HESA Student return preparation

One clean return. Every time.

Lyceum Data takes your student records as they are, maps them to the HESA data model, runs every quality rule and shows your team exactly what to fix, weeks before the deadline.

Talk to us See how it works

Works with any student record system

Exceptions · Student 2025/26Run 214 · 06:12

Readiness92%

Open148

Would reject3

QR.STUDENT.AwardingBodyRole.AWARDINGBODYID.001Awarding body must hold degree-awarding powers
OfS · reject12
Engagement · MSTUFEEFee source missing for sponsored students
OfS · warn41
Student · POSTCODEPostcode required where domicile is UK
OfS · warn27
Course · CTITLEResolved after mapping update
resolved0

Illustrative screen. Figures are examples.

786quality rules in the 2024/25 Student collection

~200data items HESA expects for each student

2Student returns a year planned from 2028/29

A tiered university lecture theatre with students facing a projection screen

Why now

The return is changing, and the window to prepare is shrinking.

Under the in-year programme, the annual return moves earlier each year and a second, in-year return is planned from 2028/29. Data that used to be cleaned once a year will need to be right several times a year.

Teams that already spend the autumn working through errors will have less time between collections, not more.

Read what’s changing

The gap

Your records are built to run a university. HESA needs them in a different shape.

How your data lives

A student record system configured for your own processes
Faculty spreadsheets and local systems
Years of local codes and conventions
Fixes made by hand each collection

What HESA expects

One data model for every provider
Around 200 data items per student
786 quality rules, many checking fields against each other
Tolerances set separately by each regulator

2022/23

We know what the last change cost the people doing the work.

The first Data Futures collection was hard across the sector. The independent review for the Office for Students recorded the impact.

42%

of providers missed the extended deadline for 2022/23 data.

10k → 250k

errors at one institution, from one year to the next.

People

Staff left, took sick leave or retired early under the pressure.

Source: PwC, Independent review of the Data Futures programme, for the Office for Students, January 2025.

Two colleagues reviewing data together at a computer screen

Built for the people who sign off the return, so the autumn is spent checking answers, not hunting for errors.

How it works

Five steps from your records to a submittable return.

1
Bring in
Read-only extract from your records system or a file export. Nothing is ever written back.
2
Map
Your fields are mapped once to the HESA model, in rules your team can read and review.
3
Check
Every quality rule runs, including the ones that compare fields and records.
4
Resolve
Each issue becomes a tracked exception with a reason, an owner and a history.
5
Submit
HESA XML built to the schema, with an evidence pack for internal sign-off.

Explore the product

Regulator verdicts

Know which regulator would reject it before you submit.

Each regulator applies its own tolerances to the same return. Lyceum Data shows the verdict for each one, so you can see that an issue only warns for the OfS but would be rejected elsewhere, days or weeks ahead.

Plain-English reason for every exception
The value in your records next to the value sent to HESA
Issues that come back after being fixed reopen automatically

Exception detail

Engagement · MSTUFEE

Main source of tuition fees is blank. This student has a sponsor record, so a fee source is expected.

Value in your records: blank
Value sent to HESA: blank
Expected: A valid fee source code
First seen: Run 198

OfS · warnMedr · would reject

Illustrative example.

Who it’s for

Built for the teams that own the return.

A large seminar room full of students listening to a presentation

Large and research-intensive universities

Tens of thousands of students, many faculties, complex fee and funding rules. Focused checks by faculty or cohort, and an evidence pack for governance.

For large universities

A small group of people working together around laptops

Smaller providers and HE colleges

A small team responsible for the whole return. Rules kept current every year without in-house effort, and a clear list of what to fix next.

For smaller providers

Security

Read-only. UK-hosted. Fully audited.

Your systems stay untouched

Lyceum Data only reads from your student record system. It never writes back.

Your data stays in the UK

Storage and processing are kept in a UK region, encrypted in transit and at rest.

Every decision is recorded

Mapping changes, accepted risks and suppressions are logged with who made them and why.

Security and assurance

Founders

Built by people who have scaled data and technology teams for 18 years.

Avance has spent 18 years putting specialist data and technology people inside large organisations. Lyceum Data is what we built when we saw the same HESA problem in every university we worked with.