HEAT deadline approaching to upload WP activity data

08 Jul 2022

If you have carried out Access or Widening Participation (WP) delivery this term, you must input tracking data to HEAT (the Higher Education Access Tracker) by 22 July

By this date, all WP activities that have taken place this academic year must be inputted into HEAT.

Why do we need to do this?

We need to upload our WP activity data regularly to ensure we get an accurate picture of our work throughout the year. Having an accurate and (almost) live view of our data allows us to understand what types of activities we're delivering throughout the year and ensures you can answer any questions you may receive from schools around the types of interactions we've had with them, how many of their students we've supported and what the long-term impact of our work with these students is. The last point is especially important as HEAT allows us to track the students we support through their education journey to see if, when and where they study Higher Education.

How do I input my data?

If you’re new to HEAT, or need a refresher, then check out the ‘Introducing HEAT’ demo that the Monitoring and Evaluation team ran in 2020. These demos were recorded and are now available as videos on the Evaluation Resource Bank. The videos that explain the data import process are:

• Manually creating activity records (10 mins)
• Manually creating student records (5 mins)

If you have a lot of activities to add then you can use a bulk import template. Details of how to use this are explained in the following demo videos:

• Bulk uploading activities (7 mins)
• Bulk uploading students and schools/colleges (7 mins)

Resources you may need to upload your activities (HEAT ID Lookup Tool, import template etc)

Do I need to enter my activity data into the School and Colleges Outreach Log (SCOL) as well?

If you have a HEAT account you do not need to enter your WP Activity details into the SCOL. The SCOL is only for staff who run 1-2 WP activities a year so don't require full access to HEAT.

What student details should I add to my activities?

Where possible, all staff should be collecting learner level data to support HEATs tracking capabilities (N.B. please only do this if the students have had sight of our HEAT tracking statement). Tracking information includes:

• first name
• last name
• date of birth
• school/college
• home postcode
• gender (if known)

If you aren’t able to add student tracking details then please add a total number of students instead. This helps with our reporting.

Below is a table that outlines when we're able to get tracking reports on students by the year that they would enter HE if they joined at 18: