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Programme and module-level data

Discover how to use data to enhance your programmes.

Introduction

The data we can access across the University provides us with information about several useful internal performance measures. Some of these, such as student outcomes and student experience, are also:

  • used to establish baseline data for external regulatory organisations, such as the Office for Students (OFS)
  • considered as part of the Teaching Excellence Framework

As a programme leader, it’s helpful to be aware of these key performance indicators KPIs). Many of them can inform our learning and teaching approach, and internal quality measures such as education annual reviews.

You can also explore how departments are performing in relation to these KPIs use the KPI Scorecard on Power BI.

The Office for Students’ objectives

The Office for Students aims to ensure that all students who study in English higher education (HE) institutions have the opportunity to access, succeed and progress from HE.

They have four primary regulatory objectives. These say that all students, from all backgrounds, with the ability and desire to undertake HE:

  • are supported to access, succeed in, and progress from, HE
  • receive a high-quality academic experience, and their interests are protected while they study or in the event of provider, campus, or course closure
  • can progress into employment or further study, and their qualifications hold their value over time.
  • receive value for money

For further information, go to the OFS regulatory framework for HE in England, 2024

Programme and module level data

  • Retention and progression data

    The strategic planning directorate provides programme and module-level data. This only forms part of the information that contributes to your continuous improvement planning.

    You should also consider the following when developing your programmes and modules:

    • informal feedback
    • external examiners’ reports
    • benchmarking with other institutions
    • reflections of the programme team 

    Why we use data to inform our programme delivery

    To design effective learning experiences, it’s important to understand your students’ characteristics and needs.

    You can use data and feedback to get a sense of the profile and diversity of your course participants, and how they may have changed over time. This will help you tailor your teaching strategies and assessment methods to suit your learners.

    For example:

    • What experiences are students likely to have had before coming to Manchester Met?
    • What activities and information would help to smooth their transition to university?
    • Are there any significant groups which need particular support?
    • How might this be organised? 

  • How can data inform your teaching?

    The questions below will help you to think about how you can use data to better understand the needs of diverse student cohorts.

    This information can help you to prepare an inclusive and engaging curriculum that promotes active transformational learning.

    For example:

    • If a large number of your students live at home, do you need to provide timetabled opportunities for group work during the day, as it may be difficult for them to organise informally?
    • What proportion of your students are international? What might you need to consider when working with international students
    • If you have a large number of mature students, is there any way of incorporating their previous experiences into a teaching plan?
    • Is the size of a lecture group such that you need to design more structured opportunities for interaction?
    • Do lectures need to be adapted to accommodate the needs of particular learners
    • Is this a trend likely to continue, and if so, how will you continue to provide appropriate student support?

    Useful links

    Student entry profile data
    • Report title: Student entry profile
    • You can use this report to:
      • get insight on the demographics and student characteristics of our undergraduate and postgraduate students
      • compare current data across departments and with previous years’ data

    Go to the student entry profile dashboard

    Student enrolment data

    You can use this report to:

    • view student enrolments at faculty, departmental and course levels, with filter options including study level and mode
    • compare current enrolments against targets and previous years’ data

    Go to the student enrolment dashboard

  • Things to consider when reviewing data about your programme
    • Are the trends in line with your plan for the programme?
    • Entry tariff, as measured by UCAS points is a proxy for students’ academic capability and can influence progress and outcomes. What can you do to raise or maintain entry tariff and incoming student capability more broadly?
    • If there are schools with high numbers of applicants but low enrolments from a particular school, what can you do to encourage further take-up? The admissions team can help with this.
    • What improvements can you make to your course based on what your competitor universities are doing? Your faculty marketing team can help with this.

  • Student continuation and success

    Student continuation measures the number of students who remain on a course from one year to the next. This is a key performance measure at Manchester Met.

    Programmes will have varying progression rates, so you should be looking at trends as much as absolute values.

    How to access student continuation data

    • Report title: Returners
    • You can use this to:
      • view returners trends split into faculties, departments and courses, including historical trends
      • get insight on returners’ differential gaps based on demographics/student characteristics.

    Go the returners dashboard

    Analysing student continuation data

    These questions will help you analyse student continuation data:

    • Are there differences between levels? For an undergraduate programme, are students more or less likely to return at level four or five what are the reasons for this?
    • Are there differences between courses in the same department and faculty? What might account for any variation?

    Those who leave can be divided into three groups:

    • Students who withdraw
    • Students who do not pass
    • Students who did not re-enrol.

    It is important to note that students leave university for complicated reasons, which may be linked to multiple factors. This data does not effectively profile why students left, therefore further investigation may be necessary.

    Factors affecting student continuation data

    The Yorke and Longden (2008) study of the first-year experience highlighted the factors below. These are particularly likely to prevent students from considering early withdrawal from a course:

    • Assisting students in the making of choices about their study.
    • Being clear about what is in courses.
    • Ensuring adequacy of resources.
    • Managing the transition into higher education such that students gain an early appreciation of what higher education is asking of them.

    Questions to consider about student continuation data

    • What expectations about study, behaviour, engagement and assessment are set by your programme team? At what points are these expectations reinforced?
    • Does curriculum and assessment design and delivery support engagement?
    • Are the learning and teaching approaches used on the programme adapted for your particular group of students?
    • Is there a consistent approach to personal and academic tutoring and support?
    • Are there any opportunities to use peer mentoring to support and integrate students?

Supporting assessment success

  • Assessment success

    There is no particular institutional expectation about the values of the average marks for a unit. Marking at Manchester Met is referenced to standards set by the programme teams within the expectations of the UK quality code, particularly the relevant QAA subject benchmark statements.

    Module performance data

    • Report title: Module performance
    • You can use this report to get module-level information, including:
      • student numbers
      • average marks
      • performance against previous years

    Go to the module performance dashboard

    Questions to consider about module performance data

    These questions will prompt discussion across the team about their expectations, and whether assessment design supports students in achieving these expectations.

    • Are there any modules that have a much higher, or lower, average mark than others taken by the same cohort? Is this something you expect? Is this something you are concerned about?
    • If you have a large proportion of students failing particular assignments at the first attempt, but generally passing their other assignments, is there any reason for this?
    • Are you conscious that some modules are seen to be particularly difficult?
    • Should modules perceived as ‘difficult’ attract additional resources to improve student performance?
    • Is there any additional support that the team could put in place for these units before the first attempt? In the re-assessment period?
    • Do these kinds of variations between modules have an unintended consequence on students’ overall grades, or progression opportunities? For example, can you identify any awarding gaps?
    • Does the programme team have an idea of the range of marks expected in each unit? Have you used the example standard descriptors to discuss expectations of student achievement?
    • Do high marks reflect good practice in preparing students for assessment which could be shared across the programme?
    • Do low marks reflect good practice in being rigorous in a way that could be shared across the programme? 
    • Is there a consistent approach to setting assignments across the programme? And tomarking, moderation and feedback?

Links to useful Power BI reports

  • Degree awards (good honours)
    • Report title: Degree awards (good honours)
    • You can use this report to see:
      • student outcomes in relation to degree attainment, detailing the proportion of students who received a good Honours or first class degree
      • award gaps based on demographics or student characteristics

    Go to the degree awards (good honours) dashboard 

  • Unit survey feedback
    • Report title: Unit survey feedback
    • You can use this report to:
      • get results from the unit-level surveys, detailing students’ perceptions of key aspects of the units they have recently studied.

    Go to unit survey feedback dashboard 

  • National Student Survey (NSS)
    • Report title: National Student Survey (NSS)
    • You can use this report to get:
      • NSS response rates and scores by theme and specific questions
      • a comparison of results to the sector

    Go to NSS dashboard

  • Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES)
    • Report title: Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES)
    • You can use this report to:
      • get scores by theme and specific question
      • compare results with previous years and the wider sector

    Go to PRES dashboard

  • Graduate Outcomes
    • Report title: Graduate Outcomes
    • You can use this report to:
      • get student enrolments at faculty, departmental and course level with filter options including study level and mode.
      • compares current enrolments against targets and previous years’ data.

    Go to Graduate Outcomes dashboard

  • UG to PGT conversion
    • Report title: UG to PGT Conversion
    • You can use the report to see: 
      • the proportion of UG graduates progressing to PGT study
      • the proportion of Manchester Met graduates going on to study a PhD at Manchester Met
      • rates of progress between Departments.

    Go to UG to PG conversion dashboard

  • Further guidance and support

    The strategic planning directorate provides the data that you need for your programme planning and evaluation.

    If you have any questions or difficulties with the data, you can contact the faculty planning teams for assistance. They can help you to access and interpret the data, as well as explain the definitions and rationale behind them.

    The Power BI reports are useful tools, but they may not cover everything that you want to know. If you require anything in addition to these contact your faculty planning team.

Contact

Contact us

For further guidance from the strategic planning directorate contact planning@mmu.ac.uk or the faculty planning teams:

If you have further questions about programme and unit-level data, please contact Orlagh McCabe.

O.McCabe@mmu.ac.uk