At the University of Northumbria, we will not be supplying any updates of
data which is available from HESA. As Judy Evans says, doing so would make
the whole exercise nonsensical.
As a matter of principle, we will not supply the ST figures from the HEFCE
Performance Indicators tables. These were only at the consultative stage
and were confidential to each university.
After the ST accepted last year that they should take data from HESA
following the protests from the sector, I think everyone should take the
same line this year.
| Andrew McKirgan
| Manager, Strategic Planning Unit
| University of Northumbria at Newcastle
| Tel: 0191 227 3007
| Fax: 0191 227 4471
| E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Judy Evans [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 29 June 1999 12:44
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Cc: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask];
> [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask];
> [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Sunday Times University Guide
>
> We are in receipt of the latest request for information to inform
> the Sunday Times University Guide and its accompanying League
> Table. At first glance it appears that we are required to
> provide data only on the sections that will not already have been
> answered by reference to HESA data, which the ST will be getting
> direct from them.
>
> However, the covering notes for guidance encourage us to provide
> them with that information ALSO - I quote:
>
> "Please answer all questions in bold type. We are happy to
> collect the information centrally for those questions in ordinary
> print [my comment: presumably from HESA although it is not made
> clear]. However, the data we use from central sources will be a
> year out of date. Filling in these sections gives you the
> opportunity to use data from the 1998 entry cohort, rather than
> 1997, which is the most up-to-date information currently held
> centrally by HESA etc."
>
> I would suggest that this makes a nonsense of ANY attempts we, as
> a sector, and HESA have made to standardise on data collection
> and data consistency (not withstanding other concerns about the
> playing field not being level anyway!), and should be positively
> discouraged. Any league Tables generated using data sets across
> years would be nonsensical. I would welcome other institutions'
> views on this, as well as HESA's.
>
> In addition, we are asked to provide then with information from
> the HEFCE Performance Indicators tables, despite the fact that
> these are still subject to consultation, and are not due for
> publication in any form until later in the summer after
> consultation has confirmed acceptance of them as appropriate
> measures.
>
> Thus, in Section IV of the questionnaire we are asked to quote
> the "percentage of all young and mature students progressing at
> your institution following year of entry drawn from the bottom
> line of Table 3 of the forthcoming HEFCE PIs". However, to do so
> ignores both the diversity of the intake as illustrated in the
> analysis breakdowns in the lines above, and will also undoubtedly
> lead to a single ranking league table which takes no account of
> different institutional types and missions.
>
> Comments please!
>
> ----------------------
> Judy Evans
> Head of Management Information
> University of North London
> 166-221 Holloway Road
> London N7 8DB
>
> tel : 0171 753 5146
> fax : 0171 753 5049
>
> email : [log in to unmask]
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