HEAT Upload – Term 1 deadline approaching

22 Nov 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 9 December 2022

Friday, 9 December is the term 1 deadline for inputting Widening Participation (WP) activity data into HEAT (the Higher Education Access Tracker). 

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. 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)

More information:

• Resources you may need to upload your activities
• Find an institution's HEAT ID using the Manchester Prioritisation Model (MPM) Power BI report 

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 can’t 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:

I have activity data, but I don't know what schools I worked with. What can I do?

If you’re not sure which schools the students you worked with are from, then you can add the total number of students via the ‘Unknown Beneficiary’ account. You can do this by going to the beneficiary tab of an activity, click ‘add new beneficiary’ and search ‘Unknown Beneficiary’. This will then allow you to add a total number of students to your activity. The details of the ‘Unknown Beneficiary’ account are Unknown Institution [Open] - E (#052923).

How do I get access to HEAT?

If you require a HEAT login to enter activity details into the system, please contact Usra Khan (usra.khan@manchester.ac.uk) or Jack Walker (jack.walker@manchester.ac.uk).