The feds propose to simplify the bewildering blather of statistics they extract via the Higher Education Information Management System (CMM January 25). This strikes the Innovative Research Universities as, up to a point, a good thing, which addressing its technical concerns, would make even better. For example, the IRU opposes ending “no information” codes on student enrolment data, “as many students do not know their long-term address at time of enrolment.” Overall the IRU could not resist giving HEIMS a character assessment suggesting that for “completeness and usability” its output does not match the VOCED stats produced by the estimable National Centre for Vocational Education and Training.