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Why do some of my applicants have no qualification data?

The qualification data that goes into the UCAS Data for HESA transaction comes directly from the awarding organisations. Every year the awarding organisations pass UCAS exam results for students that have sat qualifications that year. The qualifications covered in this supply can be found in the ABL Summary Document found on the Awarding Body Linkage (ABL) page. Please note you will need your username and password for the secure section of the UCAS website to access this link and document.

UCAS receives information on the following sittings:

  • A level - previous summer, winter, current summer
  • Scottish quals - everything back to 1995
  • International Bacc - winter, summer
  • everything else - summer only.

UCAS only receives SQA and BTEC results where an applicant has entered their Scottish Candidate Number (SNC) or BTEC Registration Number in Apply. If the applicant has not done this we will not get their results as these have to be requested directly from the awarding organisations (unlike the others where everything for the year received).

When UCAS receives the qualifications data it is linked to the applications and fed through to the UCAS Data for HESA transaction. As matching happens on the application record, if an applicant has been matched to qualification in previous years but has reapplied, they will not have any Qualifications on Entry (even if de-duped correctly).

Deferred applicants will have Qualifications (if matched) as their original application is carried over year-on-year. However, deferred aplicants will only go through ABL in the year we first receive their application. This means if they sit any qualifications while their applications is deffered, these qualifications will not appear in the Star J.

If an applicant does not apply in the same year as they sat their exam they will not be matched (with the exception of Scottish quals). This means if an applicant is a mature candidate or sat exams prior to their year of application, UCAS would not be able to match them.

When an applicant is matched to their results, the matching is done using their full name, date of birth, gender and other characteristics. If an applicant has registered their application under a different name to the one on their exams, or some of their other details differ between UCAS and the awarding organisations, the system would not be able to match them.

All the qualification data is linked to the ABL process. Where an applicant is not matched to qualifications though ABL they will not get any Quals on Entry.

At present, UCAS does not provide the qualifications that the applicant enters in Apply as part of the Star J. This has been done in agreement with HESA as these data have not been verified by an external source.

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