Glossary
ILR
Individualised Learner Record
The data return in which a provider records every funded learner and every learning aim they deliver, and the basis on which funding is calculated and performance measured.
In full
The Individualised Learner Record is the return that carries one record per learner and, within it, one record per learning aim. It is generated from the provider's own student record system and submitted for each collection period of the funding year.
Almost everything downstream reads the ILR: the funding calculation, the funding reports, the published achievement rates and the population an auditor samples from. That is why ILR quality is a funding and reputational matter, not only an administrative one.
The rules behind this
The Individualised Learner Record is the data return through which providers record the learners they enrol and the learning they deliver, and it is the basis on which funding is calculated and performance is measured.
In further education, funding is not paid simply because a college says it taught someone. It is earned by recording what was delivered in the Individualised Learner Record, and that record is what the funding calculation, the performance measures and any audit all read from.
Where this comes up
module
The anatomy of the ILR
What is actually inside the Individualised Learner Record: the entities, how they nest, and which fields carry the funding.
diagnostic
Continuing learners from last academic year who do not appear in this year’s ILR
Your current year’s ILR must include any learning aims which were reported as continuing in the previous year’s final ILR return, even if the actual end date is in the previous funding year. Aims are identified as continuing when the Completion status is code 1. Failure to report timely and accurate withdrawals data in your previous year’s R14 return may have resulted in a funding overclaim. It may also affect your qualification achievement rates (QARs).
diagnostic
Loans learning not being recorded in ILR
You must accurately complete all ILR fields for loans-funded learners and make ILR returns as required in the ILR specification and the provider support manual.
diagnostic
The ILR file should not have more than one record with the same ULN
There should not be more than one Learner record with the same ULN, except where the ULN is 9999999999
diagnostic
An aim is on the ILR but generates no funding
The aim validates and appears on the ILR, but generates no earnings. Validation and funding are different tests: a record can be perfectly valid and still not qualify for funding.
diagnostic
A learner left weeks ago but is still showing as continuing
The learner has stopped attending, but the ILR still shows their aim as open with no actual end date, so the system believes they are still in learning and keeps generating funding for them.
Sources
These are the official documents this page rests on. Where a figure, a deadline or an exact rule matters, the document is the authority and this page is the explanation.
Content reused from GOV.UK is Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence. FEFunding is not endorsed by the Department for Education.