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Programmes and data

Here we explain the difference between programmes and courses, and give you guidance on entering course data and the approval process.

Programmes and courses

A programme is an area of study. It's the umbrella term for all the different types of courses that come under it. A number of courses make up a programme. Courses in a programme differ by one or more of the following:
  • qualification
  • study mode
  • attendance
  • venue
  • duration
  • joint or minor option
Key information entered at programme level will copy across to all courses associated with it, reducing the need for inputting the same data for similar courses.

For example, a 'Tourism' programme could be made up of the following courses:

  • BSc (Hons) Tourism (at main campus)
  • BSc Tourism (at main campus)
  • BSc (Hons) Tourism (at campus y)
  • HND Tourism (at campus x)

Programme example:

programmes and data infogrpahic

A person playing a saxophone

Entering data

For UCAS Undergraduate and UCAS Conservatoires courses, there's a restriction of one start date per month and there's a maximum of two cycles of data in Course Collect (this might increase in the future).

We're using these course levels in Course Collect:

  • Undergraduate degree
  • Postgraduate
  • HE level 2 (HNDs, DipHEs and foundation degrees)
  • HE level 1 (HNCs and CertHE)
  • HE Level 0 (foundation year)
  • Other

Initially, campus codes will be restricted to the existing single character code as they're used in the application process. We've got plans to introduce a new five-character code to replace this when our other systems have been updated.

The approval process

We'll continue to support you, but we've transferred more responsibility to you.

  • The main changes we need to approve are the addition of all new programmes and courses (or major changes like titles or descriptions).
  • You can set up internal approval processes for other information – this replaces the old Entry Profiles process.
  • Automatic business rules significantly reduce the amount of invalid data that can be added to the system.
  • The provision of selected management information reports is expected to improve institutions' own internal quality assurance processes.

Aside from the reports available, we monitor how complete your data is and let you know about any important sections that aren't present.

HESA return

We collect data from our applicants and higher education providers. There's information here about HESA, now part of JISC, and details about the UCAS Data for HESA statutory returns transaction (previously known as STAR (*) J). HESA became a directorate of JISC following their merger in 2022, but this activity will still refer to HESA.