Revising Higher Education Course of Study (CO) data

How to revise Course of Study data

The following section includes information about how you revise data you have previously reported on the Course of study (CO) file. Depending on the type of elements there are some rules around how to revise your data.

The main component for revising course data is the key elements. These are the primary values that uniquely identify a record. HEIMS uses these key elements to locate an existing record in the database.

Key elements for a record on the Course of study (CO) file are:

• Course of study code (element 533)
• Course code (element 307)
• Course of study load (element 350)
• Course of study type code (element 310)
• Reporting Year and Period Code (element 415)

There are three main principles that apply to course of study data:

1. The key elements must remain the same for the life of the course of study
2. A course code (element 307) can only be linked to one course of study.
3. If a course or a course of study is updated or restructured in some way that changes the key elements, a new course/course of study must be created.

1. How to revise elements 308, 394

The Course name - full (element 308) and Course of study name - (element 394) can be revised at any time using the following process:

1. Create a new Course of Study submission in HEPCAT
2. Add the existing record, including all key elements as originally reported, to the Course of Study (CO) file
3. Add the new value for the element to be revised
4. Validate the file in HEPCAT and submit the data to the department
5. Check the revised data in your HEIMS Online reports.

Note: If you change E308, the value will only be updated for the reported year. The values for all other years will remain unchanged from the original reported value. Changes to E394 will change for all reported years.

2. How to revise key elements 307, 350, 310, 455, 533

These are the key elements for a course of study and can only be revised if an element has been reported incorrectly through a genuine administrative error.

All revisions to these elements must be coordinated through the department. Contact HEIMS data collections.

Note: Changes to these elements will affect all students who have been enrolled in the course of study. For example, a change to the length of a course for 2018 will change the length of the course for all reported years.

3. How to revise elements 461, 462, 312

These elements can be reported with a different value for a new reporting year. You can report the new value when you first submit your Course of Study submission for the year.

The elements cannot change during the year. Revisions to these values must be coordinated through the department. Contact HEIMS data collections.

Note: If you change one of these elements for a particular year, the value(s) will only be updated for this year. The values for all previous years will remain unchanged from the original reported value.