The wider information set

As part of our work with partner organisations to address the importance of information about higher education, we have committed to making it easier for students and the wider public to access the existing wider set of information that higher education institutions (HEIs) publish about their courses.

What it contains

Institutions already publish a wide range of information about their institution and the courses they deliver. But we have now specified what this information should, at a minimum, include.

See what the information set covers

All institutions would be expected to meet the expectations as set out in the UK Quality Code for HE and to take account of guidance from the QAA and partners more broadly.

1) Information on institutional context

The following information should be publically available:

mission statement
corporate plan or equivalent strategic statement on HE provision; where HE is publicly funded, through grants or student support, we would expect a high-level strategic document relating to the institution’s approach to providing HE to be freely available
statement of quality assurance policies and processes
learning and teaching strategy
higher education strategy (for further education colleges)
information on partnerships (this refers specifically to agreements between partners delivering HE provision collaboratively; although the full partnership agreement may be commercially confidential, we would expect that an institution engaged in collaborative provision would make clear the nature of its partnerships and, in particular, the responsibilities of each partner with respect to the maintenance of quality and standards)
employability statements.

2) Information about aspects of courses and awards

The following information should be publically available unless otherwise stated:

prospectuses, programme guides, module descriptors or similar
programme specifications - as well as information for students, ‘programme specifications’ may also provide a definitive description of a course for validation and approval purposes, and are particularly important in the context of collaborative provision. The QAA and relevant groups are therefore currently discussing the appropriateness of the term ‘programme specifications’. For the purpose of the wider information set, information that is relevant to students and the wider public should be publically available.
results of internal student surveys (these may be available internally only)
links with employers – where employers have input into a course or programme (this could be quite a high-level statement)
partnership agreements, links with awarding bodies/delivery partners (noting above).

3) Information on the quality and standards of programmes

The following will normally be made available internally and available externally on request:

procedures and outcomes for programme approval, monitoring and review
external examination procedures taking into account current QAA guidance and the UUK/GuildHE review of external examining arrangements in universities and colleges in the UK. The role of external examiners should be clearly comprehensible. A brief public explanation of external examining procedures could be considered.
policies for student complaints, appeals and representations.

The requirements affect all publicly funded HEIs, FECs with undergraduate provision, and private providers who subscribe to the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA). We expect that institutions will need to have this information in place by September 2012.

This wider information set will:

inform the public about the quality of HE, and in particular, help provide potential students with information that will help them make a choice about what and where to study
help provide evidence to contribute to quality assurance processes in institutions (specifically review by the QAA)
help provide information that institutions can use to enhance the quality of their HE provision.

From 2012-13 the QAA will consider this information as part of the way they assess how institutions manage their public information (read more about this process of ‘Institutional Review’).

Categorising the information

We and the partner organisations involved in the original proposals have agreed to categorise the information set in three ways.

These are:

Publicly available information published on the institution's web-site
(Not all of this information is necessarily produced for prospective students but is important both for quality assurance and for the institutions' 'public face', indicating appropriate and responsible use of public money.)
Information available internally only, for students and staff
Information available on request

These three categories were developed following responses in the consultation. Feedback showed that prospective students and the wider public are unlikely to have an in interest in certain elements of the wider information set. But, where this is the case, institutions still value the information for internal purposes.

The details of the wider information set above show into which of the three categories each information item falls. Where the original consultation revealed that more clarification was needed over what was required, there is further explanation in the outcomes publication (HEFCE 2011/18).

Ongoing review and the current wider information set

We keep the wider information set under review, and take advice from the Higher Education Public Information Steering Group and the Quality in Higher Education Group (QHEG), where we judge that amendments are needed. This approach was set out in the consultation and received support in the responses that we received.

As required, we will update the summary above on advice from HEPISG, QHEG and the QAA.

For substantial changes to the wider information set we will consult with the HE sector.

It is also likely that any broader evaluation of the provision of information would also look to review the wider information set.