Quality of higher education statistics

Quality report for higher education statistical bulletins

The Department adheres to the UK Statistics Authority code of practice for official statistics and the National Statistician’s guidance on quality. The document below provides a summary of how the Department's Higher Education National Statistics publications adhere to the code in terms quality:

• Northern Ireland higher education enrolments and qualifications bulletins quality report 2020/21
• Northern Ireland higher education enrolments and qualifications bulletins quality report 2019/20
• Northern Ireland higher education enrolments and qualifications bulletins quality report 2018/19
• Quality report - Destinations of Leavers from UK Higher Education Institutions

Information on the collection and validation of higher education data

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collect and validate higher education data on behalf of the Department for the Economy (DfE). HESA has developed an extensive range of quality assurance and validation procedures to ensure the data they collect are of a high standard. The links below provide more details on these procedures:

• Quality Assurance: Approach
• Quality Assurance: Implementation

Quality guidance used in the production of higher education statistics

The following link provides guidance from the Office for National Statistics on best practice for measuring and reporting on quality

• Quality guidance