5.13.15.13.1

We have removed the REF1 'Category C' Staff category and associated metadata fields, and introduced 'Category B' for former staff.

The REF1 Summary screen has been updated accordingly (and will be further updated in an upcoming release, in line with the updated REF2021 submission requirements)

Notes:

• Any existing Category C REF1s will be migrated to 'Pending' Category
• If you have any existing report definitions (including the Excel export of the REF1 editable list) that employ the Category C metadata fields, these will need to be re-configured to remove these fields.
• Check your "Default Staff Category when creating new REF1 records (either manually or via Jobs)" configuration to ensure that your desired setting is maintained
• Where an individual is assigned Category B, not all REF1 metadata fields are displayed (e.g. FTE on census date, Fixed-term contract on census date). We will update the REF1 form to capture the new Category A and Category B data requirements for REF2021 once these are published.

In order to ensure an optimised reporting experience in the new Reporting module, we have introduced character limits (1024) for various REF1 fields:

• Eligible reason
• Submitted reason
• Non Inclusion Nature Of Circumstances
• Total FTE override reason
• Non-UK Based Description
• Start date as an independent researcher override reason
• Start date as academic staff at institution override reason

If any of these fields are already populated and the existing text has been truncated due to the introduction of these character limits, they will be listed in a log, accessible by the Administrator (if no REF1s have been affected, there will be no log):

• Go to Master data > File handles > "REF1 free-text fields migration - truncated properties", and download the attached Excel file.
  
• The file lists all REF1s where text has been truncated, providing the original values. Where a field is empty, this indicates any existing text was not truncated as it was already under 1,024 characters.