UCAS - Course Search keywords

Course Search keywords

Attach keywords to courses that are located in Course Search to indicate areas of the programme content

The use of keywords is advantageous to both you and potential applicants. When an applicant uses our Course Search facility to search for available courses, they can choose a keyword by which to search, known as the 'subject search'. All courses with this keyword will then be displayed, so applicants are informed about appropriate courses, and your course is promoted.

Recent analysis of unique IP address use of the UCAS Course Search indicates that the subject search is by far the most popular of the 3 search options currently available*.

Allocating keywords

This is done through the web-link (courses) interface by the following route from the main course menu:

Select year
Select 'Course Details'
On course menu, select 'Course Search keywords'.

Keywords attached to courses can be viewed in either keyword order or in alphabetical order of course title. Keywords may be classed as 'Single subject' or not, and as 'Main' or 'SUG' (Suggested). These terms are explained below.

From either of these views, clicking on a course title will display the 'Course Search keywords' selection page. An alternative route to this is from the 'Course Details' page:

Select 'Course Details'
Choose a course
In the 'Course Details' page, click on the orange 'Course Search keywords' link at the top of the page.

The 'Course Search keywords' selection page is split into two parts.

The left of the screen shows the keyword(s) currently attached to the course.
The right of the screen lists the available keywords in alphabetical order, from which you can select up to 10 keywords. To do this you need to understand the keyword types.

Types of keyword

Main keyword: This is generally a broad subject category, usually expressed as a single word, for example 'Business'.
Suggested keyword (SUG): Where a search on a main keyword identifies more than 200 courses, the Course Search user is prompted to select from a set of secondary keywords or phrases. These are the more specific 'Suggested keywords' attached to the courses identified. For example, 'Business Administration' is one of a range of 'Suggested keywords' which could be attached to a Business course (there are more than 60 others to choose from). A course in Business Administration would typically have this as the 'Suggested keyword', with 'Business' as the main keyword.
However, if a course only has a 'Suggested keyword' and not a related 'Main keyword', the course will not be displayed in any search under the 'Main keyword' alone.
Single subject: Main keywords can be ticked as 'Single subject'. This means that the course will be displayed by a keyword search on the subject, when the user chooses the 'single subject' option below. You may have a maximum of two keywords indicated as single subjects per course.

If the keyword describes only one component of a joint or major/minor course, the 'Single subject' box should not be ticked.

Saving the allocation

Once the required number and type of keywords have been allocated (up to the limit of 10), the results are saved to one or both available years by clicking one of the 'Update' buttons.

Selecting another course

To move to another course, either enter the UCAS course code (and option code, if applicable) at the bottom left of the screen and click on 'View New Course', or return to the list screen by clicking on 'Course/Keyword list' (or 'Keyword/Course list') near the top right of the screen.

Adding new valid keywords

There are over 4,500 valid keywords to choose from, but additions to the list may be requested by an email to the Data Collection Team at coursesdata@ucas.ac.uk.

*Between January and March 2010, approximately 600,000 unique IP addresses accessed the UCAS course code search function. During the same time period, almost 5 million unique IP addresses accessed the UCAS subject search function.