Glossary

Accepted applicants (accepts)
Successful UCAS applicants. The numbers of accepted applicants are close, but not necessarily identical, to the numbers who actually enrol.

Age
An applicant's age (in years) at the end of the September before entry to higher education. Usually presented in detail (Age 11 categories) or summarised into broad age bands (Age 4 categories).

Applicants
UCAS applicants are those who apply to full-time, undergraduate higher education courses offered by universities or colleges in membership of the UCAS scheme.

Applications
Each applicant may make up to six applications to different courses and/or institutions. From 2000 entry onwards applicants to Medicine were limited to four applications. From 2001 entry this restriction also applied to Dentistry and Veterinary science applicants.

AS/CSYS to 2001 entry
Replaced by Tariff from 2002 entry.

Indicates whether applicants held Advanced Supplementary (AS) or Certificate of Sixth Year Studies (CSYS) qualifications. Note that the Advanced Subsidiary replaced the Advanced Supplementary for 2001 entry.

Clearing
Clearing is a UCAS service that helps applicants who have applied after 30 June (or after 12 June for Art and Design Route B), and applicants who applied before 30 June without a university or college place, to find suitable vacancies on higher education courses.

During Clearing, applicants contact institutions directly about admission. If an institution makes a formal offer and the applicant accepts that offer, then UCAS is informed and the applicant is placed. Only the number of applicants accepted in Clearing is available; the number of applicants is not known as not all of those eligible to apply do so.

For statistical purposes, Clearing accepts include those accepted through Extra and direct entrants, unless otherwise stated.

Commonwealth
Applicant region is based on the home postcode (UK) or the area of permanent residence (overseas). Commonwealth indicates whether applicants are domiciled in the UK, Commonwealth or Other.

Course type
An applicant may make applications to degree courses, HND courses, or a combination of both. DipHE courses and Foundation Degrees are coded to Degree for statistical purposes. HNC courses are coded to HND.

Decisions
The offers made by institutions to their applicants. Some details of the conditions are recorded by UCAS.

Deferred entry
Approximately 20,000 applicants made at least one application for deferred entry in each of the past three years. These applicants appear in UCAS statistics only in the year in which they apply. Therefore an applicant who is accepted in 1998 for deferred entry in 1999 appears in the data for 1998 entry only.

Direct entrants
Applicants accepted using Overseas Partnership Forms and Records of Prior Acceptance (2001 onwards) or the Late Registration process (prior to 2001 entry).

Disability
Applicants are asked to declare any disability on the UCAS application form. Provision of this information is voluntary and applicants are advised that they may choose only to inform the institutions to which they apply directly. Disability data are available only for home applicants.

The wording used to instruct applicants on how to declare a disability changed between 1998 and 1999 (unseen disabilities). In addition, for 2003 entry the Dyslexia category has been extended to other specific learning difficulties (including Dyslexia); the Personal care support category has been abolished; and a further, Autistic disorder, category has been introduced.

Disability comparisons between the earlier and latter years should, therefore, be treated with caution.

Domicile
Applicant region is based on the home postcode (UK) or the area of permanent residence (overseas). Domicile indicates whether applicants are Home (UK), EU (excluding UK), or Other overseas domiciled.

Educational background
An applicant's previous school or college type. The type is derived from the National Schools Register. Usually presented by detailed type (Educational establishment) or grouped (Educational sector). The Unknown group includes some applicants from miscellaneous agencies, such as careers offices.

For 1998 entry, there were amendments made to the classification of school types, rendering them not comparable to previous years. The 1998 and 1999 datasets includes an OLDSector variable to provide previous educational establishment sectors corresponding to earlier UCAS data. Educational establishment has been dropped for 2003 entry owing to difficulties associated with accurately reporting establishment at this resolution. In addition, minor reporting expansions have been made to educational sector labels.

Ethnicity
Applicants are asked to record their ethnic origin on the UCAS application form. Provision of this information is voluntary and it is not passed to institutions until after the selection process. Ethnicity is published in detail (Ethnic origin) or summarised into broad groupings (Ethnic group). Ethnicity data are only available for home (UK domiciled) applicants.

There have been a number of changes to the Ethnic origin classifications between 2001 and 2005 entry, including the division of White into British/Irish/Scottish/Other and the introduction of other groupings such as mixed and Chinese. Direct comparisons between the years are therefore not recommended.

Extra
UCAS Extra enables applicants who have used all six choices but are without an offer to have an additional choice (or choices) through UCAS without having to wait until Clearing. Extra operates from mid-March to the end of June.

Grade (to 2001 entry)
From 2002 entry, the UCAS Tariff replaced Grade in UCAS data.

A level points scores (calculated for A levels and AS), number of SCE (now SQC) Higher passes or GNVQ grade (Pass, Merit, Distinction). A levels were scored as follows, out of a maximum of 30 points: A=10; B=8; C=6; D=4; E=2)

Institution (HE)
UCAS membership is limited to universities and colleges offering higher education courses, and extends to all UK universities (except the OU), most colleges of higher education and a number of colleges of further education. UCAS membership varies from year to year and changes in membership may skew statistics. Usually presented by individual HE institution (Institution name/Institution code) or the region of the university or college (Institution region). (Institution order can be used in the Annual Datasets to order the institutions as for published reports.)

Due to reasons of confidentiality, data available on individual HE institutions is limited. More detailed application and accepted applicant data is sometimes available by Institution region.

Institution (HE) region
HE region shows the Government Office Region in which the university or college is located. (Labelled Institution region in Annual Datasets.)

Before 1998 entry, UCAS presented regional data by Standard Statistical Region, which is not directly comparable with Government Office Region (GOR). Regions most affected by the change include the North (now divided into the North East and North West regions) and the North West (which has been expanded to include the county of Cumbria, formerly in the North). Merseyside, which was previously included in the North West, is now listed independently. East Anglia was redefined and expanded as the Eastern region, including Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. Consequently, the South East region became substantially smaller.

Main qualification (to 2001 entry)
From 2002 entry, the UCAS Tariff replaced Main qualification in UCAS data.

Up to 2001 entry, applicants were categorised according to their Main qualification, derived from a UCAS rank order of qualifications. For applicants holding more than one type of qualification, only the highest qualification was counted. Includes some GNVQ grade information where applicable. Qualification data are only available for UK applicants.

Main scheme
The UCAS Main scheme runs from 1 September to 15 January, the advisory closing date for UK and EU applications (excluding art and design Route B).

Region
Applicant region is based on the home postcode (UK) or the area of permanent residence (overseas). A number of Applicant regional breakdowns are usually available for UCAS data, including Region: country (Government Office Region); Region: continent; Domicile; and Commonwealth.

Region: continent
Applicant region is based on the home postcode (UK) or the area of permanent residence (overseas).The continent of domicile also subdivides Europe between UK, EU and non-EU.

Region: country
Applicant region is based on the home postcode (UK) or the area of permanent residence (overseas). Region: country shows the UK Government Office Region (GOR) of UK applicants, or the country of domicile of non-UK applicants. (Labelled Region2 in annual datasets.)

Before 1998 entry, UCAS presented regional data by Standard Statistical Region, which is not directly comparable with Government Office Region (GOR). Regions most affected by the change include the North (now divided into the North East and North West regions) and the North West (which has been expanded to include the county of Cumbria, formerly in the North). Merseyside, which was previously included in the North West, is now listed independently. East Anglia was redefined and expanded as the Eastern region, including Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. Consequently, the South East region became substantially smaller.

Reply
The reply made by applicants to institutional offers.

Social class (to 2001 entry)
From 2002 entry, Socio-economic classifications replaced Social class in UCAS data.

UCAS assigned Social class based on an applicant's parental occupation (or the occupation of the person contributing the highest income to the household if the applicant is aged 21 years or over). Provision of this information was voluntary, and not passed to institutions until after the selection process. Social class data are only available for home (UK domiciled) applicants.

Socio-economic status (2002 entry onwards)
From 2002 entry, Socio-economic status (NS-SEC) replaced Social class in UCAS data.

UCAS now uses the Standard Occupational Classification 2000, which replaces the Standard Occupational Classification 1990 used up to and including 2001 entry. UCAS assigns Socio-economic status based on an applicant's parental occupation (or the occupation of the person contributing the highest income to the household if the applicant is aged 21 years or over) and uses a simplified version of the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) since UCAS does not collect employment status or size of organisation from applicants.

Provision of this information is voluntary and it is not passed to institutions until after the selection process. Socio-economic status data are only available for home (UK domiciled) applicants.

To enable comparisons with previous years, Socio-economic status is provided for earlier years in UCAS data, and has been derived using the matrix published by the Office for National Statistics.

Subject
UCAS subject classifications now employ the Joint Academic Coding System (JACS). JACS, introduced for 2002 entry, replaces UCAS' Standard Classification of Academic Subjects (SCAS), which was used up to and including 2001 entry. Usually presented by broad subject area (Subject group) or detailed subject of study (Subject line).

Where applicants apply to more than one subject area, the subject group listed most frequently on the application form is counted (preferred subject). For some subjects, this creates the impression that there are more people accepted than applied.

For more information on subject classifications, click here.

Tariff (2002 entry onwards)
From 2002 entry, the UCAS Tariff replaced Main qualification in UCAS data.

The UCAS Tariff establishes agreed equivalences between different types of qualifications, and reports achievement for entry to higher education in a numerical format. This allows comparisons between applicants with different types and volumes of achievement. Tariff data are only available for UK applicants.