University Reduces HESA Submission Collation Time Down from Days to Minutes with Namos HESA Submission Application

Customer Success

University Reduces HESA Submission Collation Time Down from Days to Minutes with Namos HESA Submission Application

About the University of Greenwich

The University of Greenwich is a University steeped in History. Having been established in 1890 and with three campuses, one of which incorporates a World Heritage Site and three buildings designed by Sir Christopher Wren, those outside of HE circles would be excused for assuming that Greenwich would be comfortable resting on its considerable laurels. However, those within HE, and certainly the 2,900 Greenwich staff and 40,000 Greenwich students will know that the University is forward thinking and ambitious. The University places student experience at the heart of everything it does. From the multimillion pound Stockwell Street Building opened in 2014 to the recent multi-million pound renovation of the Dreadnought Student Hub building, the University has shown that the teaching and social experience of its students and staff is worth investing in.

CHALLENGE

HESA, the Higher Education Statistics Agency, is the authority in UK higher education data, and the designated data body for the UK. HESA collects, assures, and disseminates data about higher education (HE) in the UK, providing a HESA return is mandatory in order to be a Higher Education Provider in the UK. As the trusted source of HE data and analysis, they play a key role in supporting and enhancing the competitive strength of the sector. 

Every University in the UK must provide one annual return at the end of each year, taking a considerable amount of time and effort to collate and correct data retrospectively.

The University of Greenwich managed their staff HESA returns in Oracle eBusiness Suite, Excel spreadsheets and on a combination of locally accepted business practices. The tool was implemented on the back of their move from Oracle eBusiness Suite to Oracle HCM Cloud. The move to Cloud took place to take advantage of continuous investment and Cloud capabilities such as employee self-service, software-as-a-service (SaaS) upgrades and efficiencies.

Namos plan to continually develop and support the HESA report (a) amending the functionality in-line with any changes that are required by the authority and making this available to the University in line with any commercial agreements.

SOLUTION

The Namos HESA submission application is a secure online tool that enables Higher Education Institutions to return accurate staff data to HESA quickly and easily.

The app ensured all HESA fields were populated with valid data from Greenwich’s Oracle HCM Cloud system, and where there were issues, the app, highlighted them by applying over 130 HESA validation rules. The University had a few data quality issues, so the tool mapped the data for them, applying, now 90, ‘auto fixes’ and even provided an interface to amend data (fully audited).

The application is built and deployed on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure so benefits from a secure, scalable infrastructure. The application was seamlessly embedded into Greenwich’s Oracle Cloud HCM system, meaning the full end-to-end HESA process benefits from the same look, feel and security they are used to.

SOLUTIONS AT A GLANCE

Namos HESA Submission tool

RESULTS

The University now have a tool fully integrated into their system that can collate, validate and format the information to be submitted to HESA for their staff submission. This tool built and implemented by Namos Solutions means the University can now:

Collate and validate a submission in 15 minutes – this used to take them 8 hours for an extract, 1 hour to sort just contract FTE – so a minimum saving of 7.5 hours.
Two to three human touchpoints have been removed from the process – because the tool now does this for them – without the possibility of human error.
In the old process data access had to be provided to other teams temporarily – which was a risk that needed to be managed – with the Namos tool these data accesses are no longer needed.
Due to the validation within the tool’s settings – the University are finding all their data errors much quicker and getting them fixed much quicker – saving time and ensuring their data accuracy is higher on the first pass
The University even contributed to the final aspects of the tool’s design – suggesting that mapping and auto fixes should be part of the tool as it was, they could be a real game changer – and they were right.
University of Greenwich submitted valid staff data to HESA directly from the tool at the first time of asking back in 2020, a feat which was then repeated in 2021. Throughout that time, the application has kept compliant with HESA specifications and has catered for additional data sources brought about by Greenwich’s continual investment in Oracle Technology. 2022 is set to be the ‘hat trick’ year for the application, however, with new advances in the application, new Higher Education Providers taking up the application and feeding into its design, this is only the beginning.

This has been a challenging yet rewarding project for all parties concerned and I am delighted the Namos HESA submission tool is now deployed to our HRIS Team. The tool is increasing our efficiency , as well as ensuring our first pass data is accurate and freeing up our time, so we can serve the University better.”