CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html> <html class="no-js no-touch" lang="en" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/" xmlns:og="http://ogp.me/ns#" xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#" xmlns:sioc="http://rdfs.org/sioc/ns#" xmlns:sioct="http://rdfs.org/sioc/types#" xmlns:skos="http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("http://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("https://www.hesa.ac.uk/blog/21-09-2023/he-bci-review-progress-knowledge-exchange-data","20230929201742","http://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1696018662"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <title>HE-BCI review: our progress, and plans to improve knowledge exchange data | HESA</title> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"/> <meta http-equiv="cleartype" content="on"/> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#FFFFFF"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="/sites/all/themes/hesa/favicons/mstile-310x310.png"/> <script> var GTMID = 'GTM-WM8325T'; (function (w, d, s, l, i) { w[l] = w[l] || []; w[l].push({ 'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(), event: 'gtm.js' }); })(window, document, 'script', 'dataLayer', GTMID); (function (w, d, s, l, i) { var f = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j = d.createElement(s), dl = l != 'dataLayer' ? '&l=' + l : ''; j.async = true; j.src = 'http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742/https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id=' + i + dl; f.parentNode.insertBefore(j, f); })(window, document, 'script', 'dataLayer', GTMID); </script> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/> <meta about="/author/dan-cook" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" content="Dan Cook"/> <meta name="description" content="We announced the review of the Higher Education Business and Community Interactions (HE-BCI) survey in early 2019, but we had to pause initial work looking at user needs and priorities during the pandemic. Since then, we have made good progress in the review, working with the Higher Education Funding Bodies and the Office for Students."/> <link rel="canonical" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/blog/21-09-2023/he-bci-review-progress-knowledge-exchange-data"/> <link rel="shortlink" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/node/141639"/> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742cs_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/files/css/css_fncS-7zbIZ96_cAOhMstFXZ9r7ch0ucyDNZ1bM59C0w.css" media="all"/> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742cs_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/files/css/css_sdimUFmSiZHE7zIZ8ROxTHcopOcpMu9Jxhe247v9jD0.css" media="all"/> <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742cs_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/files/css/css_47DEQpj8HBSa-_TImW-5JCeuQeRkm5NMpJWZG3hSuFU.css" media="all"/> <link href="/web/20230929201742cs_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/styles/basic.css" rel="stylesheet"/>  <link href="/web/20230929201742cs_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/styles/deluxe.css" rel="stylesheet"/>  <link media="print" href="/web/20230929201742cs_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/styles/print.css" rel="stylesheet"/>  </head> <body class="html not-front not-logged-in no-sidebars page-node page-node- page-node-141639 node-type-blog">  <noscript><iframe src="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742if_/https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-WM8325T" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript>  <a href="#main-content" class="element-invisible element-focusable">Skip to main content</a> <header class="header-site"> <div class="wrap"> <div class="inner"> <a class="toggle-nav-site" id="toggle-nav-site" href="#nav-site" aria-controls="nav-site" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle Main Navigation" role="button"></a> <a class="toggle-search" id="toggle-search" href="#search-block-form" aria-controls="search-block-form" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle Site Search" role="button"></a> <div class="primary"> <div class="logo"> <a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/" title="Home" rel="home"> <img src="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/img/hesa-logo.jpg" alt="Home"/> </a> </div> </div> <div class="secondary"> <div class="region region-search-form"> <div id="block-search-form" class="block block-search"> <div class="content"> <form action="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/blog/21-09-2023/he-bci-review-progress-knowledge-exchange-data" method="post" id="search-block-form" accept-charset="UTF-8"><div><div class="container-inline"> <h2 class="element-invisible">Search form</h2> <div class="form-item form-type-textfield form-item-search-block-form"> <label class="element-invisible" for="edit-search-block-form--2">Search </label> <input title="Enter the terms you wish to search for." type="text" id="edit-search-block-form--2" name="search_block_form" value="" size="15" maxlength="128" class="form-text"/> </div> <div class="form-actions form-wrapper" id="edit-actions"><input type="submit" id="edit-submit" name="op" value="Search" class="form-submit"/></div><input type="hidden" name="form_id" value="search_block_form"/> </div> </div></form> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <nav class="nav-site" id="nav-site" aria-label="Main Navigation"> <div class="wrap"> <div class="region region-main-menu"> <div id="block-system-main-menu" class="block block-system block-menu"> <div class="content"> <ul class="menu"><li class="first leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis" title="">Open data</a></li> <li class="leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/collection" title="">Data Collection</a></li> <li class="leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support" title="">Support</a></li> <li class="last leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/about" title="">About</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </header> <main id="main-content"> <div class="wrap" id="top"> <div class="breadcrumbs"></div> <h1>HE-BCI review: our progress, and plans to improve knowledge exchange data</h1> <ul class="action-links"></ul> <div class="region region-content"> <div id="block-system-main" class="block block-system"> <div class="content"> <div class="grid grid-spaced"> <div class="content-aside | col-1/3 | col-reverse"> </div> <div class="content-main | col-2/3" id="after-nav-sub"> <time class="sub">21 September 2023</time> <link href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742cs_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/files/google_charts.css?v71" rel="stylesheet"/> <link href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742cs_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/files/data_printable.css?v5" rel="stylesheet"/> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742js_/https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.2/jquery.min.js"></script><script src="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742js_/https://www.gstatic.com/charts/loader.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script> google.charts.load('51', {'packages':['controls', 'corechart', 'sankey', 'table', 'geochart']}); </script> <p>We announced the review of the Higher Education Business and Community Interactions (HE-BCI) survey in early 2019, but we had to pause initial work looking at user needs and priorities during the pandemic. Since then, we have made good progress in the review, working with the Higher Education Funding Bodies and the Office for Students.</p> <p>Through a combination of user engagement and policy analysis we established priority areas. We also established a project board for statutory users of the dataset to advise us on their emerging needs. We want to improve trust in and quality of data in the following areas:</p> <ul> <li>Geographic granularity</li> <li>Commercialisation</li> <li>Social and cultural interactions</li> <li>Equality, diversity & inclusion (EDI)</li> <li>In-kind contributions to collaborative research and partnerships</li> <li>Staff and students as agents of knowledge exchange (KE).</li> </ul> <p>In line with feedback from all sources we focussed on:</p> <ul> <li>Improving the robustness of guidance and definitions.</li> <li>Modernising approaches to collecting data on existing concepts.</li> </ul> <p>You can find out more about our review work on the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/innovation/records/reviews/he-bci-major-review">website</a>.</p> <p>We have already announced planned changes for 2022/3 data in the 2022/23 <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/innovation/records/reviews/he-bci-2022-23">Notification of Changes</a>. These include updated guidance, definitions, relabelling, and clarification of coverage  over all five tables of the HE-BCI survey. We have also consulted on improving data on in-kind contributions to collaborative research. The goal here is to ensure each provider uses an appropriate methodology based on a shared set of principles to achieve a more uniform quality standard. At the start of 2023, we issued proposals for improvements in a consultation. The sector’s positive response included a request for time and additional guidance to implement the changes. As noted in our recently published <a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/innovation/records/reviews/he-bci-major-review/consultations-data-experiments/in-kind-consultation-outcomes">summary of responses to the in-kind consultation</a>, we will implement enhancements to in-kind data in the 2023/24 collection.</p> <h3>Knowledge exchange </h3> <p>We have progressed policy analysis across the other priority areas, outlining some key areas of interest in blogs summarising the past 18 months of work  on <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/blog/28-06-2023/commercialisation-he-bci-dataset">commercialisation</a> and <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/blog/25-05-2023/who-what-when-and-how-adding-where-he-bci-data">geographic granularity</a>. We are now focussing our policy analysis on the role of students in knowledge exchange (KE), on equality, diversity and inclusion<a>, and on social and cultural interactions</a>. We want to improve our understanding of data recording practices within HE providers, relating to all these priority areas. For example, we are currently asking questions relating to staff roles in KE in our <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742/https://consultation.hesa.ac.uk/data-innovation/staff-review-evidence-gathering-survey/">survey about the Staff record</a> (which closes on Friday 13 October). Our overall aim is to better understand KE data collection practices of HE providers and how this data is being used for their own purposes. This exercise is dual-purpose and will help us define areas for consultation next year on the current variables in the HE-BCI survey, and also help us to better understand data practices, to inform wider work with others to develop new KE metrics in the long-term, beyond the scope of the HE-BCI review. This work consolidates our aim to identify data collection approaches that will create additional benefit while minimising the running costs for providers.</p> <blockquote class="size-medium align-right"><p>Our aim is to identify data collection approaches that will create additional benefit while minimising the running costs for providers</p> </blockquote> <p>This autumn, we will launch an evidence-gathering exercise to answer these questions about data availability within the concepts in the HE-BCI survey. We want to understand more about the data that providers collect, including for their own uses, which will help us ensure our consultations on potential changes and future work on metric development is informed by real KE data practices at providers. Look out for a survey in November and opportunities to engage at events. Where this exercise reveals potential for improvements to the current dataset, we aim to consult on detailed proposals in spring 2024 and issue a further Notification of Changes.</p> <p>We know the scale of the task of improving KE metrics goes far beyond the scale of a HESA data review. By the end of the review, we expect to modernise several aspects of the survey to make HE-BCI data more relevant for emerging uses, therefore even more valuable to its many stakeholders. We will focus on quality improvement to enhance our stakeholders’ confidence in using a wider pool of data from the survey for policy implementation. We intend to produce the final report and close the HE-BCI major review in summer 2024. At this point we will report on how the review has evolved the survey, and also discuss areas where learning and evidence from the review will provide a foundation for wider development of knowledge exchange data by HESA and others in the long-term.</p> <p>We need new theoretical and research insights to support the development of new metrics and conceptual consideration to design the KE data architecture needed for the future. This is a priority area for policymakers, and <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742/https://www.ukri.org/blog/building-national-capability-for-ke-evidence-and-metrics/">Research England have announced ambitious plans</a> to develop their national capability as a centre for university KE and impact evidence and metrics, in response to this need. We are proud to work alongside Research England as part of UKRI, and the University Commercialisation and Innovation policy evidence unit at the University of Cambridge (UCI) to support this vision to ultimately deliver enhanced KE data for all. In addition to the HE-BCI review we are therefore also delivering work on the data collection, ingestion, processing and publication capabilities that the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742/https://www.ukri.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/RE-100523-REKEReviewDecisions.pdf">new national capability</a> will require.</p> <p>The HE-BCI review is a strong foundation as we focus on developing national data on KE over the coming years. Collaborating with our members and customers and using the latest academic research will lead to a KE metrics infrastructure that not only reflects the diversity of KE practice, but supports policy innovation to create better outcomes for the economy, society, and all those involved in KE.</p> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 a2a_target addtoany_list" id="da2a_1"> <a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a> <a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a> <a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share_save" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742/https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hesa.ac.uk%2Fblog%2F21-09-2023%2Fhe-bci-review-progress-knowledge-exchange-data&title=HE-BCI%20review%3A%20our%20progress%2C%20and%20plans%20to%20improve%20knowledge%20exchange%20data"><img src="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/modules/contrib/addtoany/images/share_save_171_16.png" width="171" height="16" alt="Share"/></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> <![CDATA[//><!]]> </script> </div> <div class="content-aside | col-1/3 | col-reverse"> <div class="pill"> Blog </div> <figure class="rounded"> <img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/files/Dan-Cook.jpg" alt="Dan Cook" title="Dan Cook"/> <figcaption class="no-border"> <div class="pill"> <p class="author-title">Dan Cook</p> </div> <div class="sub"> Deputy Director, Data & Innovation </div> </figcaption> </figure> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="cms-controls"> <ul class="action-links"></ul> </div> </div> </main> <footer role="contentinfo" class="footer-site"> <div class="banner"> <div class="wrap"> <div class="grid | grid-spaced | grid-2-cols"> <div> <div class="region region-footer-menu"> <div id="block-menu-menu-footer-menu" class="block block-menu"> <div class="content"> <ul class="menu"><li class="first leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/about" title="">About us</a></li> <li class="leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/about/working-here" title="">Working here and vacancies</a></li> <li class="leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/innovation/data-futures" title="">Data Futures</a></li> <li class="last leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/services/heidi-plus" title="">Heidi Plus</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div> <div class="region region-social-links-menu"> <div id="block-menu-menu-social-links-menu" class="block block-menu"> <div class="content"> <ul class="menu"><li class="first leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/about/contact" title="">Contact/find us</a></li> <li class="leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news" title="">Latest news and blogs</a></li> <li class="leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support" title="">Support materials</a></li> <li class="last leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/services" title="">Data analytics</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="grid grid-spaced grid-2-cols"> <div> <div class="footer-meta"> <div class="region region-legal-footer-menu"> <div id="block-menu-menu-legal-footer-menu" class="block block-menu"> <div class="content"> <ul class="menu"><li class="first leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/about/website/site-map" title="">Site map</a></li> <li class="leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/about/website/terms" title="">Terms of use</a></li> <li class="leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/about/website/accessibility" title="">Accessibility</a></li> <li class="leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/about/website/cookies" title="">Cookies</a></li> <li class="last leaf"><a href="/web/20230929201742/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/about/website/privacy" title="">Privacy</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div> <div class="social"> <h4>Connect With Us:</h4> <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742/https://twitter.com/ukhesa" class="follow-twitter"> <img src="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/img/icon-twitter.svg" alt="Twitter"> </a> <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742/https://www.linkedin.com/company/higher-education-statistics-agency" class="follow-linkedin"> <img src="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/img/icon-linkedin.svg" alt="LinkedIn"> </a> </div> <figure class="footer-site__logos"> <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742/https://www.jisc.ac.uk/"> <img src="/web/20230929201742im_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/img/logo-jisc.png" alt="Part of Jisc"/> </a> </figure> </div> </div> </div> </div> </footer> <span class="footer-ident"></span> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742js_/https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.2/jquery.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742js_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/files/js/js_DRszCILfNteakMtA9IaG5VfXMgclPUg36cL1gyTDqJk.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742js_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/files/js/js_llyw5VQhyqjUFjFU3io3JXNCJnPS-gHPikTyooRDQkA.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742js_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/files/js/js_kues2zzvQLidKOYpIlUW_RRunHMU5orRYqAyHv4H3zs.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> <![CDATA[//><!]]> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> <![CDATA[//><!]]> </script>  <script src="http://web.archive.org/web/20230929201742js_/https://use.typekit.net/qsa5zsm.js"></script> <script>try{Typekit.load({ async: true });}catch(e){}</script> <script type="text/javascript"> <![CDATA[//><!]]> </script> <script src="/web/20230929201742js_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/js/plugins.min.js"></script> <script src="/web/20230929201742js_/https://www.hesa.ac.uk/sites/all/themes/hesa/js/app.min.js"></script> </body> </html>