HESA Continuation and Non-continuation following year of entry (Table T3a) for University of Glasgow Students

The University of Glasgow (UofG), and universities in the UK, return student data to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data each year to cover the reporting period from 1 July to 31 August. 

This allows for consistent comparison between UK institutions.  For non-continuation data the publicly available data is available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/performance-indicators/non-continuation/table-t3 (a full description of the methodology is provided here). This provides information on UK domiciled full-time first degree undergraduate entrants who remained or left Higher Education (HE) within 50 days of commencement at HE providers at University Level only. 

However, HESA data is not available in year and therefore the data provided in year, uses an in-house methodology (Method 1) which differs from the HESA Methodology (Method 2) and results in considerably higher numbers and consequently is not comparable.

In summary, the main difference in the populations between Method 1 and Method 2 are that Method 1 (in-house) is looking at all levels (Undergraduate (UG), Postgraduate Taught (PGT), (Postgraduate Research (PGR)) and modes (full-time, part-time) from all Years of Program 1 to 5 and all domiciles; whereas Method 2 (HESA) only looks at UK domiciled full-time first degree undergraduate entrants as described in full detail in the table below: 

Category

Method 1*

In-house in year methodology for non-continuation provided for this FOI

Method 2

HESA Table T3 methodology for non-continuation

In summary

All domiciles, all modes (full-time and part-time), all levels (Undergraduate and Postgraduate) students (all years) who left UofG at the date specified by the FOI request

HESA Standard Registration UK domiciled full-time First Degree Undergraduate entrants students who are active on an undergraduate course at the same HEP or another HE the year after they entered and have not left within 50 days of the anniversary of commencement are considered to have continued.

Population

Plan is HESA Reportable, Career not equal to EXTN, CAMPUS is either Main or Dumfries, Withdrawal Date is Empty or after Start of Term and not in the Aggregate Offshore return.

HESA Standard Registration Population

Withdrawal Date

The student left UofG by the date specified in the FOI or, if not supplied, the date the FOI was compiled. 

Students who are active on an undergraduate course at the same HEP the year after they entered and have not left within 50 days of the anniversary of commencement are considered to have continued. Those counted as having transferred to another UK HE are also counted as continued.

Academic Term

1 August to 31 July

1 August to 31 July

Domicile

All domiciles

UK only

Level

All levels (Undergraduate, Postgraduate Taught and Postgraduate Research)

Undergraduate First Degree only

New or continuing students

All Years of Program 1 to 5

New in Year of Program 1 who never continued at the university the following year

The HESA data is naturally behind the current academic session.  This is because, in order for HESA to calculate the continuation and non-continuation of students from 2020-21 into 2021-22, for example, they would need the Student Returns for both of those years.  All universities in the UK supply the previous academic year's data by October each year.  Then HESA normally issues their analysis of this in February of the following year.  Therefore this means that:

  • The 2020-21 into 2021-22 data is due on HESA's website ~February 2023. 

To follow is a breakdown of the most recent years available for non-continuation:

University of Glasgow UK domiciled full-time first degree undergraduate entrants who left Higher Education (HE) within 50 days of commencement at HE providers

Continuing from
Year to Year

Headcounts*
Total Entrants

Headcounts*
No longer in HE

Percentage*
No longer in HE

2019-20 into
2020-21

3,625

120

3.3%

2018-19 into
2019-20

3,730 

180 

4.8% 

2017-18 into
2018-19

3,825

250

6.5% 

2016-17 into
2017-18

3,760

220

5.8%

2015-16 into
2016-17

3,635

190

5.2%

2014-15 into
2015-16

3,475 

165 

4.8% 

Source: HESA table T3 non-continuation https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/performance-indicators/non-continuation/table-t3

*HESA headcounts are rounded to the nearest 5.  The percentage calculation is based on the actual headcounts, rather than the rounded ones.