ILR funding and monitoring data (FAMD) 2011-12: Funding summaries and request for updates to completion status data

To:

Heads of HEFCE-funded further education colleges

Of interest to those responsible for:

Student data, Planning, Finance, Audit

Dear Principal

1. This letter notifies provides further education colleges with further information about how we have used their Individualised Learner Record (ILR) data (submitted to the Data Service) to inform:

• funding allocations for 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15
• adjustments to their 2013-14 student number control (SNC) allocation.

This letter also asks colleges to provide an update for students whose completion status was reported as undetermined in their 2011-12 ILR R15 return. Updates should be uploaded to the HEFCE extranet by Friday 5 July 2013 (see paragraph 10).

2. We are also making available a number of funding summary outputs which will assist colleges in understanding how their ILR data have been used. If, on considering the outputs, colleges identify errors in ILR data, they may wish to correct the version of their ILR data that we hold on our systems by submitting an action plan to the HEFCE extranet by Friday 5 July 2013 (see paragraph 5).

3. Colleges can access their funding summaries from today. We will write separately to the heads of colleges and Higher Education in Further Education: Students (HEIFES) survey contacts, to provide the necessary access keys to the HEFCE extranet.

Funding summaries

4. The funding summaries contain data that have been used to calculate:

• mainstream and employer co-funded grant rates for old-regime students
• adjustments to the 2013-14 SNC allocation for newly-exempt categories and core protection
• 2013-14 Student Opportunity SO allocation
• 2013-14 and 2014-15 National Scholarship Programme (NSP) allocations.

(The adjustments to the SNC and NSP allocations listed are primarily based on 2010-11 ILR data, rather than 2011-12 ILR data.) The funding summaries for SNC and the 2013-14 NSP were separately released via letters from Christine Daniel on 25 January 2013 and 11 March 2013 respectively. The funding summaries for 2014-15 were separately released via letters from Jonathan Snape on 13 March 2013. These summaries have not changed from their original release. We have included them here so that colleges can access all of the funding summaries from a single location on the HEFCE extranet.

5. The funding summaries are provided for general information and to bring further transparency to our calculations. We expect colleges to review their outputs with a view to understanding how their data are used for funding. As in previous years, colleges may inform us of any errors they identify in their ILR data by submitting an action plan. The deadlines for submission of an action plan and sign-off for amendments are:

• Friday 5 July 2013          Deadline for the submission of action plans.
• Friday 19 July 2013        Deadline for sign-off of 2011-12 ILR data amendments.

6. We originally published the algorithms used to generate the funding summaries in ‘Individualised Learner Record funding and monitoring data 2011-12: Web facility’ (HEFCE Circular letter 26/2012). However, we have made some minor changes where we believe improvements were appropriate. These changes are outlined in Annex A.

Relationship with ‘ILR FAMD 2011-12: Funding data reconciliations’

7. We also use ILR data to monitor other returns that inform funding, such as HEIFES. We will release these funding data reconciliations separately later this year and may ask colleges to provide explanations for any discrepancies that we identify.

Completion status survey (CSS)

8. It is appropriate for the completion status for some students to be reported as undetermined on the ILR return. This occurs when a student has not yet completed their year of study, but is not defined as having ‘non-completed’ because the student is:

1. On a non-standard year (that is, a year of study that spans two academic years).
2. Expected to undergo their final assessment within 13 months of the start of their year of study, but those 13 months had not passed by the time the ILR return is compiled.

9. In the absence of definitive completion status, we have assumed, in our provisional funding calculations that such students have completed their year of study. We are therefore asking colleges to update the completion status of any students reported in their 2011‑12 ILR R15 with an undetermined completion status (FUNDCOMP = 3). In particular, it is imperative that colleges provide an update for those students who were previously reported as FUNDCOMP = 3 but have subsequently non-completed their year of study. If this is not done, our assumption that such students have completed may result in rates of funding for the phasing-out of grant for old‑regime students being lower than they would they would otherwise have been. Colleges that provide updated information for students who non-complete are therefore likely to see increases in their rates for funding that will apply for the phasing-out of grant for 2012-13 and subsequent years.

10. The CSS workbook containing pre-filled data for each HEFCE-fundable student in the HEIFES population who has been returned as FUNDCOMP = 3 can be downloaded from the HEFCE extranet. We will write separately to the heads of colleges and HEIFES contacts with the necessary access keys for the survey. Colleges will need to update the ‘Updated FUNDCOMP’ column and upload the completed workbook to the same web-site. The deadlines for submission and sign-off of the updated completion status return are:

• Friday 5 July 2013          Deadline for the submission of the updated completion status return.
• Friday 19 July 2013        Deadline for sign-off.

How we allocate funding

11. Further information about how we fund colleges is provided in the individual grant letters that have been issued under embargo to colleges.

Further information

12. Guidance is available on our web-site. Specific areas that may be of interest are as follows.

1. Extranet locations, deadlines and documentation can be found in the ‘2011-12 funding and monitoring data overview’.
2. Further details about the preparation and submission of action plans can be found in the ‘Guide to action plans’.
3. Technical information (such as algorithms) is listed in the ‘2011-12 funding and monitoring data overview’.
4. Further details about the funding summaries, including descriptions of some allocation methods, can be found in the ‘Indicative funding summaries’.
5. Information on how to obtain data from the HEFCE extranet can be found in the ‘How to access outputs’ guide.

13. Institutions are reminded that the individualised data made available through this exercise are covered by the Data Protection Act. These data are only accessible to someone holding the HEFCE extranet key which we will provide to heads of college and HEIFES contacts for colleges. Colleges should ensure that extranet keys are not passed to anyone without a legitimate reason to access the individualised data.

14. If you require further information contact Dominic Meyer (tel 0117 931 7285, e-mail ilr_heifes_stats@hefce.ac.uk).

Yours sincerely

Sir Alan Langlands

Chief Executive

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