Course coding principles

This course coding outline summarises the principles behind the allocation of UCAS course codes and JACS codes to individual courses within the UCAS scheme. For further information, please contact coursesdata@ucas.ac.uk.

Introduction

The Courses Data Team receives a number of new courses each day via web-link from member institutions. These courses must be assigned both a UCAS course code and also between 1 and 3 JACS codes. To help the team assign accurate classification codes to these courses, institutions are strongly encouraged to provide a short summary in the 'Notes and contacts' field of each new course form on web-link, indicating the topics that students can expect to study on the course.

Courses are classified based on course title and content. The 'Full title' field on web-link should be filled in accurately, without abbreviations where at all possible. For combined courses (those where 2 equally weighted subjects are offered together, such as Sport and Finance, or Sport and Design, or major/minor combinations such as Sport with Design) institutions should avoid using a forward slash to indicate the word 'and' or the word 'with'. A forward slash should only be used where a course title would otherwise be written 'and or with'.

The Courses Data Team has a list of standard abbreviations to be used for the 'Full title' and 'Short title' fields on web-link. If you would like further information on this, please email coursesdata@ucas.ac.uk.

Subject classification

Courses are given a subject classification using the JACS codes. A course may be classed as a single subject, a balance of 2 equally weighted subjects, a major/minor combination, or a triple combination of 3 equally weighted subjects. Depending on which of these is chosen, the course will have between 1 and 3 JACS codes assigned to it. Institutions do not have access to these codes until the *J HESA returns are distributed. The JACS codes are used during the compilation process of several UCAS publications including the Progression Guides series, to divide courses into subject-related sections and chapters.

Course coding

The UCAS course codes are generated based on the subject groupings of JACS. However, with the volume of courses that now exist, it is not possible to guarantee that a particular course will receive a particular letter-number code that corresponds directly to a related JACS code. UCAS course codes can only be used once per course during the application cycle.

The UCAS course codes will usually borrow at least one subject area letter from JACS. The UCAS course code may then also include up to 3 more letters, or a combination of letters and numbers.

For example:

A course with the title Medical Technology would relate directly to the JACS code B800 Medical technology. This course would normally be assigned the UCAS course code of B800. However, if the institution already has an active course that uses the B800 UCAS course code, we would assign this new course the next available code between B800 and the following JACS code (which in this case is B810 Cardiography). If all the available numbers between 0 and 9 have already been used for other similar courses at that particular institution, we will then begin to substitute a number for another letter. In this case, if B800 to B809 are in use, then the next code option would be something like B80C or B80D.

Combinations

For courses that consist of an equal balance of 2 subject areas, wherever possible we will maintain the traditional structure of letter/letter/number/number.

For courses that consist of a major/minor subject balance, wherever possible we will maintain the traditional structure of letter/number/letter/number.

For courses with 3 equally balanced subject areas, wherever possible we will maintain the traditional structure of letter/letter/letter/number.

For modular courses traditionally assigned a UCAS course code beginning with a 'Y', these courses should be submitted with adequate content information to enable 3 JACS codes to be assigned to the course. For courses with the title 'Combined Programme' or 'Joint Honours Programme' for example, if the subject areas included within the programme cannot be covered by 3 individual JACS subject areas, then the course combinations should be submitted separately onto web-link so that each combination can be sufficiently classified.

For example:

Course title: Combined Arts Programme

This course would be allocated up to 3 JACS codes drawn from the W - Creative Arts and Design section.

Course title: Humanities Joint Honours Scheme

This course would be allocated up to 3 JACS codes based on the subjects within the scheme, such as V - Historical and Philosophical studies, F800 Physical geographical sciences, or R- European languages, literature and related subjects.

Course title: Joint Honours

This course would be referred back to the institution with a request for more information on the subjects area of the course, and a suggestion that the individual course combinations be added separately to web-link.