Key Information Sets (KIS)
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has directed that from September 2012, all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) must produce a Key Information Set (KIS) for each Undergraduate degree programme they offer. The purpose is to provide prospective students with comparable sets of information so that they are able to make more informed choices as to which universities, and courses, to apply to.
The KIS will contain the following information:
Data drawn from the National Students Survey (NSS)
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Student satisfaction - Responses from specific question in the National Students Survey (NSS), including overall satisfaction and feedback.
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Students' Union - Level of satisfaction with the institutions Students' Union.
Data drawn from UCAS
Data required from the Higher Education Institutions (HEI)
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Proportion of time spent in scheduled learning and teaching, in placements, and in independent study, by year of study for each programme.
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Proportion of summative assessment by method, e.g. examinations, coursework, practicals, by year of study for each programme.
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Details of any professional, statutory and regulatory bodies that recognise the programme, where applicable.
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Average costs of institution owned and sponsored accommodation, and average annual cost of private rented accommodation.
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Financial support available from the institution.
Data drawn from the DLHE Survey
Employment and salary information taken from the Destination of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE) surveys.
All the comparative information will be accessible via the Unistats website. Each Higher Education Institution (HEI) is required to host widgets containing a summary for each programme, which will contain the relevant KIS data within the course pages of its own website. The widgets will be accessible from the UCAS website as well as the College's Online Prospectus from 31 October 2012.
Some of the data on teaching, learning and assessment may be incorporated into league tables, and is likely to further the public interest surrounding the increased Undergraduate tuition fees, which came into force throughout the Higher Education sector in September 2012.
How the project went
The project began in February 2012. Duration: approx. 7 months
Originally, none of the data required from institutions by HEFCE was available in one place before the project started. Following a series of discussions with colleagues in the Schools and Departments, and IT Services, we were able to load the required data onto a newly purchased component of the SITS system. After thorough testing, the KIS component was finally submitted to HEFCE in August 2012. All KIS data was available to the public and prospective students via the Unistats website from Thursday 27 September 2012.
As part of the project, new Careers and Employability webpages have been developed for current and prospective students, which provide information and guidance on employability and career prospects. Individual Departments have also developed pages with additional information about their programmes to help prospective applicants.
The process for the future production of the KIS will be the responsibility of Student Data Analysis in collaboration with Student Business Systems.
More Information
For more information and guidance please visit the KIS FAQs webpage, or alternatively please visit the HEFCE and Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) websites for more general information on the KIS.