HE qualifications obtained
by level, class of first degree
and institution
2005/06
2006/07
2007/08
Total HE qualifications obtained
5685
6125
6120
Total first degree
3425
3705
1835
First class
450
500
300
Upper second
1680
1865
1535
Lower second
775
820
355
Third class/ Pass
125
140
225
First degree
Unclassified
395
385
130
Total higher degree
1795
1800
3770
Doctorate
330
375
495
Higher degree
Other higher degree
1465
1420
1945
Total other post-graduate
415
440
815
PGCE
275
245
120
Other postgraduate
Other post-graduate quals
135
195
390
Total other under-graduate
50
175
160
Professional Graduate Certificate in Education
0
Foundation degree
0
0
45
HND/DipHE (#9)
10
15
0
Other undergraduate
Other under-graduate quals
45
160
115
Data protection
In order to comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998, HESA implements a strategy
in published and released tabulations designed to minimise the risk of disclosure of personal information about any individual. The
tabulations in this volume are derived from the HESA non-statutory populations1and may differ slightly from those published by
related statutory bodies or in National Statistics publications. This strategy involves rounding all numbers to the nearest multiple of 5.
A summary of this strategy is as follows:
1. 0, 1, 2 are rounded to 0
2. All other numbers are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5
So for example 3 is represented as 5, 22 is represented as 20, 3286 is represented as 3285 while 0, 20, 55, 3510 remain
unchanged.
This rounding strategy is also applied to total numbers; the consequence of this is that the sum of numbers in each row or column
rarely matches the total shown precisely. Note that subject level data calculated by apportionment is also rounded in accordance
with this strategy.
Average values, proportions and FTE values prepared by HESA are not usually affected by the above strategy, and are calculated
on precise raw numbers.
Percentages calculated on populations which contain 52 or fewer individuals are suppressed and represented as ‘..’ as are averages
based on populations of 7 or fewer.
Change in population definition
The full set of students included in the HESA data collection is adjusted to produce the HESA Standard Registration Population
(SRP), for example by the exclusion of students of dormant status during the entire reporting year. A detailed account of the SRP
may be found in the definitions section of this volume. The SRP forms the basis for HESA reporting of student data. From 2007/08
onwards, the definition of the SRP has been changed to exclude two further subsets of students.
One of these subsets is very small, around 40 in total in 2007/08 spread across many institutions, and comprises students
intermitting for a year to serve as sabbatical officers of student unions; their exclusion from the SRP has no material impact on
statistical analysis or year-on-year comparisons, even at the institutional level.
The other newly excluded subset comprises students returned as ‘writing-up’. These are largely graduate students whose
programmes of study have been completed, but whose theses or dissertations are still in preparation.
The exclusion of these students brings the SRP more closely into line with funding and fee arrangements, and in general produces a
better measure of activity levels in institutions. However, the number of writing-up students is substantial, nearly 50,000 in 2007/08,
and the validity of some year-on-year comparisons depends on making an appropriate adjustment to allow for the change in
definition. Regardless of their previous mode of study, sabbaticals and writing-up students were included with part-time students
when totals were disaggregated by mode of study for years prior to 2007/08. So year-on-year comparisons involving only full-time
students are valid without adjustment, but where part-time numbers, or totals across both modes, are compared, adjustment is
necessary. This also applies to percentages where sabbatical and writing-up numbers would previously have been included in the
numerator or denominator or both.
