Higher Education Statistics Agency
| Abbreviation | HESA |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1993 |
| Legal status | Company limited by guarantee and Charity |
| Purpose | Higher education statistics in the UK |
| Location |
|
Region served | UK |
Chief Executive | Paul Clark |
Main organ | Board of Directors |
| Affiliations | Universities UK, GuildHE |
| Website | HESA |
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is the official agency for the collection, analysis and dissemination of quantitative information about higher education in the United Kingdom.
HESA was set up by agreement between the relevant government departments, the higher education funding councils and the universities and colleges in 1993, following the White Paper “Higher Education: a new framework”, which called for more coherence in HE statistics, and the 1992 Higher and Further Education Acts, which established an integrated higher education system throughout the United Kingdom.
HESA is a company limited by guarantee whose members are Universities UK and GuildHE.
Data Collections
HESA collects data from all publicly funded higher education institutions (HEIs) in the UK as well as a small number of private providers. The annual data collection streams are:
- Student data collection - information about students, courses and qualifications at HEIs
- AP Student data collection - information about students, courses and qualifications at Alternative Providers of higher education
- Staff data collection - information about staff employed by HEIs
- Finance record - income and expenditure of HEIs
- Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education - survey of graduate activities six months after leaving HE
- Aggregate offshore record - count of students studying wholly overseas for UK HE qualifications
- HE Business and Community Interaction survey - information about interactions between HEIs and business and the wider community
- Estates management record - buildings, estates and environmental information about HEIs
- Initial Teacher Training (ITT) record
- Key Information Sets (KIS) collection
Statistical Outputs
HESA publishes statistics and analyses based on the data it collects:
- Statistical First Releases - Official Statistics outputs summarising each data stream
- Annual publications - detailed statistical tables provided as downloadable products
- Performance Indicators - comparative data on the performance of HEIs in Widening participation, student retention, learning and teaching outcomes, research output and employment of graduates
- Mobile app - headline student, staff, finance and destinations statistics for each HEI
HESA also provides data extracts for research and publication by external users such as League tables of British universities.
See also
- Universities in the United Kingdom
- Higher Education Funding Council for England
- Higher Education Funding Council for Wales
- Scottish Funding Council
- Department for Employment and Learning
- Universities UK
- GuildHE
- UCAS
- Jisc
- Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education
- Skills Funding Agency