HESES12 (HEFCE 2012/25)

1. Is there a list of EU and EEA countries?

European Community (EU) members

• Austria
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• United Kingdom

European Economic Area (EEA) members

• EC members
• Iceland
• Liechtenstein
• Norway

Students from Switzerland should be treated as if their country was a member of the EEA, but not the EU.

Students from Gibraltar should be treated as if they came from an EU country.

Croatia is expected to accede to the EU on 1 July 2013. Years of instance for students from that country should be treated as Home and EU if they commence on or after that date, including for the purpose of completing Table 7.

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2. Where can I find the Fees and Awards Regulations?

The Education (Fees and Awards) (England) Regulations 2007 (SI 2007 No. 779) can be found on the National Archives’ Legislation web-site.

Amendments to date are:

• Education (Student Fees, Awards and Support) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2007 (SI 2007 No. 2263)
• The Education (Student Fees, Awards and Support) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 (SI 2011 No. 87)
• The Education (Fees and Awards) (England) Regulations 2007 (Amendment) Regulations 2011 (SI 2011 No. 1987)
• The Education (Student Fees, Awards and Support) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012 No. 1653)

Institutions should seek advice from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) on interpretation of these regulations where appropriate.

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3. Is there a list of overseas territories?

Students from the following overseas territories should be considered as Home and EU in HESES12 if they meet the criteria set out in the regulations in question 2.

British Overseas Territories

• Anguilla
• Bermuda
• British Antarctic Territory
• British Indian Ocean Territory
• British Virgin Islands
• Cayman Islands
• Ducie Island
• Falkland Islands
• Henderson Island
• Montserrat
• Oeno Island
• Pitcairn Island
• South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
• St Helena and its Dependencies
• Turks and Caicos Islands

French possessions

• French Polynesia
• French Southern and Antarctic Territories
• Mayotte
• New Caledonia and its Dependencies
• Saint-Barthélemy
• Saint-Pierre et Miquelon
• Wallis and Futuna

Overseas Territories of other EU Member States

• Aruba (Netherlands)
• Greenland & Faeroe Isles (Denmark)
• Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St Eustatius and St Marten) (Netherlands) 

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4. How are standard and non-standard years of instance returned on HESES, Tables 1-5? 

The following download gives examples of standard and non-standard years of instance and how they should be returned in Tables 1-5 of HESES12. 

File	Format
HESES12 Standard and non-standard years diagram	Download the HESES12 standard and non-standard years examples as MS Excel Spreadsheet (176 KB)

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5. How should courses with some modules funded by the Strategic Health Authority (SHA) be treated?

All Home and EU students on pre-registration nursing or midwifery courses, and courses (including postgraduate courses) leading to a recognised professional qualification in dietetics, speech and language therapy, chiropody/podiatry, or prosthetics and orthotics should be recorded as HEFCE non-fundable, irrespective of whether or not they are funded to any extent through NHS sources. For old regime students on other courses, where some modules of a course are funded by the SHA, a proportion of the students should be returned as HEFCE-fundable, and a proportion as non-fundable. This is a particular example of provision that is funded from another EU public source, but at a lower rate than the HEFCE standard resource. The number of old regime students to be returned as non-fundable should be calculated according to the guidance given in paragraphs 41 to 47 of Annex K. There is also an Excel template which will perform the calculation (see question 6).

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6. Is there an Excel template to calculate the number of old regime students who are non-fundable in individual cases, where there is funding from another EU public source? 

The Excel template below calculates the number of old regime non-fundable students in individual cases, as described in Annex K, paragraph 41 of HESES12. This template should not be used for new regime students where different rules apply. 

File	Format
HESES12 template - EU public sources	Download the HESES12 EU public sources template FINAL as MS Excel Spreadsheet (193 KB)

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7. Is there further guidance on what constitutes a closed course?

Annex K, paragraph 10h, of HESES12 states that students on closed courses are not eligible for HEFCE recurrent funding for teaching. Factors which we use in determining whether a course is open or closed include:

• How the programme is marketed: Are there entry restrictions/requirements that suggest it is not open to any suitably qualified candidate? Is it advertised widely, including in general prospectuses, as would be expected of other open courses?
• To what extent is the course content tailored towards the needs of particular, named employers?
• Where there is a requirement for particular workplace experience/learning, what arrangements are there to ensure all students have an opportunity for an equivalent experience, irrespective of their existing employment circumstances?
• What is the make-up of the student population on the course? If answers to the previous questions suggested that a course was open, but we then found that all the students on the course were employees of a single company, how had that outcome arisen? 

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8. What is the relationship between the INSET (QTS) price group and the Teaching Agency’s Postgraduate Professional Development (PPD) provision?

The In-service Education and Training (qualified teacher status) (INSET (QTS)) price group includes, but is not limited to, PPD provision funded by the Teaching Agency. If a student with QTS is on an undergraduate or postgraduate course whose primary purpose is to improve the effectiveness of teachers, lecturers or trainers, they should be returned in the INSET (QTS) price group, irrespective of whether or not their provision is being funded by the Teaching Agency. This reflects the basis on which the transfer of funding was determined from HEFCE to the former Teacher Training Agency when INSET provision was reviewed during 1997-98.

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9. What is the process for obtaining approval to count as HEFCE-fundable old-regime students whose provision is franchised to an institution that is not an HEI or FEC supported from public funds?

Complete the approval form for franchises to non-public HEIs or FECs and send it, along with a copy of the contractual agreement between your institution and the organisation to which the provision is franchised, to recurrentgrant@hefce.ac.uk. Approval of such arrangements is not automatic: we will wish to be assured, for example, about quality assurance arrangements for the provision, that HEFCE funding is being used appropriately to support the provision for the students, and that there are no concerns about propriety.

File	Format
Approval form for franchises to non-public HEIs or FECs	Download the HESES12 approval form for franchises to non-public HEIs or FECs as MS Word (33 KB)

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10. How do I determine the academic level of professional qualifications when assessing a student’s ELQ status?

Annex K, paragraph 31, of HESES12 explains that UK NARIC (www.naric.org.uk) can advise on the relative level of qualifications when assessing a student's ELQ status. Other sources of information which may help in determining the academic level of qualifications include:

• Register of Regulated Qualifications
• Learning Aims Reference Application (LARA) Database

The level given for a qualification on each of these databases can be used to measure equivalency with the levels on the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (FHEQ).

Ofqual has published a table which shows how the levels in the FHEQ are equivalent to levels in other frameworks.

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11. Which courses can be considered to be NHS-bursaried?

NHS-bursaried courses need to be considered in relation to ELQ exemptions in the HESES12 guidance. Those that are on a year of course for which an NHS bursary is payable are exempt from the ELQ policy (paragraph 18d of Annex K, HESES12). Note that this applies to students on NHS-bursaried years of courses for which an NHS bursary is payable, even if the individual student does not receive, or is not eligible for, the bursary.

An NHS-bursaried course is one that is eligible for an NHS bursary. However, students that are NHS funded or have their tuition fees paid by the NHS will not necessarily be on an NHS-bursaried course (or year of course). Likewise students on an NHS-bursaried course will not necessarily be NHS funded or have their tuition fees paid by the NHS. General guidance on NHS bursaries can be found on the NHSBSA web-site.

The Financial Help for Healthcare Students booklet on the Student Bursaries web-site provides a list of the courses that are funded through the NHS Bursary Scheme. An introduction to course eligibility is available on the NHSBSA web-site. The booklet also lists the other bursary eligibility requirements relating to applicants' residence and immigration status in the UK.

In addition, there are social work bursaries which are administered through the NHS bursary scheme. Although these are not NHS bursaries, for the purposes of recording the students' activity in HESES, these should be considered as NHS bursaries.

For queries on eligibility of a course or student for a bursary, contact NHS bursaries. Note that if a year of a course is eligible for a bursary, then students on that course would be exempt from the ELQ policy for that year.

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12. How should students who withdraw from or intermit their studies be returned in Table 6? 

Paragraph 31 of Annex H is clear that if, for example, a student commences a full-time undergraduate course in September 2011 (having never been registered at the institution before) but withdraws from the course in December 2011 due to illness and returns to re-start the course in September 2012 then: 

1. The first year of instance (where the student withdrew) should have been included in Table 6 of HESES11.
2. The second year of instance (where the student returns) should not be returned in Table 6 of HESES12. 

This example covers cases where the student intermits their studies more than two weeks after commencing their course. 

If instead in the example above the student intermitted their studies within two weeks of commencing the course in September 2011 and did not return from intermission until at least the following September then: 

1. The first year of instance (where the student intermits) should not have been included in Table 6 of HESES11.
2. The second year of instance (where the student returns) should be returned in Table 6 of HESES12.

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13. What principles should be used when determining the number of old- regime non-fundable students, when funding from another EU public source is available?

HESES12, Annex K, paragraph 10a, states that old-regime students on courses that are otherwise HEFCE-fundable but whose places are funded at the standard HEFCE rate, or higher, from another EU public source should be recorded as non-fundable. It also sets out that if funds from another EU public source are available and this is in addition to the mandatory or recommended fees but falls short of the HEFCE standard rate per student then the students that are not covered by the public source funding are eligible for HEFCE recurrent funding.

Annex K, paragraph 41, contains more details on how to form this calculation. It contains examples and a link to the template in question 6 above that can be used to work out the number of non-fundable students given money from another EU public source.

However, before using the template, there are some principles that should be considered. Firstly, you need to establish what the public source funding is intending to cover. Does it cover a specific number of students, or is it a lump sum of money intended to cover the course as a whole and the number of students may vary on the course? This will depend on the arrangement you have with the organisation(s) providing funds.

If the money from the public source is intended to cover a specific number of students on a course then you would need to treat these students and the money separately from others on the course when calculating how many students are non-fundable. Otherwise you should consider all students on the course and the money coming in for the course together in the template.

In the case when students are considered to be aiming for an ELQ, again you would need to consider if the money coming in from the public source is for specific students or for the course as a whole. If the former, then you would remove the ELQ students and the money from the public source for each of those students before using the template. If the latter then you would need to calculate the standard resource for each of the ELQ students and then remove the total standard resource for the ELQ students and the number of ELQ students before using the template.

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14. Where can I find a list of AAB equivalences for use in completing Table 6?

Paragraph 26 of Annex H of HESES12 explains that to inform calculations of student number control limits for 2013-14, undergraduates in Table 6 need to be disaggregated between those students entering with the equivalent of AAB grades at A-level or higher (the AAB+ equivalent population), and those without such entry qualifications. 

Annex C of ‘Teaching funding and student number controls: consultation on changes to be implemented in 2012-13’ (HEFCE 2011/20) set out an initial list of AAB+ equivalent qualification and grade combinations. Following the consultation, this initial list of equivalencies has been updated and the updated list can be found on the section of this site about New arrangements for teaching funding under ‘2012-13 consultation’, ‘AAB+ equivalences’. 

It is this updated list which must be used when determining which undergraduates in Table 6 are in, or assumed to be in, the AAB+ equivalent population.

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15. I attended the advanced HESES12 seminar in July - are the slides from the presentations available?

Yes - you can view or download the slides below.

File	Format
Advanced HESES and HEIFES seminar 2012	Download the Advanced HESES and HEIFES seminar 2012 as MS Powerpoint Presentation (364 KB)
Other changes for HESES/HEIFES12	Download the Advanced - Other changes for HESES-HEIFES12 as MS Powerpoint Presentation (1,679 KB)

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16. I attended the introductory HESES12 seminar in September - are the slides from the presentations available? 

Yes - you can view or download the slides below.

File	Format
Introduction to HESES and teaching funding	Download the HESES12 introductory seminar - Introduction to funding as MS Powerpoint Presentation (775 KB)
Introduction to tables	Download the HESES12 introductory seminar - Introduction to tables as MS Powerpoint Presentation (252 KB)
The HESES12 process	Download the HESES12 introductory seminar - Process as MS Powerpoint Presentation (947 KB)
HESES12 parts 1 and 2	Download the HESES12 introductory seminar - HESES Parts 1 and 2 as MS Powerpoint Presentation (1,330 KB)
HESES12 - example answers	Download the HESES12 introductory seminar - example answers as MS Powerpoint Presentation (141 KB)
HESES12 - solutions to long examples	Download the HESES12 introductory seminar - solutions to long examples as MS Word (22 KB)
The HESES12 data verification process	Download the HESES12 introductory seminar - Data Verification as MS Powerpoint Presentation (415 KB)

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17. How should I treat duplicate qualifications when determining whether a student comes within the AAB+ equivalent population? 

Annex H paragraph 27 of HESES12 states that when determining whether a student comes within the AAB+ equivalent population, institutions should disregard any duplication of qualifications of the same type which are in the same subject. In disregarding such duplication, institutions should normally ignore the qualification with the lower tariff points; this may not always be the case where a student has taken an A-level and double A-level in the same subject and the grade achieved in the single A-level is higher than either grade of the double award. 

For this purpose: 

• A-levels, AS-levels, double A-levels, double AS-levels, VCE Advanced, VCE Advanced Double Award, VCE Advanced Subsidiary and GCE 9 Unit Awards should be classed as being the same type of qualification
• Scottish Advanced Highers and Scottish Highers should not be classed as the being same type of qualification
• A-levels in Mathematics and Further Mathematics should not be treated as duplicates

The following examples illustrate how to determine whether or not a student comes within the AAB+ equivalent population based on the entry qualifications in the example, and assuming they do not already have a first degree or higher. 

Example 1 

Qualification type	Subject	Grade
A-level	Mathematics	A*
A-level	Biology	A*
AS-level	Mathematics	A

 In this example, the student would not be in the AAB+ equivalent population. This is because the AS-level in Mathematics is disregarded as it is treated as being the same type of qualification as the A-level in Mathematics, and the grade awarded has lower tariff points than the grade awarded for the A-level in Mathematics. 

Example 2 

Qualification type	Subject	Grade
A-level	English Language	A
A-level	English Language	B
A-level	History	A

 In this example, the student would not be in the AAB+ equivalent population.  This is because the A-level in English Language (Grade B) is disregarded. 

Example 3 

Qualification type	Subject	Grade
Scottish Advanced Higher	Mathematics	A
A-level	Mathematics	A
A-level	Biology	A
A-level	Physics	B

 In this example, the student would be treated as being in the AAB+ equivalent population.  This is because the Scottish Advanced Higher is in a different qualification type to the A-levels and therefore no qualifications are disregarded. 

Example 4 

Qualification type	Subject	Grade
BTEC Nationals (NQF) - Diploma	Computing	MMM
A-level	Computing	A
A-level	Chemistry	A
A-level	Physics	B

In this example, the student would be treated as being in the AAB+ equivalent population.  This is because the BTEC is in a different qualification type to the A-levels and therefore no qualifications are disregarded. 

Example 5 

Qualification type	Subject	Grade
Double A-level	Health and Social Care	BC
A-level	Health and Social Care	A
A-level	Geography	A
A-level	Physical Education	B

In this example, the student is AAB as this can be achieved by ignoring the double award.

 Example 6 

Qualification type	Subject	Grade
Scottish Advanced Higher	Mathematics	A1
Scottish Advanced Higher	Physics	B3
Scottish Advanced Higher	Chemistry	D7
Scottish Higher	Mathematics	A1
Scottish Higher	Physics	A2
Scottish Higher	Chemistry	A3
Scottish Higher	Biology	A4
Scottish Higher	English Language	A5

In this example, the student would be treated as being in the AAB+ equivalent population.  This is because the Advanced Highers are in a different qualification type to the Highers and therefore no qualifications are disregarded.

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