This newly developed and specially designed system enables all UK HE institutions to share their international student numbers, to eliminate the waiting time currently experienced for access to such data.

You can submit your data to a secure website and then access all participating institutions' data using an on-line data mining tool.

Since the launch of this project in March 2008, over 30 HE institutions have submitted their 2007 / 2008 student numbers and been given access to the on-line data mining tool.

From 1 December 2008, institutions will have the opportunity to submit their 2008 / 2009 international student data and have access to all the participating institutions' data before HESA have published the 2007 / 2008 figures.

Submit your data
The process for submitting your data is very simple. Instructions on what to submit and how to do this can be found on the dedicated early reporting website:

https://secure.britishcouncilstats.org/he

The site uses a secure server, so all uploaded data is protected. Institutions that wish to remain anonymous in the data tables may do so, but will only be able to access composite information.

You can also contact the Education Market Intelligence team, who will be happy to talk you through the submission process.

Access the data
Access to the data is only available to institutions that have submitted their own data. A data mining tool is provided that enables you to cross-tabulate fields, build charts and export the data to Microsoft Excel spreadsheets:

http://www.britishcouncilstats.org/he/ui

Project development
The British Council, through the Education UK Partnership, has worked with Universities UK to develop this, the sector's first on-line international student data early reporting system. The project was initiated as a response to requests from colleagues in the sector for national data on international students to be available much earlier than is currently available through HESA (which is published some 18 months after students enrol). Earlier access to such data is of the highest importance to the sector and will allow more accurate monitoring of market trends and recruitment results.

In response to these requests, the British Council set up a working party in September 2007 involving representatives from fifteen universities to discuss a mechanism to enable data to be gathered and analysed within a much shorter timeframe. These representatives worked together to develop a specification for the project using data fields already used in the December HESES return.

The project was launched in March 2008 and a letter was sent by Universities UK to all UK higher education institutions (34KB) detailing instructions for the data collection and the technical specification.

The project was introduced at two workshops that took place in May 2008. A presentation given at the workshops about the project is available.

Participating institutions
The following institutions have submitted their 2007 / 2008 data so far and are able to access to the on-line data mining tool:

1. University of Wales Aberystwyth
2. University of Wales Bangor
3. The University of Bath
4. Bournemouth University
5. The University of Brighton
6. Canterbury Christ Church University
7. University of Durham
8. Edge Hill University
9. University of Glamorgan
10. The University of Glasgow
11. University of Gloucestershire
12. Guildhall School of Music & Drama
13. The University of Huddersfield
14. Kingston University
15. The University of Wales Lampeter
16. The University of Lancaster
17. The University of Leeds
18. The University of Liverpool
19. London South Bank University
20. The University of Manchester
21. University College Northampton
22. The University of Northumbria at Newcastle
23. The University of Nottingham
24. Oxford Brookes University
25. University of London Queen Mary
26. The University of Reading
27. The Robert Gordon University
28. The School of Oriental and African Studies
29. The University of Southampton
30. The University of Teesside
31. The University of Warwick
32. The University of York