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Edition: 17 February 2003
E.2 SCOPE OF THE COURSE REGISTRATIONS FILE
2.1 General principles
The Course
Registrations File is to contain records for the courses
which meet all these criteria:
(a) The
course was being undertaken in respect of a student/qualification for which
data are reported in some record in the Student File
which is submitted at the same time as the Course Registration File.
(b) The
effective registration in the
course was current some time between
1 January in the Collection Year
and 31 December in the Collection Year.
(c) The
census date for the course was between 1
January and 31 December of the Collection Year.
Where there was an effective registration in
a course of the type defined above and it was terminated for any reason by
either the student or the institution (e.g. completion of the course; discontinuation by
the institution) a record for the course is still to be included in the file.
2.2 Number of records in the Course
Registrations File
The number of records
in the Course Registrations File will normally be equal to or (usually) greater
than the number of records in the Student File which
is submitted at the same time as this file.
For each record in the Student File there
will normally be a set of one or (usually) more than one related records in the
Course Registrations File. The set of
records will report data for each course
in which there was an effective registration by the student in respect of
the student's qualification. For example, if a student undertaking a
particular qualification was effectively registered in six courses for that qualification in the collection
period, there will be a set of six or more related records in the Course
Registrations File. There would be more
than six records if the student repeated a course in the Collection Year.
Usually there will be more than one record in
the set, because most students will have been effectively registered in the
collection period in more than one course for their qualification.
In rare cases while there will be a record in
the Student File, there will not be any matching record in the Course
Registrations File. This will occur when
all these conditions apply:
(a) in the collection year the student has an effective registration in a
qualification at the reporting institution,
(b) in the collection year they do not have an effective registration in a course
at the institution for that qualification, and
(c) the reporting institution has determined that the student
has completed the
requirements of the qualification in the collection year, through its
recognition of work undertaken for another qualification or work undertaken
outside the reporting institution.
Condition (c) could occur for example where
completion of the requirements of the reporting institution's qualification has
been achieved through work undertaken in another institution.
2.3 Elements to be reported in the Course
Registrations File
The elements for
which data are to be reported in the Course Registrations File are listed in
the section describing the structure
of the flat ASCII files to be prepared by institutions.
Of particular importance is Element 032 (Course completion status). In the first submission of
the file, the reporting of a substantive value (i.e. depicting the real completion
status for the course is not required.
Any values reported will be ignored by the Department and not loaded to
the National database. However, in the
second and (if submitted) the third submission of the Course Registrations
File, substantive values must be reported for Element 032 (Course completion
status), as determined at dates specified below.
If a student repeats a course in the Collection Year then there will be more
than one record pertaining to that course.
The records will be distinguished through the code entered for Element 064 (Course repeat code). The records may have different codes for Element 032 (Course completion status): in one record the code for Element 032 could
indicate a "fail" status, and in the other record, a
"completed" status. However, the
codes would be the same if the student failed both attempts at the course or
withdrew from the course on both occasions.
The code entered for Element 064 (Course repeat code)code is to be used to distinguish repeat undertaking of the
work for a course, not the repeat undertaking of the examination for a
course. Therefore if a student is
undertaking a supplementary examination then this should not lead to the
existence of a second record relating to that course
If a student undertook a course on only one
occasion in the Collection Year, but sat the examination twice, there would be
only one record pertaining to this course.
The data in records
in the Course Registrations File will be linked in the National database to
data in records in the Student File through Element
007 (Student number) concatenated with Element
001 (Qualification code). This
relationship is described in section 1.4
in the description of the scope for the Student File.
Data in the Course Registrations File will
also linked in the National database to data in records in the Credit Value File through Element
001 (Qualification code) concatenated with Element
030 (Course code). There will be a
"one to many" relationship between records
in the Credit Value File and records in the Course Registrations File. This means that there will be only one record
in the Credit Value File having a particular value for Element 001
(Qualification code) concatenated with Element 030 (Course code), but there can
be (and usually will be) a number of records in the Course Registrations File
having that value. There will be more
than one such record in the Course Registrations File where a particular
qualification/course combination is undertaken by a number of students.
The data in records in the Course
Registrations File will also be linked in the National database to data in
records in the Qualification File through Element 001 (Qualification code). There will be a "one to
many" relationship between records in the Qualification File and records
in the Course Registrations File. This
means that there will be only one record in the Qualification File having a
particular value for Element 001 (Qualification code) but there can be (and
usually will be) a number of records in the Course Registrations File having
that value for Element 001 (Qualification code). There will be more than one such record in
the Course Registrations File where a qualification is being undertaken by more
than one student (as will usually be the case), or one student is undertaking a
number of courses (as will often be the case).
The data in records in the Course
Registrations File will also be linked in the National database to data in
records in the Course File through Element 030 (Course code) . There will be a "one to
many" relationship between records in the Course File and records in the
Course Registrations File. This means
that there will be only one record in the Course File having a particular value
for Element 030 (Course code) but there can be (and usually will be) a number
of records in the Course Registrations File having that value for Element 030
(Course code). There will be more than
one such record in the Course Registrations File where a course is being
undertaken by more than one student (as will usually be the case).
2.5 Submissions of the Course
Registrations File
There will be at
least two, and possibly three submissions of the
Course Registrations File:
|
SUB-MISSION NUMBER |
CONTENTS |
CURRENCY OF DATA TO BE REPORTED |
SUBMISSION DATE FOR COLLECTION YEAR |
|
1
(mandatory submission) |
Substantive
data for all elements except Element 032 (Course
completion status) |
Effective course registrations that are current some time
between 1 January in the Collection
Year and 15 September in the Collection Year. |
A
letter will be sent out to Institutions with the submission dates |
|
2
(mandatory submission) |
Substantive
data for all elements including Element 032 (Course completion status) |
Effective
course registrations that are current some time
between 1 January in the Collection Year and 31 December in the Collection
Year, and with Submission 1 data corrected if required (as explained below). |
A
letter will be sent out to Institutions with the submission dates |
|
Data
for Element 032 (Course completion status) as at 31 March in the year after
the Collection Year. |
|||
|
3
(mandatory submission) Final audited data. |
Substantive
data for all elements including Element 032 (Course completion status) |
Effective
qualification registrations: Same
scope as for Submission 2, and with Submission 2
data corrected if required (as explained below). |
A
letter will be sent out to Institutions with the submission dates |
|
Data
for Element 032 (Course completion status) as at 15 July in the year after
the Collection Year. |
The number of submissions of the Course
Registrations File will be the same as the number of submissions for the Student File.
The dates for the submissions will be the
same as the dates on which the Student File submissions are made.
The first submission file will report
substantive data for all elements in the Course
Registrations File except Element 032
(Course completion status).
The second submission file will be a copy of
the records in the first submission file with the following changes:
(a) Inclusion
of additional records which were inadvertently omitted from the first
submission file.
(b) Deletion
of any records which should not have been included in the first submission
file.
(c) Updating
of any incorrect information for elements reported in the first submission
file.
(d) Inclusion
of any effective course
registrations that have been made in the period 16 September to 31 December
of the Collection Year.
(e) Provision
of substantive data for Element 032 (Course completion status) (see the Data Element Dictionary for the base elements) as
determined as determined up to 31 March in the year after the Collection Year.
The third submission file will only need to be
provided if there is a third submission Student File. In that case this file will be a copy of the
records in the second submission file, with the following changes:
(a) Inclusion
of additional records for entries which were inadvertently omitted from the
second submission file.
(b) Deletion
of any records which should not have been included in the second submission
file.
(c) Updating
of any incorrect information for elements reported in the second submission
file.
(d) Updating
of information provided for Element 032
(Course completion status) in the second submission file as determined up to 30
June in the year after the Collection
Year.