Student outcomes and excellence

What was this consultation about?

Our consultation on data looked at how we construct and use measurable information to assess a university or college's performance. We refer to the information we calculate as ‘indicators’.

The proposals in this consultation deal with technical matters of data definitions and statistical methods. 

We want to construct data to show:

• the proportion of students continuing on a higher education course 
• the proportion of students completing a higher education qualification 
• the proportion of students progressing to managerial or professional employment, or further study
• the proportion of students receiving an excellent academic experience.

In addition to showing indicators for student outcomes overall, ‘split indicators’ would show performance for different student demographic characteristics and types of courses. For example: subject study, sex, ethnicity, age, and disability.

Proposals of most interest to students

We were particularly interested to hear what you think about:

• the ways in which we propose to break down our data by modes and levels of study as well as student and course characteristics
• whether the range of student groups our indicators will report on are relevant and and useful for the ways in which you might use the information we propose to publish each year
• how we define positive and negative outcomes for students in relation to our measures
• whether the visual presentation of the data dashboards is understandable and whether the information we plan to make available is useful.