UCAS - How does the Tariff work?

How does the Tariff work?

How does higher education use the Tariff?

The Tariff helps universities and colleges when deciding on course entry requirements and making conditional offers. Entry requirements and conditional offers that use Tariff points will often require a minimum level of achievement in a specified subject (for example '300 points to include grade A at A level Chemistry', or '260 points including SQA Higher grade B in Mathematics').

Use of the Tariff may also vary from department to department within any one university or college, and may in some cases be dependent on the programme being offered.

Students can collect Tariff points from a range of different qualifications, eg GCE A level with BTEC Nationals.

There is no ceiling to the number of points that can be accumulated.

There is no double counting. Certain qualifications within the Tariff build on qualifications in the same subject. In these cases only the qualification with the higher Tariff score will be counted. This principle applies to:

BTEC National Award, Certificate and Diploma (NQF)
BTEC National Certificate, Subsidiary Diploma, Diploma and Extended Diploma (QCF)
CACHE Award, Certificate and Diploma in Child Care and Education
Essential Skills Wales at levels 2 and 3
GCE Advanced Subsidiary level and GCE Advanced level
OCR iMedia level 3 Certificate and Diploma
Irish Leaving Certificate at Ordinary and Higher levels
OCR iPRO Certificate and Diploma
Key Skills at level 2, 3 and 4
OCR National Certificate, Diploma and Advanced Diploma
Scottish Highers and Advanced Highers
Speech, drama and music awards at grades 6, 7 and 8.

UCAS Tariff points are only allocated to level 2 qualifications if both the following criteria are met:

They are broad skills qualifications - Core Skills, Essential Skills, Functional Skills, Key Skills;
They are being studied as part of a wider composite qualification, such as 14-19 Diplomas or Welsh Baccalaureate.

Tariff points for the Advanced Diploma come from the Progression Diploma score plus the relevant Additional and Specialist Learning (ASL) Tariff points. Please see the appropriate qualification in the Tariff tables to calculate the ASL score.

The Extended Project Tariff points are included within the Tariff points for Progression and Advanced Diplomas. Extended Project points represented in the Tariff only count when the qualification is taken outside of these Diplomas.

Where the Tariff tables refer to specific awarding organisations, only qualifications from these awarding organisations attract Tariff points. Qualifications with a similar title, but from a different qualification awarding organisation do not attract Tariff points.

Further information

Although Tariff points can be accumulated in a variety of ways, not all of these will necessarily be acceptable for entry to a particular course. The achievement of a points score therefore does not give an automatic entitlement to entry, and many other factors are taken into account in the admissions process.

Use Course Search to find out what qualifications are acceptable for entry to specific courses.