Undergraduate demand trends, acceptance rate through the recruitment funnel, a three-year forward projection, and student satisfaction — all benchmarked against a peer group of comparable institutions.
- UCAS — official application and acceptance data for all UK providers; the definitive source for undergraduate recruitment
- UCAS January data — early applicant figures giving an advance read on the following autumn's intake
- National Student Survey (NSS) — Q27 overall satisfaction; 2023 onwards only (survey methodology changed that year)
- The three-year demand forecast is a straight-line projection from historical trend. It does not model policy changes, demographic shifts, or your strategic intent — it shows where current momentum takes you.
- A small group of highly selective institutions are flagged "managed intake." Their acceptance rates are structurally low by design, not market failure, so standard ratings do not apply to them.
Graduate destinations, earnings benchmarks, your regulatory outcomes position (B3), and student satisfaction with their development — all compared against sector averages and selected peers.
- HESA Graduate Outcomes survey — official survey of all UK graduates, conducted 15 months after graduation
- Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) — government linkage of student records to HMRC tax data; real median earnings 3 years after graduation
- OfS B3 outcomes data — the official dataset the regulator uses to assess continuation, completion, and progression against benchmarks tailored to each provider's intake
- National Student Survey (NSS) — Q9, skills development satisfaction
- Graduate earnings vary significantly by subject mix. An institution with many arts and humanities graduates will show lower aggregate earnings than one with many medicine or engineering graduates — this reflects the labour market, not quality.
- OfS B3 ratings account for each institution's student intake. A Red signal means outcomes are below what the regulator would expect given your particular students, not simply that they are low in absolute terms.
- Graduate reflections data (whether graduates feel their degree was worthwhile) is not yet available from HESA and will be added when released.
Gap analysis across five lifecycle stages — Access, Continuation, Completion, Attainment, and Progression — with statistical significance testing and trend direction over time.
Groups compared: POLAR4 most vs least advantaged areas; White vs Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students; White vs Black students specifically; declared disability vs none.
- OfS Access and Participation dataset — the official regulatory source covering all registered English providers, reporting gaps between student groups with 95% confidence intervals
For institutions regulated outside the OfS — in Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland — OfS gap data is not publicly available. The dashboard clearly indicates what is and isn't available and shows HESA-based equivalents where they exist. See the note at the bottom of this page.
- The "access" stage measures who joins higher education. Selective institutions with high entry requirements will always show a gap between the most and least advantaged groups — this reflects patterns across the school system, not admissions practice alone.
- Statistical significance is assessed using 95% confidence intervals, following the OfS's own standard methodology. A gap is significant when both bounds of the confidence interval sit on the same side of zero.
B3 Student Outcomes position (continuation, completion, progression) and Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) standing — using the OfS's own probability-based scoring — alongside your Access & Participation gap indicators.
B3 and TEF are assessed on a specific population: full-time, first-degree, taught students only. This mirrors the OfS's own assessment population — the same one used to determine registration conditions.
- OfS B3 Student Outcomes — assesses continuation, completion, and progression against benchmarks tailored to each provider's student intake
- OfS Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) — the same three measures, focused on teaching quality
- OfS Access and Participation dataset — the same data used in the A&P dashboard
For institutions not registered with the OfS, B3 and TEF data does not exist publicly. The dashboard clearly labels what applies and uses HESA proxies where available. See the note at the bottom of this page.
The OfS scores providers 0–100 on the statistical strength of evidence. A score of 95 or above represents strong evidence — this is the OfS's own standard for materiality.
TEF uses the same scale: Red = materially below benchmark · Amber = broadly in line · Green = materially above benchmark.
- A Red B3 signal does not simply mean outcomes are low — it means they are statistically lower than the OfS would expect given your particular intake and student characteristics. The benchmarks adjust for entry tariff, age, ethnicity, and subject mix.
- Because B3 is calculated on a specific population (full-time, first-degree, taught students), the same institution may show different figures on other dashboards that use a broader student population. This is expected and correct.
Five headline workforce health indicators, plus breakdowns of headcount, contract types, workforce diversity, pay structure, and severance activity — all benchmarked against sector averages and selected peers.
- HESA staff data — official annual return covering all staff in UK HE; broken down by contract type, seniority, gender, ethnicity, disability, and age
- HESA financial statistics — consolidated accounts covering staff costs as a share of income, pay structure, and severance payments
- HESA student data — used to calculate the students-to-staff ratio
| Indicator | Green | Amber | Red |
|---|---|---|---|
| Staff cost % income | ≤ 60% | 60–70% | > 70% |
| Fixed-term academic % | ≤ 25% | 25–40% | > 40% |
| Minority ethnic staff vs sector | Within 5pp | 5–10pp below | > 10pp below |
| Students per staff member | ≤ sector mean | Up to 15% above | > 15% above |
| Severance trend | Falling | Flat | Rising YoY |
- HESA staff figures are headcount, not full-time equivalent (FTE). They include all contract types including part-time. Use proportions rather than raw numbers when comparing institutions of different sizes.
- The students-to-staff ratio benchmark excludes institutions with fewer than 1,000 students to avoid distortion from small specialist providers.
- Health summary — the headline signal from each product area, with a direct link to the full dashboard
- Risk watchlist — every Red and Amber flag across all five areas in one place, sorted by severity
- Strategic KPIs — nine sector-benchmarked headline metrics across recruitment, outcomes, quality, access, and people
This dashboard does not query raw data independently. It reads from the outputs already generated by the five operational dashboards.
Every figure, rating, and caveat in the Institutional View reflects the methodology of the dashboard it comes from. No additional processing or new analysis takes place here.
Ratings are inherited directly from the underlying dashboards — no re-scoring takes place. The worst signal across each product area is surfaced in the overview, and all non-Green signals across all areas are listed in the risk watchlist.
- The Institutional View is only generated after all five operational dashboards have been built for a given institution. Where a dashboard hasn't been built yet, that area shows as unavailable.
- Each section carries a build date so you can see when the underlying data was last refreshed.
All data comes from official published datasets. Typical lag: HESA student and staff data runs approximately 18 months behind the academic year it covers. UCAS data is available in the summer and autumn of the relevant cycle. OfS data is updated annually, typically in late summer. Graduate earnings data (LEO) reflects graduates approximately 3–5 years after their cohort.
Unless stated otherwise, sector means all registered UK higher education providers with data available in the relevant dataset. Some datasets cover English providers only (OfS-regulated institutions). Where a dataset covers multiple nations, this is noted within the dashboard itself. All percentages are rounded to one decimal place throughout.
Institutions in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are regulated by their own bodies — Medr (Wales), the Scottish Funding Council, and the Department for the Economy (Northern Ireland). OfS regulatory data is not publicly available for these providers. Where this applies, the relevant dashboard clearly labels which measures are OfS-based and which draw from HESA or other sources. You will not see a blank section — the dashboard explains what is available and why.