion of the Student record coverage to include all students studying in the UK that are taught by the reporting provider or studying for an award of the reporting provider, but are not registered by the reporting provider nor any other provider that is required to report student data to either HESA or the ESFA in the ILR.

If providers in Northern Ireland and Scotland would like to submit responses about collecting individualised data on TNE students in the Student record, in line with the requirements for providers in England and Wales, and to express views on the proposed approaches to the submission of individualised data in this context, we would encourage you to complete the consultation for England and Wales in addition to this one.

Why your views matter

We will summarise and publish representative, anonymised comments from the responses to this consultation on the HESA website in early summer 2023. This will include an explanation of how and why we and our Statutory Customers have reached our decisions and how we will address concerns raised by respondents.