With the great uncertainty about registrations and fee income leading up to, and at the start of, the September 2020 trimester, additional weekly censuses were taken from 20th September to 21st November. Once the first couple of weeks were over, the weekly censuses showed a stable position. The final census took place after the date for student withdrawal and so is expected to provide a solid base for forecasting income for the full year.

The College and School census reports available to run on InfoHub are configured to use the census as at the 1st November. The November Census Packs use more recent data - as at 21 November - as that was the latest dataset from which the full year forecast was prepared.

A full-year forecast of fee income and fee-related expenditure is prepared in association with the censuses in November, February and March. For each, a 2 stage process is followed whereby an initial calculated forecast is prepared to apply historic trends to the current data and then each Finance Manager reviews the data and amends where appropriate to take account of local circumstances.

Gross Fee Income

Parameters for the calculated forecast are based on the trend displayed in the prior year between November, Feb. and March respectively through to July. For example, for a category of fee income, if July fee income was 101% of November's, then a parameter of 101% is used for that category.

The calculated parameter may be adjusted slightly to reflect expected current year circumstances.

Finance Managers then review the calculated forecast and amend it to take account of local circumstances.

A block of Stage 1 undergraduate module registrations are held against a 'holding' module in Trimester 1 and are then registered to schools in Trimester 2. The November forecast also includes an estimated adjustment to allow for this.

Fee Related Expenditure

The final outturn for fee related expenditure in the prior year is used as the starting point for forecasting this year's fee related expenditure.

For each level (UG, GT etc.), for EU and NonEU, the prior year's fee related expenditure was scaled in proportion to gross fee income for the first stage of the forecast. For example if NonEU GR fee income for a school in November is 10% higher than last year's NonEU GR fee income, then the calculated fee related expenditure forecast is 10% higher than last year's actual fee related expenditure for that category.

Finance Managers then reviewed the forecasted data and amended it to take account of local circumstances.

Some Majors owned by other schools are designated as 'Shared Majors' when preparing 5 Year Plans.

This means that plans will be updated as they are changed by the other school and will be reported separately. This is useful for majors that have a significant impact on your school. However there are also many majors that have very little impact on your school and are planned and reported together as an aggregate Other Majors amount rather than major-by-major.

Each school can change which majors they designate as Shared Majors ahead of each 5 Year Planning cycle. If a school adds a major to it's Shared Majors plan then it only applies to the upcoming 5 Year Plan, not to the historic plan. Therefore data in the historic plan will continue to be reported under the category of Other Majors, not as Shared Majors.

Further queries and explanations will be added here as they arise.

Who should I contact with any queries about the Census ?

Please contact your College Finance Manager with any queries about the census.

Is the Budget used in calculating Performance Based Funding for my school:

In the UCD financial model, Performance Based Funding is earned by schools based on comparing the Net Fee Income earned in the year versus the Budget Target. Further details on the UCD financial model are set out here.

The Budget shown on the Census Reports is the plan submitted by the school in the most recent five year planning cycle. Accordingly it allows a school to see how fee income is performing versus the school's own plan.

The Budget Target, which is set formulaically and is used in calculating Performance Based Funding, is an overall Net Fee Income target. The School Overview By Level report shows the forecasted Performance Based Funding for the school. The College Overview By Unit report shows the forecasted Performance Based Funding for each school and for the college itself.

Is there an Exchange Adjustment in November 2020 Census ?

The Exchange Adjustment re-attributes income earned from students going out on exchange based on the module registrations of incoming exchange students. The income is earned as undergraduate income, but is attributed as occasional income. In 2020 there is very little exchange activity and so a very small amount of fee income is re-attributed in this way. For schools that normally have exchange activity, and do not in 2020, undergraduate income is slightly higher than usual, and occasional income slightly lower than usual, because there is so little exchange activity.

What Terms are included in the censuses ?

The censuses collate information from 3 Term Codes. In November 2020, we are combining the new September 2020 term with previous January 2020 and April 2020 terms. As we move through the year, we will replace January and April terms with the 2020/21 versions. If the registration and fee position is materially different in 2020/21 to last year, this will affect later censuses in this year. Overall, 95% of Fee Income is registered against the September term, so changes are unlikely to be material for most schools, but there may be individual cases where the difference is material, e.g. if a significant January start programme is being dropped this year.