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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.