General
Terms which apply broadly across higher education and UCAS providers.
This range from qualifications and awarding bodies to UCAS systems and application decisions.
Here you can check a range of higher education and UCAS terminology.
Terms which apply broadly across higher education and UCAS providers.
This range from qualifications and awarding bodies to UCAS systems and application decisions.
Awarding Body Linkage – awarding organisations have an agreement to let UCAS have exam results before their publication date.
For providers who have signed and agreed to the results embargo agreement, this allows them to make Confirmation decisions for applicants with pending exam results, in time for publication day.
The applicant’s usual home:
Where the provider or conservatoire offers the applicant a course different to the one they originally applied for
When an applicant completely withdraws from the scheme
General Certificate of Education Advanced level
General Certificate of Secondary Education
Higher Education Classification of Subjects – a subject coding system which has replaced JACS (Joint Academic Coding System)
International Baccalaureate Organisation
International English Language Testing System
Irish Leaving Certificate
Joint Academic Network
A managed secure file transfer service
National Vocational Qualification
The technology service available to bulk send and receive data between a provider/conservatoire and UCAS
Outstanding Decisions List – a list of applicants who a provider or conservatoire hasn't made decisions on yet
Other educational qualifications
The year of the course that the applicant wants to be begin at – referred to in the Collection Tool as their ‘entry point’
Reject by default – UCAS rejects outstanding decisions, not yet made by the provider, by the relevant deadline
Reject decision on application
The period when providers are supplied with exam results prior to their publication for applicants
A unique five-digit number allocated by UCAS to schools, colleges and careers offices – Apply centre registered as the ‘last educational establishment’
The Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework
The collective name for web-link, odbc-link and xml-link – which are the methods of transmitting applicant information to and from UCAS
A Unique Learner Number (ULN) is a 10-digit reference number, used to access the Personal Learning Record of anyone over the age of 14 in UK education or training
Withdrawal decision on application
Our interactive web-based application management support tool that's available to send and receive individual applicant data between providers and UCAS. It's also used by smaller providers to manage decision processing.
The technology service available to bulk send and receive data between provider and UCAS
While this isn't an exhaustive list of admissions tests, here are some of the well-known ones:
A change of decision, affecting the course, point of entry, year of entry, campus or conditions of entry – made after an initial decision has been processed
Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning
A four-digit alphanumeric application code for UCAS Undergraduate courses, chosen by the user, subject to the following validation rules:
A course that isn't currently offered – which must also be closed to applications and not published in the collection tool
Conditional offer made to applicant
Conditional offer, declined by applicant
Acceptance in Confirmation for an alternative course, campus, date of entry or point of entry
Conditional offer, accepted by applicant as insurance choice
Providers must consider all applications for each course on an equal basis if they're received on or before the relevant deadline
Invitation made to an applicant to attend an interview, audition, or provide a portfolio, essay or other piece of work
A joint admissions entity is created between or by existing providers to enable recruitment to courses offered by the entity and validated by the existing providers. Each entity has a separate entry in the UCAS search tool.
Applications for courses received by us after 18:00 on the equal consideration deadline and before 18:00 on 30 June inclusive
A provider is an admissions entity represented in the UCAS search tool
Referred
Releasing a UF applicant into Clearing
Providers can select Search subjects from a hierarchical list of terms, to help them classify the content of a course accurately
Adding a ‘Stop’ to an application will prevent a Confirmation reject by default – this is only available during Confirmation
Unconditional offer made to applicant
Unconditional offer firmly accepted – applicant is placed
Unconditional offer, held firmly by applicant, but not with you – an applicant shown as UFE with you is placed elsewhere as a UF
Offer made by provider when the applicant has met specified conditions, or has already met entry requirements when they applied
Guaranteed conditional offer made to an applicant dependent on achieving specified grades in upcoming examinations, or meeting financial requirements
Guaranteed unconditional offer made to applicant when the applicant has already met all entry requirements
Reserve conditional offer made to applicant dependent on achieving specified grades in upcoming examinations
Reserve unconditional offer made to applicant when the conservatoire is satisfied the applicant has met all entry requirements
VU1 – reserve unconditional offer accepted by applicant as first choice
VU2 – reserve unconditional offer accepted by applicant as second choice
VUD – reserve unconditional offer declined by applicant
Check documentation – excel spreadsheet containing a summary of provider's course data
Key technical documents on a webpage for each HESA collection, containing the data collection schedule, data specifications and submission formats
Alongside ProgID – the critical paired course data fields required for the Unistats submission
Displays the provider’s courses for the last three years of student data that are eligible for inclusion in the Unistats return
Providers use this to send their data to HESA
Governs access to HESA systems, including the Data Collection System, via assignment of the appropriate role – e.g. the KIS Submitter role allows access to submit data via the Data Collection System
Alongside CourseID – the critical paired course data fields required for the Unistats submission