The data collected in the Higher Education Students Forecast 2020-21 (HESF20) survey provides a forecast of the number of students on higher education courses recognised for OfS funding purposes who are expected to be studying in the academic year 2020-21 and will inform the initial allocation of teaching funds for the academic year 2020-21.
This return is for higher education providers that:
- have registered (or applied to be registered) with the OfS in the Approved (fee cap) category
- do not have higher education provision recognised for OfS funding purposes in 2019-20
- will offer higher education provision recognised for OfS funding purposes in 2020-21.
HESF20 guidance
Our HESF20 guidance document sets out the requirements for the HESF20 return.
View the guidance
Two appendices to the HESF20 guidance are available:
- Appendix 1 provides further guidance on how to download and submit a HESF20 workbook
- Appendix 2 describes the validation checks applied to the data entered into the workbook.
Important dates in the HESF20 process
Providers may be asked to complete HESF20 at any point in the 2019-20 academic year. However, to allow grant allocations to be calculated in time for the spring 2020 grant announcement, we will work towards the following key dates:
| From late October 2019 |
HESF20 workbooks available to providers via the OfS portal |
| Noon, 10 December 2019 |
Deadline for providers to return HESF data |
| 4 February 2020 |
HESF20 data must be signed off by the provider’s accountable officer as being a realistic forecast of the student numbers that the provider will have in 2020-21 |
