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Contextualised admissions

Contextual data provides additional information about the applicant and their school or college, to enable contextual admissions.

Where does contextual data come from?

There are multiple sources of contextual data, such as: 

  • UCAS' contextual data service 
  • commercial sources
  • other sources (e.g. direct from government departments/agencies) 
  • universities' and colleges' own data and research  

What data is available? 

The contextual data service supplies historic data (going back to 2008) about an applicant’s school or college. 

It also provides local area data in the form of POLAR2, POLAR3, POLAR4, and the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). 

For the 2024 cycle, we've updated the school and college level data where available. 

The following data is available for use in the 2024 admissions cycle: 

Measure England NI Scotland Wales
Average QCA Points per A-Level Entry Yes      
% of students entitled to free school meals (FSM) Yes Yes   Yes
Average Attainment 8 Score Yes      
% of students entitled to Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA)   Yes Yes  
% of students registered to free school meals (FSM)     Yes  
Average UCAS points for Highers per student     Yes*  
Average UCAS points score for Highers per entry     Yes*  
Percentage of students achieving 5 A-C Grades (Inc English/Welsh and maths)       Yes

*Only available in web-link

When is the data available? 

The data, which refers to the previous year’s school cohort, is published by UK education departments in January and collected and processed by UCAS in spring. This is then made available to providers in early September ahead of the following admissions cycle. 

How do I access the data? 

To use the contextual data service, you need to register with us, and make it clear to applicants that you’re accessing this, and how it is being used in the admissions process.   

If you have already signed up to receive contextual data, then you will continue to receive it as per previous years. If you haven’t already registered and want more information, please email our customer success team at cst@ucas.ac.uk. 

The data is available through all UCAS link products, with the exception of the following measures, which are only available in web-link. 

Scotland: Average UCAS point for Highers per student, and average UCAS point score for Highers per entry, and fields labelled 2014+.

Accessing contextual data through odbc-link and xml-link

Contextual data is available through:


ODBC View: 

'CVREFSCHOOLCONTEXTUALDATA' (please note this will only be available until December 2023 when ODBC-Link is decommissioned)

XML Method:

getUCASApplicantContextualData , getContextualData

More information on how to access contextual data through the link products is available in the system guides.

Modernised contextualised data service

MEM – the multiple equality measure – calculates the probability of your applicants entering higher education based on several equality factors, enabling contextual admissions.  

What can I expect to receive from this service?

The data provided to you through this service will give you an insight into an applicant’s individual circumstances.

It includes:

  • Verified free school meals (FSM) status for applicants from state schools
  • Verified bursary indicator for applicants from independent schools
  • Multiple equality measure (MEM)1 and MEM2 groups
  • Applicant grade profile adjusted for applicant’s equality context
  • Index of multiple deprivation (IMD) quintile
  • POLAR4 quintile

Alongside this data, you’ll receive technical notes, which explain the methodology involved, and details of the data fields included.

The data is available for UK 18 and 19 year olds.

How do I register for this service?

If you don’t currently subscribe to MCDS, but want to access the data, complete our webform to sign up.

Questions? Email mcds@ucas.ac.uk and we’ll be happy to help.

How do I register for this service?

Existing MCDS customers will receive MEM2021 via MOVEit automatically in the same file – so there is no need to sign up.

If you don’t currently subscribe to MCDS, but want to access MEM2021, complete our webform to sign up.

Questions? Email mcds@ucas.ac.uk and we’ll be happy to help.

Once registered, when and how can I access this data?

Participating providers will receive CSV files via MOVEit, our secure file transfer service. For help using MOVEit, view our  MOVEit user guide (434.22 KB)

Supporting Professionalism in Admissions (SPA) produced independent and objective evidence-based good practice resources to support the recruitment and selection of students.Here, you will find SPA resources relating to contextualised admissions.

In 2017, UCAS took the difficult decision to withdrawn funding from SPA, however UCAS intends to continue to update and produce new good practice where there is sufficient demand from the admissions community. Therefore, these resources may be updated over time. If you have any feedback, please contact Ben Jordan, Senior Policy and Qualifications Manager at b.jordan@ucas.ac.uk.