Stress of UK student data revamp ‘drove university staff to quit’

UK universities must continue submitting student data three times a year, regulators have insisted, despite a new report highlighting how the chaotic rollout of long-awaited “in-year” data submissions left some staff feeling so overworked and stressed that they quit or retired early.

Until three years ago UK universities were only required to submit data at a single point in the year, with institutions entering up to 202 data points per student for the previous academic year at the end of October.

More than a decade after “in-year” data submissions were first suggested by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in 2011, universities were asked for the first time in 2023 to submit interim submissions in May and August, with full submissions made in October.

The timelier data is intended to benefit decision-making by higher education regulators, aid quality assurance and better inform national statistical models.

However, a report by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) into the Data Futures programme, published on 29 January, highlights how the scheme’s first year was beset by difficulties, with many universities missing both the May and October deadlines despite several extensions being granted.

Thirty universities were still submitting data until the final deadline of 30 April 2024 – six months late, explains the PwC report, which found that only 58 per cent of institutions returned data on time despite being given a three-week extension into November 2023.

According to the independent review, the first data collection exercise in 2023 “required a very substantial increase in the time committed by institutional data teams to the data collection exercise relative to previous years”.

“Many of the institutions we spoke to report[ed] both extensive overtime and weekend working within their teams, and challenges in recruitment to fill capacity gaps,” it continues, stating institutions had also indicated that “members of their team had chosen to move into other roles at the institution, leave the sector altogether, went on long-term sickness absence or retired early as a result of their experiences”.

Many of these challenges related to the changing requirements of the Data Futures programme over its eight-year lifespan, with the initial launch planned for 2019-20 delayed for three years, in which time the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) merged with Jisc, with the new body taking over the project.

“These changes have caused substantial challenges to delivery of the Data Futures programme – specifically reducing sector confidence and engagement as well as resulting in a compressed timeline for software development,” the PwC report explains, adding that this “required ongoing development work and associated testing to be completed by Jisc, before being implemented by institutions and student records system providers in their data reporting”.

Around the time of submissions, “many institutions had to increase staff numbers in the teams completing the returns (generally within registry, planning or IT) and many staff members increased the number of hours worked each week, with staff finding the additional volume of ‘errors’ to be fixed overwhelming”, the report says, a situation which “resulted in staff workloads increasing [and] considerable overtime worked, which led to high stress levels.”

“This was true in all of the organisations involved in the Data Futures programme, including teams at institutions [and] Jisc,” the report adds, with the Hesa liaison team receiving over 39,000 messages between the start of October 2023 and the start of December 2023 – an average of 437 conversations per day.

“Several institutions talked about teams not being able to take holidays over the summer period due to the volume of work to be delivered,” says the report, which notes that the “need for additional staff, late working hours, and the pressure of user acceptance testing highlights the hidden costs and stress associated with the programme, both at institutions and at Jisc”.

In addition, “a key question is whether in-year collection is necessary in order for the overall benefits of the programme to be realised”, it adds.

Nonetheless, in a joint statement, the Office for Students, Medr, the Scottish Funding Council and the Department for the Economy for Northern Ireland said they intended to persist with the project, while acknowledging that the “rollout of Data Futures has been very challenging for the sector, individual institutions and some individuals”.

“Despite the initial challenges of the Data Futures programme, having the right data, at the right time and in the right way is essential to enable higher education institutions to operate effectively. It also contributes to robust and timely regulation that ensures any interventions have a positive and meaningful impact on student outcomes,” the regulators said.

“So, after careful consideration, we intend to take forward the collection of in-year student data. We will work in partnership with the higher education sector to test ideas and to minimise the impact of the technical development required.

“However, institutions will need to ensure they have adequate systems in place to record and submit their student data on time, and we want to work with Jisc and the sector to enable this to happen effectively.”

Heidi Fraser-Krauss, Jisc’s chief executive, said the independent review had highlighted “key learnings and reflections from what all stakeholders agree was a challenging project”.

“Following the Data Futures programme, significant progress has been made to standardise the collection of student data. We look forward to continuing to work with partners across the sector to deliver improvements to data collection across higher education, supporting institutional planning and improving student outcomes,” she said.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com