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(Q) CIRCULARS
HIGHER
EDUCATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
CIRCULAR 1:
2002
The Department has taken the following decisions to resolve a range of
issues, which have arisen in recent HEMIS student reporting:
The
final data for the third submission of student data for a given year has been
extended to 31 July of the following year.
Some institutions have academic years, which extend across more than one
calendar year. The Department has decided that a reporting year and an academic
year must, for HEMIS purposes, be a calendar year. This has the following
implications:
2.1 A student can be reported as
registered in reporting year n only if (s)he is
registered for a course whose census date falls into the calendar year n. For
example, if students register for course X during year n-1, then if X’s census
date is in year n, the registration of these students must be reported, for
HEMIS purposes, in year n and not year n-1.
2.2 If the supplementary or final
examinations for this course X are held in calendar year n+1, then the
registration of its students must not be “rolled-over” in an automatic way into
year n+1. The institution must include the results of these examinations in
either the second or third submissions of student data for year n. If these examination processes cannot be
completed before the final date for third submissions, then the students in
course X must be registered “for examination purposes only” in year n+1, and
their completion status must be recorded in a submission for year n+1 (for more
details see 3 below).
Some institutions permit students to register for courses “for
examination purposes” only. This implies that these students receive no
instruction (eg attend no classes, submit no
assignments) and only write the final examinations in the courses. The “examination only” indicator must be used
in such circumstances, which implies that if any student is taking no other
courses, then (s)he will not appear in the institution’s head count or FTE
enrolled student totals, but will appear only in
degree credit totals (ie passed FTE totals). Students
writing supplementary examinations should not be coded as examinations only
students, since supplementary examinations have to be considered to be part of
the normal registration and examination process.
Some institutions have wanted to exclude a range of students from their
reports of graduates/diplomates, even though these
students have completed all the requirements for their qualifications. These
include students who have fees outstanding and students who have asked for
their graduation to be deferred to a more convenient graduation ceremony. For
purposes of HEMIS reporting, institutional decisions to hold back graduation
information or to permit graduation to be deferred must not delay completion of
HEMIS unit records. As soon as a student has satisfied all the academic
requirements for her/his qualification, institutions must use either (a) the
standard qualification completed code, or (b) a new code reflecting that the
qualification has been completed but that the student has not been informed for
internal institutional reasons. Information on the new code referred to in (b)
will be sent to institutions before the end of 2002.
5 Registration for graduation purposes only
On occasions the final examination of
students who could complete all the requirements of their qualifications in
year n is extended into year n+1. The registration of such students must be
treated in the same way as “examination only” students (see 2.1 and 3 above).
This implies that the registration of potential graduates/diplomates
who were registered in year n and who are waiting for final results must not be
rolled over in an automatic way into year n+1. They must continue to be treated
as year n students, and their completion status must be reported in the second
or third submissions of year n. The
“graduation only” indicator must be used in year n+1 only if the final
examination of any given student has not been finalised
by 31 July of year n+1 (the deadline for third submissions).
6 “Continuous” registrations
Some institutions register students in (say)
year n, and continue the registration of that student into years n+1, n+2, etc,
even though the student does not complete formal acts of registration in n+1,
n+2 and so on. The registration ends only when the student either completes the
qualification or informs the institution that she/he does not wish to
re-register. One effect of this
assumption of “continuous registration” is that the state could, over a number
of years, be paying subsidies to institutions for students who have in effect
dropped out of their programme of studies. A student
must not be included in an institution’s HEMIS submission for a given year
unless she/he has duly completed all institutional registration formalities for
that year. If formal registrations are not completed in a given year, then the
student concerned must be considered to have dropped out of the institution.
The totals of FTE masters
and doctoral students claimed by most technikons have
been too high relative to their head count totals of these students. Technikons appear
to have been using the formal time allowed for masters degrees (1.0) and for
doctoral degrees (2.0) as credit values for each year for which a masters or a
doctoral student is registered. This
practice has led to inflated FTE enrolled student totals being claimed at masters and doctoral levels, with consequential
overpayments of state subsidies to these technikons.
FTE masters and doctoral credits for technikons must in future be calculated in the same ways as
those for universities, and must be subjected in the same way to external
audit. Information on how this should be done can be found in the VALPAC help
files which are part of the HEMIS system.
Some institutions have been permitting students who
have failed courses at level n to repeat these in the following year while
taking level n+1 courses. One effect of this practice
is that substantial numbers of students who are struggling academically are
being permitted to carry loads, which exceed standard full-time curricula. A
further effect is that the full-time equivalent student totals claimed by these
institutions are far higher than those of institutions with comparable academic
programmes and comparable head count student enrolments. Concurrent
registrations of this kind are not acceptable to the Department, and must not
be reported in HEMIS. Adjustments will be made to the subsidy earning totals of
institutions whose FTE totals are inflated because of this practice of
concurrent registrations.
Any person registered for a course which has not been approved for
subsidy purposes cannot be considered to be a student, and cannot therefore be
included in the institution’s HEMIS submission. For HEMIS purposes, a student
is defined as someone who meets the institution’s minimum entry requirements
and who is registered for a subsidisable course on
the census date for that course.
02circularA.doc
8/08/02