WIREDGOV

The next Higher Education - Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey is now open and available to all UK higher education institutions (HEIs).

HEFCE and Northern Ireland institutions were informed of this in HEFCE Circular Letter 29/2008, which can be viewed at www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/circlets/2008/cl29_08/. 

The survey period is academic year (August to end July) 2007-08, and the deadline for responses is Monday 26 January 2009. Institutions should ensure that they have:

• updated all information under Part A - the online database
• uploaded Part B - the Microsoft Excel document.
  

Respondents are also asked to retain details of the collection process to expedite any correspondence regarding validation of results.

Guidance and definitions are available at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/faq/hebci.htm along with a selection of frequently asked questions.

Extranet codes
As explained in the circular letter at the first link above, revised security protocols mean that we cannot send extranet codes by e-mail. These were therefore included in the hard copy letters sent to heads of HEIs and not in the e-mail copy sent to contacts; do please contact HEFCE if you do not have the correct codes. Otherwise, HE-BCI remains an entirely electronic process.

Future surveys
This is the last year that HEFCE is running the survey on behalf of the UK higher education funding bodies and DIUS. HESA will take over collection for 2008-09 onwards and have already written to HEIs to announce this process. 

If you have any questions regarding access to the extranet or the survey process please contact Adrian Day (a.day@hefce.ac.uk, 0117 931 7428)

Alternative HEFCE contacts: Rachel Samuels (r.samuels@hefce.ac.uk 0117 931 7136) and John Halsall (j.halsall@hefce.ac.uk 0117 931 7478)