Data specifications – Data System Refresh programme

Ngā whakatakotoranga raraunga – hōtaka Tāmata Pūnaha Raraunga

This page provides information about data specifications for the Single Data Return (SDR), the SDR transition webinars, and other information.

The documents below contain the data specifications for SDR (v1.0) for March 2025 indicative allocation (IND) and/or April 2025 SDR, with associated example CSV files, as well as changes to data specifications for August 2025 SDR, along with updated example CSV files.

Data Specifications for Single Data Return

These are the latest data specifications for SDR for March 2025 IND and/or April 2025 SDR:

Data Specification for the Single Data Return (v1.0) (DOCX 1.2 MB)

In addition, final-year Fees Free data and other data required for the first time in the August 2025 SDR is provided here:  

Data changes for August 2025 SDR v0.1 (DOCX 936 KB)

We will integrate these changes into the Data Specification for SDR in early May 2025 just after the April SDR submission. Example csv files including data required from August 2025 SDR are provided below.

 Important note: using any of the new fields in an SDR submission before August 2025 means it will fail validation.

Table of changes (latest data specification)

Date	Version	Explanation of the Change
22 November 2024	v1.0	Updates to validation rule descriptions.
25 September 2024	v0.7	Updated the ‘Intramural/Extramural Attendance’ field in the Course Enrolment file to stay with the existing values of 1–4 and updated validation error descriptions.
11 July 2024	v0.6	Updated Discounted Course Tuition Fee and Discounted Compulsory Course Costs Fee on the Couse Register file from mandatory to optional. Added Disability Services Accessed Indicator back into the Learner file.
14 December 2023	v0.5	Updated for the new Discounted Course Tuition Fee and Discounted Compulsory Course Costs Fee fields on the Course Register file.
11 January 2024	v0.4	Corrected the course register table. Redirected the link to the 2024 course classifications. Previously pointing to the old 2023 classifications.

Example files required for March 2025 IND and/or April 2025 SDR

For a guide to CSV files, see Guide to CSV files v0.2 (PDF 409 KB).

Changes to file headers

Date	File	Change	Comment
7 Oct 2024	Course Register	Removed special character -	Renamed: Tuition fee paid by international fee-paying student – now Tuition fee paid by international fee paying student
7 Oct 2024	Course Enrolment	Removed special character '	Renamed: Student's Course Withdrawal Date – now Student Course Withdrawal Date
7 Oct 2024	Course Enrolment	Removed special character /	Renamed: Intramural/Extramural Attendance – now Intramural or Extramural Attendance
29 May 2024	Learner	Removed special character -	Renamed: Tuition fee paid by international fee-paying student – now Tuition fee paid by international fee paying student

Example files required from August 2025 SDR

Reference data for SDR and Work-based data specifications

The reference data lists values for specific fields referred to in the Data Specifications. Reference data will be aligned to the Stats NZ definitions (where possible).

DXP Data Classifications Appendices (v0.3) (XLSX 173 KB)

SDR transition webinars and other information

Below are the SDR transition webinars and other information for your reference.

Date	Topic	Links
27 November 2024	Overview of SDR transition to DXP Ngā Kete	Webinar Presentation slides (PDF 898 KB)
12 February 2025	SDR transition, registers and the March IND	Webinar
9 April 2025	April SDR	Webinar
Mid-May 2025	August SDR – updates to the Data Specifications for SDR v1.1	Webinar