Data Futures (3) at the University of Huddersfield

It is a great help that we have two senior figures here who understand the importance of HESA Data Futures: Judith Davison is Chair of SROC and Andrew McConnell, our Director of Finance, is on the HESA Board. Data Futures (DF) has been central to our development of administrative functions over the last eighteen months. We signed up to the Alpha Pilot and we have restructured our core student records functions and created a new team specifically focused on statutory reporting. The new role of Data Returns Manager was established and I joined the University in October 2017.

In November I joined Judith as the Huddersfield delegation to the Alpha Pilot workshop at HESA, where we discussed the plan and gave our feedback on the coding manual and collection specification. We spent some time grappling with the concept of ‘in scope’ and an ‘always on’ collection system. It was encouraging to see how much thought had gone into the new model and, at the same time, a little bit disconcerting to consider just how many providers HESA needs to manage through the transition to the new regime.

In February we attended an Alpha Desktop Pilot Kick-off workshop at which we were introduced to the DF version of the tool small providers currently use to manually create records for submission. HESA created various scenarios to work through; three-year undergraduate, one-year postgraduate, OU-style undergraduate, etc. The tool was incredibly laborious to use, but we formed a better understanding of the structures of the new model and fed back a few queries. In March we got ready for testing the new collection platform and gave feedback on the DF preparation assessment (very useful).

April was peak DF month for us. We attended a workshop including some suppliers (Tribal and UNIT4) at the beginning of the month and followed with a training day introduced by our Deputy VC, Professor Tim Thornton, presented by Dan Kidd (former Head of Training and Consultancy at HESA and now Director of Planning at Arden University and HESPA Executive) and attended by around 70 colleagues from across the university. That same week the DVC chaired our first Data Futures Steering Group and we went away to consider the DF Preparation Assessment. Many of the questions were answered with ‘we’re waiting for [insert name of software supplier] to…’ but it has been helpful in focusing attention on roles and responsibilities across the university. On a practical level, exposure to the prototype data collection platform has underlined the need for a different mindset in the new regime: if you submit incorrect data you must submit another record to delete it. Simply editing the file and resubmitting, without keeping track of each change, only makes things worse. 

HESES guidance recommends that “Your staff should understand the funding rules and how they relate to the institution’s record system…”. In the DF regime I don’t think we have any choice but to embrace this guidance because back-office teams translating everyday data into compliant xml is not a model that will cope with the workload. Conversely, using routine DF data validation year round could be a useful contribution to internal data quality, if colleagues could understand it. To this end, I pleaded for HESA to make their data collection site more useful to larger providers. Enabling filtering on the error reports and credibility tables would be a start, allowing better access and more transparency.

We invited HESA colleagues to visit Huddersfield and my previous institution, Northampton, to see two different approaches to collation, checking and submission of returns, using SITS and Agresso QL respectively. In May and June we received visits from HESA delegations and we took them through our processes. Most importantly we contrasted the utility of the validation kit output most institutions use with the integral validation approach offered by QL. At Northampton, Brendan Fawcett and Jo Ellis demonstrated that, with the QL system, colleagues can filter errors by course or department or by student characteristics and can see all the errors for a student in one place. Devolved teams can manage their own data quality schedule with support and co-ordination from the central team. At Huddersfield we are using the standard validation output, translating it to internal language and breaking it down into schools or departments, as appropriate, for onward distribution. It is our view that the time taken in reprocessing the validation output is a significant barrier to the switch to multiple in-year submissions.

I think our colleagues from HESA got a lot out of the visits. For some it was the first time that they had seen a live student record system and it really brought to life how submissions work from an institutional perspective. They accepted that the output from the data collection site could be more helpful to institutions. They noted that other providers have also asked for enhancements to the data collection site, including the ability to submit different, additional data, and to add their own validation rules. Unfortunately, it will be some time (years) before there is any capacity in the DF programme to schedule in these enhancements. We are now on ‘Plan B’, looking at how we can develop other tools to help manage data quality across the university.

We are lucky in that our software supplier, Tribal, has been very engaged with the whole Data Futures process, not only in attending HESA workshops and supplier days, but in establishing a Data Futures Advisory Group, which Judith chairs, to assist in the development of the software to meet DF requirements.  The group has provided advice and guidance to the SITS development team, acting as a sounding board in some very detailed discussions about the sources of data and interpretation of the data model. It has also recently hosted a user group event which attracted over 60 delegates from across the customer base.

SROC is also heavily involved in Data Futures.  Its annual conferences have included various plenary and breakout sessions on a range of DF-related matters, including data governance, the data model and data capability. It also has representation on the HESA Data Futures Advisory Panel.  Planning is also currently underway for a SROC Data Futures day event to be held at Woburn House in London on 20 November.