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, nearly 50 HE institutions have submitted their student numbers and been given access to the on-line data mining tool.

From 1 December 2009, institutions will have the opportunity to submit their 2009 / 2010 international student data and gain early access to data from all other participating institutions. HESA do not plan to release the official 2009 / 2010 data until February 2011.

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 data so far and are able to access to the on-line data mining tool:

1. The University of Bath
2. Bath Spa University
3. Birmingham City University
4. Bournemouth University
5. The University of Brighton
6. Cardiff University
7. University of Durham
8. Edge Hill University
9. The University of Edinburgh
10. The University of Exeter
11. University of Glamorgan
12. The University of Glasgow
13. Glasgow Caledonian University
14. University of Gloucestershire
15. Goldsmiths College
16. Guildhall School of Music & Drama
17. The University of Huddersfield
18. Kingston University
19. The University of Lancaster
20. The University of Leeds
21. The University of Liverpool
22. University College London
23. University of London (Central Institutes and activities)
24. London South Bank University
25. Loughborough University
26. The University of Manchester
27. The University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
28. The University of Northampton
29. The University of Northumbria at Newcastle
30. The University of Nottingham
31. Oxford Brookes University
32. Queen Mary, University of London
33. The University of Reading
34. The Robert Gordon University
35. Royal Holloway, University of London
36. The School of Oriental and African Studies
37. The University of Southampton
38. The University of Sussex
39. The University of Teesside
40. University of Wales Bangor
41. The University of Wales Lampeter
42. University of Wales, Aberystwyth
43. University of Wales, Swansea
44. The University of Warwick
45. University of the West of England, Bristol
46. The University of York
47. York St John University