Strategic Planning

We set student number targets for all Schools in discussion with Deans and other colleagues. These targets will be uploaded on MIS.

The research team is contantly involved in producing various data reports that are most often looking at HESA data on our competitors. Following a request by the Royal Docks Business School, the Planning Team ordered some recently published student data for academic year 2010/11 from HESA. During January-February this year a Power-point report has been compiled to represent this data in a visual way and with added analysis.

The report pulled together data from various internal sources for the purpose of producing analysis on the demographics and economic circumstances of UEL’s full-time undergraduate students. The findings were submitted for the VCG Planning Day on 16th of December.

We delivered the Research Activity Survey (RAS) Return. This return is used by HEFCE to calculate our research funding.

We delivered the Higher Education Early Statistics (HESES) Return. This is the return we make to HEFCE underpinning our HEFCe student funding. We implemented almost all the recommendations from our recent audit in this return.

This report was presented at the National Student Survey (NSS) project group which operates under the Outstanding Student Experience Programme Board.  The report was based on a historic review of published university league tables, identifying universities that had achieved both significant and/or consistent improvement in the league tables. The report was used as a basis for planning the five role-model university visits, which are currently being carried out by the members of the NSS project group.

We delivered the UEL Planning Conference in October 2010, in collaboration with Marketing colleagues. Responses were very positive, especially to the use of real-time voting technology.

We delivered the HESA ITT Record which provides in-year data on all students who have recently started a programme of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in October 2010.

We completed a report analysing the Destinations for Leavers of Higher Education (DLHE) data, which enabled the ESDS employability team to inform UEL Schools and Management Team of some key developments regarding the employability of UEL graduates. The main findings were associated with the high levels of unemployment among graduates that have continued to increase following the economic downturn.  Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students have been most severely affected by this negative trend.

We delivered the HESA Student Record in October 2010. The Student Record provides individualised data on every student studying at UEL (or with a UK-based collaborative partner) in 2009-10 and is a major project delivered in partnership with Student Records, IT Services, and many other teams. The data are used for funding, league tables and many other purposes.

The Planning Team produced a series custom made market research reports for the different UEL Schools in conjunction with the 2010 planning round. Alltogether four reports were delivered to the School of Computing, IT and Engineering - one of which focused on feasibility of providing a programme in Green ICT. This is an example of a resarch project where no subject speficic data is available and therefore the report is built mostly on qualitative analysis. Green ICT turned out to be a very interesting subject area and the report received good feedback from the Dean of CITE.

We played an enhanced role in Clearing 2010, ensuring that the University did not exceed its HEFCE cap on FTUG student numbers. Working closely with Marketing colleagues, we successfully delivered the 2010 entry targets.

We were audited, with colleagues from Cass School of Education, on our Co-Funded Employer Engagement (CFEE) numbers. Although our record-keeping on individual employers was not as sharp as it could have been, there was no funding to repay.

Our 2009-10 HESA and HESES Returns were audited by HEFCE as part of the regular round of routine audits. Although these audits are routine, over a hundred other institutions have had funding taken back as a result of audit, and many have experienced permanent reductions in grant. We were therefore delighted when HEFCE determined that there was no funding to be handed back.

This report was a project under the Student Experience Programme Board. The report established the average student contact time for all UEL programs and compared this to a sector average value. This information was collected in preparation for the HESA Key Information Set (KIS).

This Market Scan Analysis focused on feasibility of providing a new programme in CITE on a specific area for which there was no sector data available. Therefore a report was produced based on extensive internet based desk research.

The Planning Team conducted desk research and data analysis on various strategic questions concerning the 2012 fees change. This included analysing internal and sector data to see which programs at UEL might be more vulnerable, as well as a review of strategies adopted by UEL’s competitors.