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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 However, the data we use from central sources will be a year out of date.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] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%