Guide to statistics in the Planning Office

Included this section:

Apportionment of student numbers to Departments

In almost all departmental student numbers produced by the Planning Office, we use a system to apportion students on combined course between the relevant departments. This means that no student is ever double-counted (i.e. the total of all Departments equals the total number of students at the University). It does mean however, that when looking at Departmental student numbers, you will often see fractions of a student, even when looking at numbers of full-time students. Apportionment is not the same as FTE (full-time equivalence), although this term is sometimes (confusingly) used.

All students are apportioned to Departments on the basis of the route on which they are registered.

Undergraduates

  • Students on single subject course (e.g. BSc Chemistry), are counted as 1.0 to the Department concerned
  • Students on major/minor courses (usually those which have a title containing "with" i.e. BA English WITH History of Art), are counted as 1 to the major (or first-named) department
  • Students on equally combined courses (usually those which have a title containing "and" i.e. BA Economics AND Politics), are counted as 0.5 to each department
  • Students on the BA Philosophy, Politics and Economics are counted as 0.33 to each department.

Postgraduates

All postgraduate students are allocated to Departments on the basis of the route on which they are registered. The vast majority of postgraduate routes are entirely within a single department, but there are a few combinations, for example MA Eighteenth Century Studies, which is split equally between English and History.

Full-time Equivalence (FTE)

Student number reports produced by the Planning Office might contain data in the form of either student numbers, or FTE. If the report is at the Departmental level, then regardless of whether the data are student numbers or FTEs, the figures will follow the system of apportionment to Departments.

The calculation of FTE relates to the student's mode of attendance i.e. full-time, part-time, distance learning. The FTE of a full-time student is always 1 (although as mentioned above, in departmental level reports, a full-time student might be apportioned to 2 different departments if they are on a combined course).

If they are not full-time, FTE is a calculation of the student as a fraction of a full-time student, based on a weighting associated with their mode of study. A widely-used rule of thumb is that a part-time student always counts as 0.5 FTE. This is often the case, but modes of study with weightings of 0.33, 0.2, and 0.25 are also used for part-time students.

Examples of FTE calculation

The following examples show how one student in one academic year, on different routes and with different modes of study might be counted in various reports

Route Mode of attendance Counted in headcount as Counted in FTE as FTE calculation
BA English and History Full-time 0.5 to English
0.5 to History		 0.5 to English
0.5 to History		 Full-time so FTE is same as apportionment
BA English Part-time (at 0.5) 1 to English 0.5 to English Single Department so no apportionment,
FTE weighting of mode of study is 0.5,
therefore FTE=1 x 0.5
MA Medieval Studies Full time

0.1 to Archaeology
0.4 to English
0.35 to History
0.15 to History of Art

0.1 to Archaeology
0.4 to English
0.35 to History
0.15 to History of Art 		Full-time so FTE is same as apportionment
MA Eighteenth Century Studies Part-time (at 0.5) 0.5 to English
0.5 to History		 0.25 to English
0.25 to History		 Apportionment based on route is 50% to each Department.
Student's mode is part-time at 0.5 weighting,
therefore FTE in each department = 1 x 0.5 (apportionment) x 0.5 (based on mode)

Mature entrants

Mature students are classed as those over the age of 21 years on entry (note: for some purposes, mature students are classed as those over the age of 25 years on entry).

Undergraduates

Full-time undergraduate student load is calculated on the basis of modules studied (except for undergraduates in the Department of Health Studies). Each full-time undergraduate studies 120 credits over one academic year*. Each module is attached to a department and has a credit rating. The department is allocated the appropriate fraction of a FTE student for each undergraduate registered on the module. For example, a module worth 10 credits with 60 undergraduates registered on it would be worth 5.00 FTEs (10 X 60 / 120).

Part-time undergraduates are allocated as 0.50 FTE each to the department in which they are registered (except for Health Studies).

In order to allow for summer term modular choices to be entered, the earliest point at which the undergraduate modular load can be calculated is March. This may lead to some slight variation between different measures of the student population (which are elsewhere based on a census date of 1 December).

* in exceptional circumstances, an undergraduate may be permitted to take slightly more or less than 120 credits in an academic year, provided that across their entire programme of study they successfully complete 360 credits (three-year course) or 480 credits (four-year course).

Department of Health Studies

The Department of Health Studies is not included in the load calculations (except for illustrative purposes) as it is funded through a separate stream of income. Some part-time Health Studies students are on courses where the FTE for a full academic year is 0.25 or 0.20 rather than 0.50.

Visiting students

All visiting students are allocated in full to the department in which they are registered. Their load is derived thus:

Visiting one term only 0.33
Visiting for two terms 0.67
Visiting for whole year 1.00

The following provisos apply:

1. No resource is allocated to departments in respect of incoming exchange students from the Universities of Illinois, York (Ontario) and California; these students are, however, included in the departmental teaching loads.

2. No resource is allocated to departments in respect of incoming ERASMUS students but these students are also included in the departmental teaching loads.

In each of these cases, departments are credited in full with the York student that goes away as the other 'half' of these exchange programmes.

3. Information about load from visiting students has been calculated to allow for spring and summer term visiting students but not for summer-term only visitors or for summer and vacation or vacation only visitors. For this reason load figures summarised in the table do not necessarily equate to numbers-based information elsewhere.

4. No load is allocated to departments in respect of the Norwegian Studies programme for which the participating departments receive alternative compensation (this arrangement currently operates with the departments of English and Educational Studies only).

Postgraduates

Postgraduate load is allocated to the department in which the student is registered, except when the programme of study is 'joint' where the student is split 50/50 between the contributing departments. A full-time student counts as 1.00; a part-time student is worth 0.50. A small number of jointly-supervised research students may also be divided between departments in any given year. Students on the MPhil/DPhil in Communication Studies are divided equally between Psychology, Language & Linguistic Science and Sociology.

The load for students on programmes of study in the Centre for Medieval Studies is allocated to contributing departments in proportion to their associated teaching commitment. Similarly, the load for students on programmes of study in the Centre for Women's Studies is allocated both to that Centre and to contributing departments pro-rata.

Excluded from the statistics

The following are excluded from the statistics:

  • All postgraduate students on extended registration/writing up are excluded from the figures presented.
  • All students either undergraduate or postgraduate who are on leave of absence are excluded from the figures.

Student/Staff ratio

The Student/Staff ratio is calculated by dividing the total student fte for a department by its FTE academic and teaching staff.

Widening participation

Diversity

This is a measurement of the FTE students who meet at least one of three definitions: BME students, mature students and students from disadvantaged social backgrounds.

The definition of BME includes Asian or Asian British (all categories), Black or Black British (all categories), Chinese, Irish Traveller, Mixed (all categories), and Other Asian, Black, Ethnic, Mixed. Ethnicity data is collected by UCAS for undergraduates and via an equal opportunities form for postgraduates.

Data on disadvantaged background is based on the socio-economic classification collected by UCAS, using the National Statistics Socio-economic classification (below), and includes students from classes 4-7 inclusive:

1. Higher managerial and professional occupations

2. Lower managerial and professional occupations

3. Intermediate occupations

4. Small employers and own account workers

5. Lower supervisory and technical occupations

6. Semi-routine occupations

7. Routine occupations

8. Never worked and long-term unemployed

Internationalisation

This is a measure of the fte of students at all levels who meet at lease one of the following criteria: overseas or EU by domicile; incoming visitors; outgoing visitor on exchange scheme.

Further information

Enquiries about how statistics are produced should be sent to John Busby in the Planning Office (ext 4048).

Last Updated: October 12, 2012 | sjs22@york.ac.uk

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