Academic year 2019/20

Participation measures in higher education

Data guidance

Published 25 November 2021

Description

This guidance describes the data included in the Participation Measures in Higher Education: 2019/20 National Statistics release’s underlying data files. This data is released under the terms of the Open Government License and is intended to meet at least 3 stars for Open Data.

The methodology pages attached to this release should be referenced alongside this data. It provides information on the data sources, their coverage and quality as well as explaining methodology used in producing the data.

Coverage

The release covers the latest Higher Education Initial Participation (HEIP) measure.

The measure is the sum of the age specific participation rates for the 17 to 30 year-old population in England in each academic year (HEIP30), and can be thought of as a projection of the likelihood of a 17-year-old today participating in higher education by age 30 if the latest year's entry rates persisted in the future.

It also includes tables specific to postgraduate entry (PGIP30), as well as some age tables up to ages 20 and 60 (HEIP20, HEIP60).

File formats and conventions

Throughout the publication, all entrant numbers are rounded to the nearest 5 in line with the Higher Education Statistics Agency’s (HESA) rounding policy. All participation percentages are rounded to 1 decimal place.

‘:’ Not applicable

Data files

All data files associated with this releases are listed below with guidance on their content. To download any of these files, please visit our data catalogue.

Headline Summary Statistics

Filename: heip_headline_summary_211119.csv
Geographic levels: National
Time period: 2019/20
Content: Initial Participation (HEIP30) headline data

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
initial_entry_percentage	Estimated HE Initial Entry Percentage (Overall)
initial_entry_percentage_18yrolds	Estimated HE Initial Entry Percentage (18 year olds)
initial_entry_percentage_females	Estimated HE Initial Entry Percentage (Females)

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Impact of additional providers on Initial Participation

Filename: heip_impact_211115.csv
Geographic levels: National
Time period: 2006/07 to 2019/20
Content: Initial Participation (HEIP30) with and without additional providers*.
*Those who submitted data to HESA’s Alternative Provider student record in 2014/15 onwards.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
initial_entrants	Initial entrants
methodology	Methodology - Filter by methodology
percentage	Initial entry percentage
sex	Sex - Filter by sex

Footnotes

Additional providers who returned data to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Alternative record have been included from 2014/15. Figures are therefore not directly comparable with earlier years.

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Impact of additional providers on Postgraduate Initial Participation

Filename: pgip_impact_211115.csv
Geographic levels: National
Time period: 2006/07 to 2019/20
Content: Postgraduate Initial Participation (PGIP30) with and without additional providers**.
**Those who submitted postgraduate data to HESA’s Alternative Provider student record in 2017/18 onwards.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
initial_entrants	Initial entrants
methodology	Methodology - Filter by methodology
percentage	Initial entry percentage
sex	Sex - Filter by sex

Footnotes

Additional providers who returned postgraduate data to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Alternative record have been included from 2017/18. Figures are therefore not directly comparable with earlier years.

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Initial Participation by age

Filename: heip_age_211115.csv
Geographic levels: National
Time period: 2006/07 to 2019/20
Content: Initial Participation (HEIP30) by specific age.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
age	Academic age - Filter by academic age
initial_entrants	Initial entrants
methodology	Methodology - Filter by methodology
percentage	Initial entry percentage
population	Population
sex	Sex - Filter by sex

Footnotes

Additional providers who returned data to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Alternative record have been included from 2014/15. Figures are therefore not directly comparable with earlier years.

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Initial Participation by mode of study

Filename: heip_mode_211115.csv
Geographic levels: National
Time period: 2006/07 to 2019/20
Content: Initial Participation (HEIP30, HEIP20, HEIP60) by mode of study.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
entry_age	Entry age - Filter by entry age (by age 20, 30 or 60)
initial_entrants	Initial entrants
methodology	Methodology - Filter by methodology
mode_study	Mode of study - Filter by mode of study
percentage	Initial entry percentage

Footnotes

Additional providers who returned data to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Alternative record have been included from 2014/15. Figures are therefore not directly comparable with earlier years.

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Initial Participation by provider type

Filename: heip_providertype_211115.csv
Geographic levels: National
Time period: 2015/16 to 2019/20
Content: Experimental statistics: Initial Participation (HEIP30) by provider type.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
initial_entrants	Initial entrants
methodology	Methodology - Filter by methodology
percentage	Initial entry percentage
provider_type	Provider type - Filter by provider type
sex	Sex - Filter by sex

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Initial Participation by qualification aim

Filename: heip_qualificationaim_211115.csv
Geographic levels: National
Time period: 2015/16 to 2019/20
Content: Experimental statistics: Initial Participation (HEIP30) by qualification aim.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
initial_entrants	Initial entrants
methodology	Methodology - Filter by methodology
percentage	Initial entry percentage
qualification_aim	Qualification aim - Filter by qualification aim
sex	Sex - Filter by sex

Footnotes

Apprenticeships at level 4 and above are included in the HEIP measure but are reported as the component qualifications which make up the overarching Apprenticeship framework or standard.
A very small proportion of Higher Education Initial Participants enter postgraduate courses. This can occur in cases where providers admit students based on prior work experience.

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Initial Participation by sex

Filename: heip_sex_211115.csv
Geographic levels: National
Time period: 2006/07 to 2019/20
Content: Initial Participation (HEIP30, HEIP20, HEIP60) by sex.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
entry_age	Entry age - Filter by entry age
initial_entrants	Initial entrants
methodology	Methodology - Filter by methodology
percentage	Initial entry percentage
sex	Sex - Filter by sex

Footnotes

Additional providers who returned data to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Alternative record have been included from 2014/15. Figures are therefore not directly comparable with earlier years.

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Postgraduate Initial Participation by mode of study

Filename: pgip_mode_211115.csv
Geographic levels: National
Time period: 2006/07 to 2019/20
Content: Postgraduate Initial Participation (PGIP30) by mode of study.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
initial_entrants	Initial entrants
methodology	Methodology - Filter by methodology
mode_study	Mode of study - Filter by mode of study
percentage	Initial entry percentage

Footnotes

Additional providers who returned postgraduate data to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Alternative record have been included from 2017/18. Figures are therefore not directly comparable with earlier years.

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Postgraduate Initial Participation by sex

Filename: pgip_sex_211115.csv
Geographic levels: National
Time period: 2006/07 to 2019/20
Content: Postgraduate Initial Participation (PGIP30) by sex.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
initial_entrants	Initial entrants
methodology	Methodology - Filter by methodology
percentage	Initial entry percentage
sex	Sex - Filter by sex

Footnotes

Additional providers who returned postgraduate data to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Alternative record have been included from 2017/18. Figures are therefore not directly comparable with earlier years.

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Qualification levels in the population

Filename: aps_quallevel_211105_1320.csv
Geographic levels: National
Time period: 2006 to 2020
Content: Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS) data showing percentages in the population qualified.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
confidence	95% confidence interval
percentage	Percentage qualified to the level
qual_level	Qualification level - Filter by qualification level

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