Methodology

Higher-level learners in England: Methodology

Published

Introduction

This document contains supporting information for the statistical release ‘Higher Level Learners in England, Academic year 2023/24’, including further detail on the background of the publication, data sources, data processing and data quality of these statistics overall.

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Background to the publication

The publication presents an overview of participation and achievements in higher-level learning at Further Education Providers (FEPs) and Higher Education Providers (HEPs) for English-domiciled learners in England in the academic year 2023/24. 

Higher-level learning refers to learning at levels 4 to 8 (opens in a new tab). Qualifications covered are at a higher level than A levels or equivalent, and include a range of qualification aims, such as foundation degrees, first degrees and Doctorates.

The statistics provide a holistic view of all types of higher-level learning across the further and higher education sectors. These types of learning are as follows:

The ESFA closed on 31 March 2025 (opens in a new tab) and all its activity and functions were moved to the Department for Education (DfE). As the latest statistics only cover academic years up to 2023/24, references to ESFA are made throughout this publication.

The statistics show how higher-level skills provision was organised in 2023/24 and aid our understanding of the potential impacts of the government’s skills reforms. In particular, it will assist future policy understanding for Higher Technical Qualification (HTQ) reforms and the flexible Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE). The coverage has focused on English-domiciled learners because this is the group most likely to be impacted by these policy areas.

Most of the data included in the most recent release refers to academic year 2023/24, however underlying data files include a time series back to 2015/16. Please note, figures may differ slightly across statistical releases due to revisions in underlying data and methodology over time.

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Other related statistical releases

Official statistics are published separately each year on further and higher education using the same ILR and HESA records that are the basis for ‘Higher-level learners in England’, these are:

The statistics in ‘Higher-level learners in England’ may show differing patterns to the publications detailed above. This is due to the methodology for this publication removing some duplication from the underpinning data sources (see the section titled ‘Data processing’ for further details). Counts of apprenticeships also differ slightly to those available in the publication referenced above due to the restriction to English-domiciled learners for ‘Higher-level learners in England’.

Statistics are also published that show the student loans funding that is paid to learners in further education (opens in a new tab) and higher education (opens in a new tab). Student loan counts in those publications are different to those included in this publication. More details are provided under the ‘Data quality and comparability’ section.

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Data sources

The publication presents analysis of the FE and HE sectors after combining two separate data sources:

  • The Higher Education Statistics Agency’s (HESA, part of Jisc) ‘Student’ and ‘Student Alternative’ records for HEPs, and
  • The Education and Skills Funding Agency’s (ESFA) Individualised Learner Record (ILR) data for FEPs.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency

The Higher Education Statistics Agency's (HESA) ‘Student’ and ‘Student Alternative’ records collect information on all students at higher education providers in England who follow courses that lead to the award of a qualification or provider credit. The data collections include information about students’:

  • Personal characteristics
  • Place of study
  • Courses and modules they are undertaking
  • Entry qualifications and socio-economic backgrounds

HESA Data Futures

For the 2022/23 academic year, Jisc introduced a new collection system, the HESA Data Platform (HDP), and a new data model (Data Futures), designed to meet the needs of the current funding and regulatory landscape.

Prior to the 2022/23 academic year, details on students in alternative providers were held in the Student Alternative record, separately to the majority of students captured in the Student record. For the 2022/23 academic year, all students at HE providers and alternative providers are captured under a single collection.

As a result of these changes to the model, the 2022/23 academic year saw a larger number of data quality issues compared to previous years and HESA's 2022/23 Student bulletin was delayed by several months. The bulletin for the 2023/24 academic year was also delayed as a result of further complexities in implementing the new data model and further information can be found on the HESA website (opens in a new tab).

With these issues in mind, caution is advised when comparing the higher education figures in ‘Higher Level Learners in England’ across time. 

The Individualised Learner Record

The Individualised Learner Record (ILR) collection is based on data returns to the Department for Education from FE education colleges and training providers in England about learners in the FE system. The data was formerly collected by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) (opens in a new tab) but in March 2025, the agency was closed down and all its activity and functions were moved to DfE.

The ILR is a complete record of government funded learning in the FE sector, however the ‘Higher level learners in England’ publication can only report on learning that is recorded in administrative data held by government. There is likely to be some unfunded learning in FE providers that is not recorded as it is not mandatory for providers to record information on their unfunded learners. There may also be higher-level learning in the private sector that is not recorded in administrative data held by government. This means that any reference to an “Other higher level - Unfunded” category of learners in this publication should be considered a lower bound estimate. 

The ILR includes a ‘Learner HE’ entity. This must be returned for learners doing courses at levels 4 to 8 at providers registered with the Office for Students. In this publication we refer to these learners as doing ‘OfS-Recognised HE’. The ‘Learner HE’ entity must be completed for all such learners doing these courses irrespective of whether they received any funding. Details of the coverage of the ‘Learner HE’ entity are available in the ILR specification (opens in a new tab).

This publication refers to data collected under each academic year's final ILR collection (snapshot 14).

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Data processing

Counting learners

There are two population counts in this publication. The first is based on student enrolments (including entrants, enrolments in their first year), and the second on student achievements.

It is possible for a student to enrol on more than one course in an academic year and where this is the case the student is counted for each enrolment. 

Data that includes subject is a count of full-person equivalent (FPE). This means that where an enrolment or qualification spans multiple subjects, it is apportioned to reflect the proportion of the learner that relates to each subject (e.g. a student enrolled in a course equally distributed between engineering & technology and computer science is counted with 0.5 FPE for each subject).

Population ‘in-scope’ - Enrolments and entrants

Students in the HESA Student data were included if they met the following criteria:

The ILR is first restricted to include only those learning aims with a notional level of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or H. All other learning aims are excluded.

Students in the ILR undertaking OfS-recognised HE qualifications were included if they were part of the standard registration population and were domiciled in England prior to study.

Students undertaking other higher-level learning were included if they were domiciled in England and any of the following conditions are met:

  • The student was on an apprenticeship programme and active in the academic year.
  • The student was funded by the ESFA or via an advanced learning loan and was active in the academic year.
  • The student was self-funded and passed the funding qualification period. The funding qualification period is 42 days for courses of duration 168 days or more, 14 days for courses with duration between 14 and 167 days, and 1 day for courses lasting fewer than 14 days.

Entrants are a subset of the enrolments population, They are included based on the restrictions above, but are additionally restricted to being in their first year of study. From 2022/23, HESA's definition of an entrant differs from that used previously with a small impact on overall student numbers. Prior to 2022/23, first year students at HEPs were those with a start date between 1 August and 31 July. From 2022/23 onwards, entrants are defined as those students with a start date between 18 July 2022 and 17 July 2023. When used in conjunction with the Standard Registration Population, this has a small impact on overall student numbers, but the revision brings it in line with the concept used in the derivation of the Standard Registration Population.

Population ‘in-scope’ – Qualifiers

Students in the HESA ‘Student’ and ‘Student Alternative’ records were included if they met the following criteria:

  • The student is included in the qualifications obtained population (opens in a new tab).
  • The students qualification was awarded at a Higher Education Provider based in England.
  • The student was domiciled in England prior to study.

In addition to the conditions outlined in the enrolments and entrants section above, students in the ILR undertaking HE or apprenticeship qualifications were included if they met all of the following criteria:

  • The student completed the learning activities leading to the learning aim.
  • The learning outcome has been achieved.
  • The period/academic month of leaving is during the academic year being referred to.
  • The student was domiciled in England prior to study.

Defining Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships are a count of programmes recorded in the ILR and undertaken in an academic year. 

An apprenticeship programme can contain multiple component qualifications, which make up part of the overarching apprenticeship framework or standard. In line with other official statistics publications on apprenticeships, the overarching programme is counted rather than the component qualifications. Component qualifications like degrees would normally be classed under OfS-recognised HE learning, but the overarching apprenticeship programmes are prioritised as the type of higher-level learning in this release. 

Apprenticeships are included in this release if they were at levels 4 and above. Counts differ slightly to other official statistics publications on apprenticeships due to the restriction of English-domiciled learners only in this release.

Defining OfS-Recognised HE

Qualifications that are classed as Recognised HE for Office for Students (OfS) funding purposes. Such qualifications are generally eligible for student loan support, such as foundation degrees, Higher National Certificates (HNCs)s and first degrees. Further information can be found in Annex B of the Higher Education Students Early Statistics survey 2023-24 (HESES23): Guidance for providers - Office for Students. (opens in a new tab)

From 2022/23, learners undertaking taught work with an unspecified qualification aim at HEPs are counted under the 'OfS-recognised HE' category, rather than the 'Other higher-level - Unfunded' category. This is to align with how qualification aim data is captured by HESA from 2022/23 onwards and affects a few hundred learners per academic year.

Defining Institutional credit in Higher Education Providers (HEPs)

Learning in HEPs identified as bite-sized, standalone modules of study covers a wide range of short-term learning; examples include Continuing Professional Development (CPD) learning for healthcare professionals, such as Advanced Skills in Clinical Assessment at Anglia Ruskin University (opens in a new tab), or standalone languages modules like those taken in King’s College London Modern Language Centre (opens in a new tab). These are not regarded as full qualifications.

Institutional credit has been defined as the following qualification category (opens in a new tab) codes: 'D0004', 'D0005', 'E0003', 'E0005', 'L0002', 'L0003', 'M0022', 'M0024', 'H0018', 'H0020', 'I0012', 'I0013', 'J0011', 'C0008' in the HESA Student data.

Defining other higher-level learning

Other higher-level learning is defined as learning at levels 4 to 8 outside of OfS-recognised HE, apprenticeships and institutional credit in HEPs. These courses are generally not eligible for student loan support, but could be eligible for Advanced Learner Loans (ALLs). In addition, some students aged 16-18 on approved courses regulated by Ofqual can be funded by the ESFA. Full details of the funding rules can be found in the ESFA 16 to 19 funding guidance (opens in a new tab).

In the ILR, it is not mandatory for providers to return information on their unfunded learners, which means that data reported under this category is likely to be an underestimate.

Defining level of study

Level of study is derived differently for HESA and ILR records. In the HESA student records, level is based on the qualification category  (opens in a new tab) associated with the enrolment. The mapping of qualification category to level is outlined in Table 1 of the supporting files section of this release.

The ILR includes information on the qualification level of learning aims. This information is taken directly from the learning aims reference service (opens in a new tab).

Defining provider type

Provider type refers to the provider the learner is registered with. This is not necessarily the provider where the learning is taking place. For example, if a franchising arrangement existed between a HEP (registering provider) and a further education college (delivering the learning), the learner is reported under the HEP provider type. According to the most recent data available from the OfS, in 2022/23, there were around 138,000 enrolments (all years of study) whose higher education was subcontracted out to another provider. The majority of delivery providers were private companies or FE providers. For more information, see Subcontractual arrangements in higher education - Office for Students. (opens in a new tab)

If a provider returns data to both HESA and the ILR, all learners across both their returns are counted as being enrolled in a Higher Education Provider for this release. This may differ slightly to statistical releases that only rely on ILR data.

Defining subject area

Subject area has been categorised using the Common Aggregation Hierarchy (opens in a new tab), the latest version of which is CAH 1.3.4.

The ILR does not use CAH 1.3.4 to categorise learning aims into subject areas. ILR records have been mapped to CAH 1.3.4 using two methods:

  • OfS-recognised HE qualifications include Learn Direct Classification System (LDCS) subject codes. Where these were available, LDCS codes were mapped to CAH 1.3.4 using a LDCS lookup published by OfS (opens in a new tab) and a CAH 1.3.4 lookup published by HESA (opens in a new tab). From 2023/24, the percentage taught across each Learn Direct Classification System (LDCS) subject that a higher education student studies at further education providers has stopped being collected as part of the Individualised Learner Record (ILR). A supplementary survey to collect this information from further education providers that are registered with the Office for Students (OfS) has been introduced for 2023/24. For this publication, students at further education providers with unavailable percentage taught information have had their time distributed evenly across each of their subjects. For example, if a student studied two subjects, they would have a percentage taught of 50% (or a full-person equivalence of 0.5) in each subject. 
  • For all other ILR records, the sector subject areas (SSAs) recorded for each learning aim were mapped to CAH 1.3.4 using the mapping in the Table 2 of the supporting files section of this release. The preparation for life and work SSA is retained as a separate category in the subject classification as there are no equivalent subject codes in the CAH 1.3.4 system.

Learning captured in the HESA Student data is recorded using the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) (opens in a new tab) and CAH 1.3.4 system.

Defining technical routes

The Sainsbury Review and Post-16 Skills Plan (opens in a new tab) set out fifteen technical routes describing occupations that require technical and higher technical education. Reforms to higher technical education (opens in a new tab) include the introduction of Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) from September 2022 onwards. HTQs are qualifications at levels 4 and 5 that have been assessed by Skills England (opens in a new tab) (formerly the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education) to meet employer-led occupational standards within the technical routes.

The CAH and SSA subject classification systems have been mapped to technical routes by DfE. Details of this mapping can be found in Table 3 and Table 4 of the supporting files section of this publication.

Counts provided in each technical route in this publication are based on subject classifications rather than an assessment of whether qualifications meet the employer-led occupational standards within the routes. It is our intention in future publications to alter this section and report only on qualifications that have been approved as Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) as per Skills England guidance (opens in a new tab).

Removing duplication between the ILR and HESA records

To produce these statistics, information has been standardised across both the ILR and HESA datasets. Learners can be recorded twice through both collections and duplicates have been removed.  Duplicates can exist in the ILR on occasion when an FE provider reports on learners who have been sub-contracted-in from another provider (the ‘registering provider’). A duplicate record is defined as a pair of records split across the ILR and HESA record with matching:

  • Person Identifiers (PIDs) provided by OfS
  • Year of study
  • Provider
  • Level of study
  • Qualification aim
  • Entrant/continuing status

Where duplicate records were identified after combining the ILR and HESA data, the HESA record was retained. The only exception to this was in the case of apprenticeships, where the ILR programme aim is considered to be the authoritative record of the learning.

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Data quality and comparability

Missing data

The levels of missing data vary across the different higher-level learning types. This means that data on learner characteristics in this publication are likely to be more meaningful when making comparisons between learning types, than after these have been aggregated up to make estimates of the learner characteristics profile for all higher-level learning. 

In addition, due to the different data collection systems used to produce this release, there are some differences in the coding frames for certain variables that could have a slight impact on comparability of statistics on student characteristics across higher-level learning types.

COVID-19 impacts

HESA published a COVID-19 insight brief (opens in a new tab) that analyses the impact of the pandemic on student data and trends across the years of enrolments and qualifications across various characteristics. 

The varying COVID-19 restrictions impacted timeliness of reporting and additional care should be taken in comparing and interpreting data for academic years 2019/20 and beyond in this release.

Qualifiers

The Marking and Assessment Boycott 2023 has had an impact on qualification awards. Some providers were unable to return all awarded qualifications resulting in an undercounting for 2022/23. 

For the 2022/23 academic year, derived fields relating to highest qualification awarded are based solely on qualification information returned in 2022/23 and do not use legacy HESA data to identify qualifications which have been previously returned. Therefore, some double counting of qualifications is possible in this year.

Source of tuition fees 

Due to data quality concerns around the field used to record a student’s majority source of tuition fee funding in the HESA Student Record (opens in a new tab), 2023/24 data has not been published in this section. A large number of students were incorrectly listed as studying on a course with no required fees. The DfE will continue working with Jisc to improve the quality of funding source data from HE providers and will look to publish breakdowns by funding source in future iterations of the release should data quality improve.

Due to the above mentioned issues with 2023/24 data, the funding source figures and charts presented in the section are based on updated 2022/23 data (and will differ from those presented in the 2022/23 ‘Higher Level Learners in England’ release). The issue described above is not believed to have affected 2022/23 or earlier data. However, other issues described below affected the 2022/23 data:

In 2022/23, Jisc's Data Futures collection model did not allow providers to flag instances where no fees were charged for a learner's course and providers were asked to return 'Other’ for these instances. The categories 'No fees' and ‘Other’ were therefore combined to create the category ‘Unspecified other funding source or no fees required for course’. This applies to all academic years and both the HESA and ILR data.

The section focuses on learners undertaking OfS-recognised HE (as defined in Annex B of OfS HESES guidance (opens in a new tab)) only. In 2022/23, 1.4% (9,240) of higher-level entrants to OfS-recognised HE were recorded as having an unknown funding source. 

Counts of learners funding their tuition with student loans and Advanced Learner Loans (ALLs) may differ to those published by the Student Loans Company (SLC) (opens in a new tab), because:

  • Any information presented on funding source of tuition fees for OfS-recognised HE in ‘Higher Level Learners in England’ refers to the primary source of tuition fee, whereas SLC data refers to loan funded students who could take out any size of loan.
  • ‘Higher Level Learners in England’ includes learners who may not have met the eligibility criteria (opens in a new tab) for a student loan.
  • The SLC data is an administrative data collection and so has different coverage and collection methodology compared to that recorded by providers in the ILR and HESA.

A small minority of ‘other higher-level learners’ have student loans reported as their primary source of tuition fee, which we believe is due to recording errors in the HESA and ILR data collection processes. Those receiving a Master's Loan (opens in a new tab) are not reported as having a student loan as their primary source of tuition fee funding in this data. Unlike for undergraduate loans, money is paid directly to individual learners themselves and providers do not receive the student loans funding directly.

Age 

Age refers to the learner’s age at the start of the academic year. A very small number of learners are recorded with an unknown age. Percentages presented in the publication are based on learners where age is known. 

Sex 

Percentages are based on learners where sex is known. ‘Other’ sex can be recorded in the HESA record, but is not collected in the ILR. 

To align with HESA and the ILR, this publication refers to the legal sex of the learner, as opposed to the gender with which they identify. 

In 2022/23, some HE providers appeared to have returned one of the new codes ‘Information Refused’ and ‘Not Available’ for students previously returned as 'Other' in their HESA student data. For this reason it was not deemed appropriate to publish these categories separately and they have therefore been aggregated with 'Other' to create 'Other/unknown' for all academic years in this release. This combined category is excluded from percentage calculations.  

Ethnicity

Some learners are recorded as having unknown ethnicity. In 2023/24, 3.0% (24,960) of learners entering all types of higher-level study were recorded as having unknown ethnicity. Percentages presented in the publication are based on learners where ethnicity is known.

Between 2021/22 and 2022/23, HESA reported a large increase in the amount of missing ethnicity data at English providers for students whose permanent address is in the UK. HESA used student level ethnicity data from the previous year (if available) to fill in ethnicity gaps for continuing students at providers in England and Wales. Last year, the same methodology was applied for this publication, using previous ethnicity information from HESA for continuing students to fill gaps.

While the ethnicity reporting rate has been improved in the revised version of the 2022/23 HESA data used in this publication, the same imputation methodology has been applied to ensure a more robust reporting rate.

Disability

Disability is based on the learners own self-assessment and includes those with learning difference such as dyslexia, dyspraxia or AD(H)D. There are differences in the coding frameworks for disability in ILR (opens in a new tab) and HESA (opens in a new tab) records which may have a slight impact on comparability across the types of higher-level learning.

From 2022/23, providers submitting data to HESA are able to return up to nine different disabilities for each student, where previously students with multiple disabilities would be coded under the more general 'Two or more impairments and/or disabling medical condition'. Providers are expected to re-survey their continuing students and update their disability information where appropriate. Caution is advised when comparing disability data across the time series.

Region of domicile and Index of Multiple Deprivation

Region of domicile and Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) quintile have been derived from the location of the learner’s permanent home address before starting their course. In 2023/24, around 490 entrants to higher-level learning were known to have a permanent address in England but did not have specific address listed, therefore their region of domicile is not able to be determined. The percentages in this publication are based on learners where region of domicile is known.

Over the last two academic years, HESA have reported a larger amount of missing permanent address information at a number of providers. Some of the missing data related to continuing students for whom it was not possible to retrieve the information from the legacy submissions. Other missing data may be attributed to missing entry information.

The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) data are produced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The latest English indices of deprivation were published on 26 September 2019 (opens in a new tab). 

Equivalent or Lower Qualification (ELQ) status

Access to student finance can be impacted by whether the relevant course is at the same level or below the level of an award the learner already holds. This is determined by the Equivalent or Lower Qualification (ELQ) status.  This information is derived for OfS-recognised HE learners only as prior qualifications are less well recorded on entry to other learning types.

Some learners are recorded as having unknown qualification on entry status and this occurs more often at different levels of learning. In 2023/24, 9.6% of OfS-recognised HE entrants were recorded as having an unknown ELQ status. However, 15.4% of level 4 and 21.8% of level 5 entrants had an unknown ELQ status compared to 4.4% for level 7. These differences are due to FEPs being more likely to report incomplete entry qualification data to the ILR. To allow for meaningful comparisons across learning types, the percentages in this publication are based on learners where ELQ status is known. Caution should be applied when interpreting these statistics due to the high level of unknowns.

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Disclosure control

The Code of Practice for Official Statistics (opens in a new tab) requires DfE to take reasonable steps to ensure that its published or disseminated statistics protect confidentiality. 

Throughout the publication, all numbers are rounded to the nearest 5 to preserve confidentiality. Percentages are calculated on pre-rounded data but are not published if they are fractions of a small group of people (fewer than 22.5). 

Due to rounding, it is possible that the sum of the category percentages may not always total to 100%. 

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Help and support

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Higher Level Learners in England statistics and data:

HE Participation and Provider Statistics Team

Email: he.statistics@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Louis Erritt

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Telephone: 020 7783 8300

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