Exam results and embargo

• U – unclassified
• Q – query
• X – no grade awarded / absent / declined grade
• # – partial absence indicator
• Blank –the result hasn't been sent to us yet

You can't reject applicants before 6 September 2023 (4 September in 2024), unless you know the results have been published and you've contacted the applicants, giving clear instructions and dates for return. 

After this date it's up to you whether you keep a place available for them – though make sure they know the consequences of not providing their exam results.

Applicants who use the review and appeals services have no guarantee their offers will remain open after 6 September, but you're obliged to wait for the result of a review and/or appeal before 6 September. Every effort should be made to accept these students, if possible.

You should make it clear to applicants what the chance of a place this cycle would be, if a successful review or appeal comes through.

Each awarding organisation has its own procedure and timetable for reviews and appeals – visit their websites for details.

You're accountable for upholding the results embargo, leading embargo preparations, and assigning roles and responsibilities in teams across their university, college, or conservatoire. This means that no exam results, or communications about decisions based on results are shared outside your organisation during the results embargo.

Your responsibilities include:

• signing the annual UCAS results embargo agreement
• completing the annual UCAS results embargo online training module
• being the primary, senior contact for all results embargo communications
• cascading UCAS communications and timetables to colleagues and business teams
• cascading the UCAS results embargo online training module to all teams directly, or indirectly associated with results and applicant data
• ensuring your organisation has appropriate governance and contingency plans in place to prevent any breach of the results embargo
• accountability for incident management, in the event of a breach
• attending UCAS results embargo incident meetings, in the event of a breach

We'll support you by providing:

• the annual results embargo online training module
• the annual results embargo agreement
• best practice advice and guidance
• a dedicated provider portal on ucas.com
• the results embargo incident management process and escalation path

• managing business units and assigning tasks and responsibilities, to make sure the embargo period is maintained
• communicating all key messages and timetables to colleagues and business teams
• ensuring online training is completed by you, and your teams directly associated with the embargo period
• ensuring the annual embargo agreement is signed and returned to UCAS 
• being accountable for reporting a breach, or potential breach, to UCAS
• ensuring all business units are ‘embargo ready’
• understanding the necessity of complying fully with all embargoes
• demonstrating strong compliance, in a period of increasingly complex IT systems and competitive admissions
• ensuring there are contingency plans in place, should key staff members be absent during an embargo period

Values of the zero breach preparations to uphold:

• targeting a zero breach position
• ensuring applicants are not disadvantaged
• encouraging providers that have, or may have breached, to contact UCAS
• including proactive training

Outcome:

• A zero breach culture is embedded in your university, college, or conservatoire.

• We'll keep the Primary Correspondent briefed.
• In March, we’ll send an introductory email, giving details of what’s happening and dates for training.

It’s important to keep the two main contacts up-to-date. We'll communicate throughout the year, and it is vital for us and your colleagues to know who you are. Contact the Customer Success Team if any changes occur.

Embargo preparation focuses on sharing best practice and guidance. We’ve developed case studies with providers who have breached, to show you how easily it can happen, and to highlight the checks providers have in place.

• We’ve highlighted three key areas of success for upholding the results embargo – people, technology, and planning.
• The Customer Success Team are here to help you prepare for the results embargo, and answer any questions you may have.
• We have a dedicated Confirmation and Clearing test environment (HEP2) to allow you to practise your Confirmation and Clearing activities at any point during the cycle.
• We have pages on ucas.com for you to pick up hints, tips, and advice around the embargo. We can't emphasise enough the importance of sharing this information with every colleague, whether directly or indirectly impacted by each results embargo.

There's mandatory training for the Primary Correspondent. We refresh the training each year, based on breach patterns from the past – learning from mistakes already made. We also hold a workshop for providers that do breach, addressing areas of significance to improve our training and your knowledge.

Training is available for those involved in all aspects of the admissions process. Think about IT colleagues who send your emails in batches, think about temporary staff who may know nothing about the embargo. Even think about colleagues who may send post, or work on reception.

Visit our Professional Development portal to start your embargo training

Even though training is available early, you can wait for an appropriate time for staff to complete it. You could even ask staff to take the training more than once as a refresh, especially nearer to the embargo periods.

Training is there to help you think about things that may seem obvious but require more thought, and more importantly to instil a zero breach culture within your organisation.

If the applicant has clearly met the conditions of your offer – despite outstanding results (e.g. has met a Tariff points offer or graded offer on their non-embargoed BTEC results alone, before you’ve received GCE results) – you can choose to confirm their place.

We strongly recommend you don't make a decision on an applicant if it’s not for their benefit (i.e. rejection or changed course offers) and you haven't received all their results within an embargo period.

If it would be impossible for the applicant to meet the conditions of your offer – despite outstanding results – you can choose to reject them.

There are obvious benefits to applicants on being given a decision early to avoid delay, but you must check timings of communications and also consider what would happen to the applicant if you made that decision:

• Will the message be received in a timely manner, allowing the applicant to be in receipt of their results and have access to their application?
• What if they are your first choice and you reject them?
• Will the applicant have the support network around them to help with next steps?
• Will you have the support network in place to explain what next?