HE-BCI Survey Overview
The Higher Education Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey is an annual collection (from 1 August – 31 July) of financial and output data conducted by HESA. All publicly funded HEIs in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland complete the return.
HESA uses the data we submit from HE-BCI for many reasons, such as analysing University research and KE performance and establishing metrics to allocate public funds.
It is important to recognise that the data we enter for HE-BCI must meet various HESA guidelines and definitions. Once we have established the data we are working with meet these requirements we identify which table, heading and subheading it falls under based on HESA’s categorisations.
There are five tables in HE-BCI:
- Table 1: Research related activities
- Table 2: Business and community services
- Table 3: Regeneration and development programmes
- Table 4: Intellectual property (IP)
- Table 5: Social, community and cultural engagement: designated public events
Since there is a variety of data needed across the five tables, we need to use numerous sources across the University. The sources can be broken down into the following categories:
- Annual Agresso Financial Report (Tables 1, 2, 3, 4)
- Subsidiary data, eg, BDC, PCMIS (Tables 2, 3, 4)
- Departmental data (Tables 1, 2, 4, 5)
HE-BCI data collection starts in July and August, following the year-end financial closedown and the publication of the final Agresso position. Data analysis takes place in August to October, with final agreed figures reported to HESA in November. We then report this information to the University, along with performance comparators with other universities (when the data becomes available for the whole sector in the new year). This information also feeds into University performance KPIs that are provided to UEB.
The Economic Development Team (EDT) takes the overall lead on HE-BCI and undertakes most of the analysis, with other teams providing support for particular elements of the return. The main teams that help complete the return are below:
- Research Grants Operation; Student and Academic Services (Table 1)
- Continuing Professional Development (Table 2)
- Commercialisation Team (Table 4)
- Conferences (Table 5)
For a more in depth overview of the HE-BCI return, please visit the HESA website.
For enquiries specifically directed towards the University of York HE-BCI return, please contact hebcis@york.ac.uk.