A glossary of terms to help you understand our facts and figures.
Academic employment function
A HESA field relating to staff with academic contracts. Categories are divided according to whether the contract is ‘teaching only’, ‘research only’ (no more than six hours of teaching per week), ‘teaching and research’, and neither teaching nor research.
For more information, visit HESA's website.
Cost centre
Cost centres are a financial concept which groups staff members to categories of spending. They enable analysis between the student, staff and finance streams. The cost centre groups are separate to the JACS/HECoS codes and are therefore non-comparable.
The breadth of elements used in cost centres aim to replicate the way in which resources (including staff) can be split over multiple courses, and the differences in the way individual higher education providers allocate them.
For more information, visit HESA's website.
Domicile
A student’s permanent country of residence. This differs from nationality.
Entry rate
The number of university entrants divided by the estimated base population.
FTE
Full-time equivalent. Used to include both full-time and part-time students or staff in a measure when a simple headcount would be misleading.
HESA
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is the designated data body for English higher education, and works with higher education providers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to provide data to each nation’s designated funding and regulatory bodies.
High-skill employment
Occupations at this level are generally termed ‘professional’ or ‘managerial’ positions and are found in corporate enterprises or governments. Occupations include senior government officials, financial managers, scientists, engineers, medical doctors, teachers and accountants.
Knowledge exchange activities
Activities that bring together academic staff, users of research and wider groups and communities to exchange ideas, evidence and expertise. Information on knowledge exchange activities is collected by HESA through their Higher Education Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey.
For more information, visit HESA's website.
Level of study
Whether a student studies at undergraduate or postgraduate level. With these groupings, there are other levels such as ‘first degree’, ‘other undergraduate’, ‘postgraduate (research)’ and ‘postgraduate (taught)’.
For more information, visit HESA's website.
Mode of study
Whether a student studies full-time or part-time.
Nationality
The legal nationality of staff. For more information, visit HESA's website.
POLAR4
Participation of Local Areas (POLAR) is a widening participation measure which classifies local areas or ‘wards’ into five groups, based on the proportion of 18-year-olds who enter higher education aged 18 or 19 years old.
These groups range from quintile 1 areas, with the lowest young participation (most disadvantaged), up to quintile 5 areas with the highest rates (most advantaged).
Professorial staff
HESA codes each staff contract. Professor level is defined as ‘senior academic appointments which may carry the title of professor, but which do not have departmental line management responsibilities’. Other senior contracts include leadership and management responsibilities. These contracts may also be held by people who hold the title of professor.
It is likely that the methodology undercounts the number of professors because many will fall into more senior levels, eg heads of department.
SIMD
The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation for 2016 is a widening participation measure that identifies small areas of multiple deprivation across Scotland and classifies them into five groups. These groups range from quintile 1 – areas identified as the most disadvantaged, to quintile 5 – areas identified as the most advantaged.