HESA & EDI Information Update

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is the UK's official agency for the collection, analysis, and dissemination of quantitative information about higher education. Established in 1993, HESA collects comprehensive data from all higher education institutions (HEIs) in the UK. This data supports policy-making, funding decisions, and public accountability. The data spans various aspects of higher education, including student enrolment, staff demographics, financial statistics, and institutional performance.

Why is the HESA Data Important?

Funding and Resource Allocation: Accurate HESA data is essential for government bodies and funding agencies to allocate resources and funding appropriately. Ensuring our data is accurate means our institution receives the necessary funding based on our staffing needs and characteristics
Enhancing Reputation and Rankings: Prospective students, staff, and partners often review HESA data to assess the institution's reputation, diversity, and academic quality. Many university rankings rely on HESA data, influencing the institution's position and attractiveness
Policy Development and Compliance: HESA data shapes higher education policies at the national level and ensures our compliance with statutory requirements and national standards, which is crucial for maintaining our university's reputation and eligibility for grants and accreditations
Institutional Planning and Benchmarking: The staff record return allows us to benchmark against other institutions, identify trends, and pinpoint areas for improvement and strategic development
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI): The data aids in monitoring and promoting EDI within our workforce, helping to identify gaps and implement measures to create a more inclusive working environment, enhancing staff satisfaction and performance
Public Accountability and Transparency: Providing transparent and accurate data upholds the integrity and public accountability of our institution, building trust with stakeholders, including current and prospective staff, students, and the wider community

Find out more about HESA

1. From the HOME page, navigate to your profile. Your profile can be accessed in two locations (marked in yellow):

“View profile” on the left-hand side.
“My profile” on the right-hand side.

2. Under your profile, there are three sections: Personal, Employment, and Talent displayed on the top bar.

3. In the EMPLOYMENT folder, you will find “My employment,” “Visa details,” and “Additional employment details.” Scroll down to find the “HESA Details” (marked with no.3). Click on “View or amend HESA details.”

4. The HESA Details refer to different aspects. The following fields need to be reviewed and updated:

ORCID Identifier:
- This field is for staff members with a research background.
Disability:
- You can select up to 9 different disabilities from the list provided.
Employment:
- Please fill in previous employment details if you are a new starter (started in the last 12 months).
Highest Qualification Held:
- Located under the “Qualifications and Awards” sub-unit. Click on the left arrow to display the list of options.
- Once you update your information, you must send a copy of your qualification Certificate to HR@beds.ac.uk.
Academic Teaching Qualification:
- Click on the left arrow to display the list of options.
- You can select up to 6 items. If one is selected by mistake, use the “x” sign to remove it.
- Once you update your information, you must send a copy of your Fellowship Certificate to HR@beds.ac.uk
- Please check the guidance on how to view and update your details on My Advance HE.

Once you have reviewed and updated your details, please press the SAVE button. A confirmation message will pop up.

Please contact trent@beds.ac.uk if any of the information is incorrect but is in a read-only field and you would like us to update the details.

Guidance for Fellows on updating Employment Relationships

1.1 Your Fellowship record and your My Advance HE Account

You can view your fellowship record via your My Advance HE Account.

If you have a My Advance HE account that you know how to access, please follow the steps below:

Go to My Advance HE
Click on Log In in the main menu.
Enter your email address and password and log in.
Click on My Profile in the top menu.
Click on My Certificates.
You will be able to see your most recent fellowship award and request the certificate. The certificate contains your certification number.

1.2 Your Employer Relationship in your My Advance HE account

In your My Advance HE account there is an Employer Relationship record. We use this record to provide your institution with a HESA report on the number of fellows employed with them during each academic year.

We ask you to keep your Employer Relationship information up to date, so that your fellowship record appears in the university's HESA return for the relevant academic year.

Click on My Profile
Click on Update Profile
Scroll down to Employer Relationship
Enter an end date for your previous employer and click Submit
Click Create new employer relationship, select your current employer and click Submit

1.3 What to do if you do not have a My Advance HE account, or cannot access it

Go to the Advance HE webform
Complete the webform with as many details as possible to help us locate your original account. These include:
- the email address you had when you were awarded, or any previous email addresses for you that we might have on our system
- previous employer
- name, middle name and surname (if you have changed your name, please provide your previous name as well)
- your fellowship reference This could be either a five-digit code if you gained fellowship through the Institute for Learning and Teaching in HE, or a six-digit number code with a prefix of ‘PR’
- category of fellowship
- date /year awarded;
- employer when you were awarded

Equality monitoring is a key process that will enable us to successfully improve equality and inclusion policies and practices, develop and deliver of an Equality and Inclusion Action Plan and conduct Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs). The equality monitoring data assists us to identify positive and negative trends within our organisation and is particularly relevant to understanding any potential disparities in:

Staff recruitment, selection and retention
Staff progression
Staff development opportunities
Take up of staff support services by diverse groups
Complaints

Equality monitoring will help identify areas where more work is required to ensure our University staff composition reflects the local and national communities and our the diversity of our student community.

It is completely the individual's choice as to whether they choose to disclose information (except for age and sex which is required for payroll and pension information) and you'll find many categories provide the option to select 'Prefer not to say'. Data is kept confidentially and is protected by the Data Protection Act 2018. When diversity data is analysed and published, it is not on an individual level. The Equality Act public sector duty guidance recognises and respects this good practice.

Why is monitoring required?

Higher education institutions have a legal duty to collect, analyse and monitor equality data
To assist the University in providing an accurate picture of the diversity of its population and achievements
To assist with good practice by proving or disproving any myths about any minority group or its achievements
To meet requirement of external agencies such as providing data sets to the Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA)
To aid the completion of Equality Impact Assessments

The benefits of monitoring

To inform and improve policy and practice for staff and students
To identify gaps or where there is under-representation
To assist with measuring the quality of experience for diverse staff and students
To enable programmes of positive action
To ensure implementation of good practices
To inform management and assist with objective decision making
To support institutional strategies

Find out 10 reasons why you should feel comfortable declaring your personal information at the University of Bedfordshire

1. From the HOME page, navigate to your profile. Your profile can be accessed in two locations (marked in yellow):

- “View profile” on the left-hand side.
- “My profile” on the right-hand side.

2. Under your profile, there are three sections: Personal, Employment, and Talent located on the top bar.

3. In the PERSONAL folder, next to "Personal details," you will find "Confidential information" (listed on the right side), which includes the "Sensitive information" needed (marked with no.3).

4. Each of them is a single choice, but the last one, “disability,” requires a description if you select “disabled.”

5. Additional Fields: We would also like you to provide us with information on Caring Responsibility.

6. Once you have amended all the details, please press the SAVE button. A confirmation message will pop up.

Please contact trent@beds.ac.uk if any of the information is incorrect but is in a read-only field and you would like us to update the details.

If you have any observations or suggestions then please do provide your feedback to the People & Culture Systems team via trent@beds.ac.uk

Why is HESA data important?

How to amend your HESA personal record

Guidance from Advance HE for Fellows on viewing and updating records on My Advance HE

Guidance for Fellows on updating Employment Relationships

1.1 Your Fellowship record and your My Advance HE Account

1.2 Your Employer Relationship in your My Advance HE account

1.3 What to do if you do not have a My Advance HE account, or cannot access it

Importance of EDI data

How to amend your sensitive information

Contact us