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The Higher Education Statistics Agency is the official agency for the collection, analysis and dissemination of quantitative information about higher education.

It was set up by agreement between the relevant government departments, the higher education funding councils and the universities and colleges in 1993, following the White Paper “Higher Education: a new framework”, which called for more coherence in HE statistics, and the 1992 Higher and Further Education Acts, which established an integrated higher education system throughout the United Kingdom.

HESA is a private company limited by guarantee and a registered charity which has formal agreements with government departments to provide the data which they require, and it is funded by subscription from all of the universities and higher education colleges throughout the United Kingdom.

The University is required to send some of the information we hold about staff and students to HESA. Copies of the HESA collection notices for the staff, student and leavers survey may be found at the following link: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/about/regulation/data-protection/notices