Student Record Officers’ ConferenceWednesday 8th April 2009

Enabling Benefits in Education

Workshop and Presentation

by

Lynne Thomas (MIAP), Mike Milne-Picken (Bradford College) and Alan Dove (MMU)

• MIAP stands for Managing Information Across Partners.• The programme is led by DIUS and delivered by the Learning and Skills

Council.• From inception, the objectives of this initiative have been to streamline the

collection, handling and sharing of information across the UK education sector and to facilitate a learner-centric approach to learner information.

• Since 2002, MIAP has launched three new services The UK Register of Learning Providers (UKRLP) Common Data Definitions (CDDs) The Learner Registration Service (LRS)

• These shared services allow organisations to work together more effectively using new models of delivery for data collection, sharing and reporting.

• This makes it easier to bring information together to directly benefit learners, IAG services, employers, schools, colleges and universities.

“Collect once, use many times, used by all”

The MIAP Programme

• The Learner Registration Service (LRS) was launched by Bill Rammell in February 2008.

• The LRS allocates lifelong Unique Learner Numbers (ULNs) to learning providers for learners.

• There are now over 5.5 million learners with a ULN and many students enrolling from English schools will have one from this year.

• We have over 3500 providers – Learner Registration Bodies – using the LRS to assign ULNs to their students

• The LRS is designed to facilitate data sharing

• It will underpin better services to the learner

The Learner Registration Service

The ULN will be allocated to every person in education and training aged 14+

The ULN is required to be shared – the Learner Record is not

How does the ULN relate to HE?

• A ULN field has been established in both the HESA and UCAS datasets and, if you are submitting ILRs direct to the Learning and Skills Council for funding purposes, the ULN is already a mandatory field.

• Around 4% of students from English state schools are providing their ULN as part of the UCAS ‘Apply’ system

• The ULN will allow UCAS to share verified qualification data for applicants avoiding data re-entry.

• We are encouraging HEIs to start to use the LRS to assign ULNs to students (that don’t already have them) in academic year 2009/10.

The Data Items

Find Learner by Demographics

Given Name

Family Name

Date of Birth

Gender

Last Known Postcode

Other search fields:

Previous Family Name ; School at age

16; Place of Birth; email address

Find by ULN

ULN

Given Name

Family Name

Additional FieldsPreferred Given Name

Middle Other Name

Previous Family Name

Family Name at 16

School at Age 16

Last Known Address line 1

Last Known Address Line 2

Last Known Address Town

Last Known Address County or City

Date of Address Capture

Place of Birth

Email Address

Nationality

Scottish Candidate Number

Ability to Share

Verification Type

• It collects qualifications and achievement data against individual ULNs

• It will facilitate access by learners to an electronic record of their achievements which will be securely accessed by learners and registered learning providers over the Internet

• Currently, achievement data is obtained from the DCSF National Pupil Database (GCSEs and A levels) and the LSC ILR return

• MIAP’s ambition is to collect achievement data directly from Awarding Bodies at the time of award, or shortly thereafter.

• Now being piloted with a small number of learners and learning providers.

The Learner Record

Prototype Learner Record

Mike Milne-Picken, University Centre Registrar,Bradford College

Benefits of the ULN to HEIs

The potential benefits of the ULN in HE include:

• Better access to good quality data for student monitoring; to support decision making, planning and marketing strategies; and destination data

• Supporting collaborative provision across learning partnerships in HE, FE and WBL

• Reducing the number of student identifiers

• Easier identification of students

• Streamlining of applications processes

• Enabling the unification and quality of data across UCAS, SLC and HESA

Mike Milne-Picken, University Centre Registrar,Bradford College

Benefits of the Learner Record to HEIs

Many of the potential benefits of the Learner Record to HEIs hinge on immediacy of data flow into the record and the pre-population of student application data by UCAS:

• Less manual entry, enabling greater accuracy and simplification of recording of qualifications and achievement data, thus reducing staff time

• Access to verified qualifications on entry to HE including prior achievement

• Reduction in the need for validation of qualifications and achievements including credit transfer modules

• A means of helping to combat degree fraud

• Tracking the learner journey

• Secure access to a Learner Record in the control of learners

Mike Milne-Picken, University Centre Registrar,Bradford College

Use of ULN in FE and HE in FE

English FE Colleges are an early adopter of MIAP ULNs

• In 2007-08, some colleges were in a pilot to include ULNs in their data returns

• In 2008-09, all colleges are required to include the ULN in their Individualised Learner Record (ILR*) to the Information Authority*

• ULNs are obtained automatically by direct connection to LRS, and matching of key fields.

Experience to date

• Bradford College has 20,000 learners already with a ULN

• For FE students most 16 year olds entering FE already have a ULN from school and it was a relatively straightforward matter to obtain an existing ULN.

• For HE in FE students, they do not have a ULN and the College has to obtain a ULN. There are comparatively few problems now although there were start up problems with accessing the database these were speedily resolved.

*NB ILR and the Information Authority are the FE College equivalent of the HESA student return and HESA for HEIs.

Mike Milne-Picken, University Centre Registrar,Bradford College

EXAMPLES - Developing early uses of ULNs

• Bradford College is already using ULN to send data on student results and conferment on its degree students to its University validating body (Leeds Metropolitan University). Previously both institutions used a separate local registration number on their respective systems (EBS & Banner) and there was a danger that students with the same name on the same course could have been confused. This is a particular problem at Bradford College because of the high proportion of the student body with asian and more specifically muslim names, meaning a larger than typical number of students with the same name. Leeds Metropolitan University have extended the opportunity to provide data with the ULN to other FE colleges in its Regional University Network.

• The new 14-19 diplomas are being delivered from September 2008 by partnerships of Colleges and Schools, including a Bradford consortium, wherein each partner takes responsibility for aspects of delivery. The only way in which the Diplomas can be made to work is by use of ULN as the key identifier for sharing learner details between each partner.

Mike Milne-Picken, University Centre Registrar,Bradford College

EXAMPLES – Possible Uses for the Learner Record

• While working at Hopwood Hall College I established a data sharing protocol with Rochdale LEA to enable exchange of GCSE and GCE data between the two organisations, using access to the records of the National Consortium for Examination Results hosted by Bath University. This meant that the sixth form at the College had full details of the GCSEs taken by its intake from Rochdale 11-16 schools. This sped up the checking of value added data using ALIS and ALPS systems and helped the sixth form analyse success factors.

• The problems with this were:– The agreement only included Rochdale LEA, approx 75% of students at the College– There was no unique identification link, records could only be linked by matching

names, date of birth and prior schools, which was time consuming and not 100% accurate

• Nevertheless there were early benefits for both LEA and College that will be multiplied several times when the Learner Record becomes available.

Mike Milne-Picken, University Centre Registrar,Bradford College

Question and Concerns

Set against the positive benefits and opportunities, we recognise that HEIs do have questions and concerns which include:

• Other existing identifiers in HE

• The collection of degree qualifications’ data including modules completed and credits achieved

• Other existing and planned achievement records in HE

• The reliability of the LRS; liability; duplicate/shared ULNs; data protection; access to the Learner Record; consent management; and the integrity and currency of data

• Business process changes and provider burden

• Time and cost to develop functionality within MIS

• Whether and when the ULN will be mandated in HE and by whom

• Capturing data to complete mandatory fields for overseas students or UK students studying abroad

Alan Dove, Director of Planning and MI, MMU

Drivers for early adoption at MMU

Business change

MIS

Possible burden

Anticipated benefits

Experiences to date

QUESTIONS?

The HE Advisory Group

MIAP has established an HE Advisory Group to:

• Review the impact of the issues that have been identified on the future development of MIAP’s services

• Advise on means of resolving those issues

• Gain leadership commitment to the adoption of MIAP in HE

The Group is Chaired by Professor Robert Burgess and comprises:

• Senior representatives of key stakeholder organisations in the HE sector responsible for policy, funding and the delivery of HE across the UK

• Universities

UUK; Guild HE; SLC; UCISA; DIUS; LSC; UCAS; JISC; HESA; QAA; HEFCE; Welsh Assembly Government; HEFC for Wales; Higher Education Wales;

Scottish Funding Council; The Scottish Government; Universities Scotland; SQA; DELNI; NUS; HE Academy; Liverpool John Moores; Manchester Metropolitan University;

University of Leicester; Open University; Oxford University; Sheffield University; Staffordshire University; Bradford College

Moving forward in HE

• Guided by the HE Advisory Group, MIAP is developing a Business Case to seek government funding to support the adoption of MIAP in the HE sector

• In parallel, a small pilot will run with a number of HEI’s to explore:

– Benefits to students

– Benefits to HEI’s

– Adoption by UCAS and other bodies supporting HE

– Extending the Learner Record into HE

– Supporting International Students

• UCAS is undertaking a trial to compare verified applicant GCSE data from the MIAP Learner Record with Apply entry for years 2008 and 2009

• In the future other Level 2 data; Level 3 data – A level, Nationals, IB..; and the 14-19 Diploma transcript may also be shared with UCAS

www.miap.gov.uk

Final Questions

and

Thank You