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What exactly are Key Information Sets?

Posted: Friday, 16th December 2011

From September 2012, Key Information Sets – or KIS data - will be introduced by the Government to allow easy course-by-course comparisons across the University sector.

The information will be published widely at subject level by HEFCE and individually by each university alongside the course information - the overall information maps to HESA course codes.

The University has set up a KIS steering group under Ian Roberts, Director of Recruitment and Admissions which has produced the following Q&A for staff.

What is in the KIS?

The KIS will contain areas of information that students have identified as potentially useful in comparing courses, and includes the following

  • Student satisfaction
  • Course information
  • Employment and salary data
  • Accommodation costs
  • Financial information, such as fees
  • Students' union information.

Who must complete this?

  • Every UK University with undergraduate courses, full-time and part-time, which are running in 2013/14, must have a full set of KIS data from the nearest year.
  • There are some minor exceptions to the provision, however, for MMU we will be providing this data on the vast majority of our course portfolio.

Why is this important?

  • The government believes that KIS data published at a course level, along with the NSS and other University wide league tables will enable prospective students and their advisors to compare and contrast subjects using benchmarks.
  • The data will be widely published on central and other websites, in addition to the MMU site – the intention is that the data is updated annually.
  • We are aware that several commercial organisations are developing services which will use the KIS data to try and compare and contrast courses and institutions.

What are the timescales?

  • A project group has been working on our approach to KIS data collation since September 2011 – much of the data will be aggregated from existing sources (NSS, DLHE, and HESA).
  • The data needs to be delivered to HEFCE in the correct format during March 2012.
  • It will then be available for review by each university until July 2012.
  • The data will start being publicised to prospective students from September 2012.

How does this involve me?

  • The project team will be in touch with programme leaders in early January, to discuss some specific data requirements for each course area.
  • More information and updates on KIS will follow in the coming weeks.

If you need to contact the KIS Working Group, please contact Ian Roberts on x2189

More information:

Contributed by
Gareth Hollyman · find this person in the Staff Directory

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