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    EXACT

    Access the richest and most up-to-date admissions data so you can strengthen your strategic planning and better understand your market - and your competition.

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    What is EXACT?

    EXACT is a bespoke data service which reports on historical data and live cycle deadline data across the higher eduction sector. Whether you have tactical, strategic, planning, or research challenges to solve, EXACT is home to the answers for almost any question you might have, whether you need to know: 

    • What does the full landscape really look like at course level for each provider, including applications, offers and accepts?
    • Do all further Maths A level applicants apply to study Maths degrees?
    • Where do AAB students apply and accept to study Humanities?
    • Has the gender split changed for Engineering acceptances since 2006?

    Simply brief us on where you want to see growth in market share or offer to conversion rates by subject area. Whatever your query, we can help answer your strategic, planning or research questions.  

    Providers working at desk

    How does it work?

    1. Decide your question and define your data - Speak to our experienced data account managers about the challenge you’re trying to solve. Together we will construct a tight question, and define the data required to answer it.

    2. Select the variables - Next, you need to choose your variables. These will be the rows in your exported data, and include fields like course name, degree type, entry year, and predicted grades. Undergraduate and Conservatoire variables:

    3. Choose the statistics to calculate - Finally, choose the statistics you want to report on. Among the options are applicants or applications, number of offers & replies, and accepts. Statistics available:

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    Key benefits of EXACT

    Future-proof your portfolio

    EXACT provides granular detail on historic and live-cycle data, helping you understand trends across the sector. Fom naming conventions to recruitment trends, EXACT provides the information needed to help you make evidence-based decisions about your courses and ensure your course protfolio is future-proof. 

    Connect with the right students

    Your ideal audience is out there, and we can help you reach them by helping you identify the applicants who meet your recruitment goals. We’ll provide the geographical and demographic data needed to help you understand your applicants, their choices, and their decisions.  

    Understand your competition

    If you’re going to succeed, you need to understand the competition. EXACT’s raw data can help you to understand your competitors at a course level, highlighting where you’re winning and losing. We’ll provide a unique view of your applicants and where else they applied and accepted, by course title.  

    Maximise your conversion

    Gain in-depth insight into the sector’s dynamics, enabling you to identify declining or growing courses, which universities are proving the most popular, and assess your position in the sector. Find out what’s stopping students from choosing you and make informed decisions to enhance your conversion rates.   

    How EXACT can solve your marketing challenges

    At UCAS we help you define your question by listening to the problem you want to solve and the action you want to take.

    EXACT delivers bespoke raw data in CSV format - with pivot tables on request - so you can manipulate and blend in with other data sources, filter to a particular subset of applications, and access more bespoke data than that which is supplied on our website.

    Here are some examples of the ways you can use EXACT to inform your recruitment strategies and solve your marketing challenges, complete with example pricing.

    Please note that specific pricing depends on the course, volume and depth of data required. If you do not intend to share the data with anyone outside of your organisation, you will only require an internal licence.

    Promoting taster days

    Your marketing challenge 

    “We have developed a series of taster days for a new Biology course. We want to promote it and that includes reaching out to schools. Which schools and colleges and regions should I target for this campaign? Where is this course likely to be of most interest?” 

     

    How we translate that into a data question 

    For the last recruitment cycle, for courses containing the following keywords, which schools had students who achieved the entry requirements and had also studied an A level that they have to have done, in order to study this course? 

     

    The data fields we would use 

    • Applications, offers, accepts
    • A level Biology achieved point score, achieved tariff point score
    • Filtered to C1: Biology and all courses with ‘Biology’ in the title 

    Pricing

    This data request would cost from £965/£772 standard/internal license.

    Targeting schools and colleges

    Your marketing challenge 

    “We want to inform our marketing strategy around targeting schools and colleges. We want to understand which ones we should:  

    1.    Maintain relationships with  

    2.    Proactively target to grow share of applications and acceptances 

    3.    Stop targeting because they don’t have the students we tend to recruit 

    To do this we need to know how many students have achieved ABB at A level or the equivalent at each school or college within 110 miles of where we are based over the past three years. We want to use the data to calculate our market share of applications and offers.”  

      

    How we translate that into a data request 

    For the last recruitment cycle, how many students were there who achieved ABB or above at A level (or equivalent) at each school or college with 110 mile radius of our institution? And what are the trends over the last three years? 

     

    The data fields we would use 

    • Specified cycles
    • Applications, offers, accepts
    • ABB flag, postal district, drive time, apply centre 

    Pricing

    This data request would cost around £16,500/£16,500 standard/internal license.

    Competitor comparison

    Your marketing challenge 

    “We have some subjects which have seen declining numbers of applications over the past three3 years, but we believe that’s not the case sector wide. Our Marketing Director has asked why this is. We have some internal insight but need to compare our performance to our competitors’. Are they experiencing declines? And if so, is there a way of finding out why? Exploring things like location and tariff.” 

     

    How we translate that into a data request 

    For the last recruitment cycle, for the following subject areas and the last three years, for us and our key competitors  

    • What are the recruitment patterns (both the actual and percentage growth or decline)?
    • What do the patterns look like by location and tariff?
    • Are there any other factors it would be useful to look at? 

     

    The data fields we would use 

    • Specified cycles
    • Provider name, course name and applicant tariff
    • Applications, offers, accepts 

    Pricing

    This data request would cost from £9,041/£7,233 standard/internal license.

    Understanding offer to conversion

    Your marketing challenge 

    “How do offers and acceptances for my courses in the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy compare to my 10 competitors?”   

     

    How we translate that into a data request 

    For the last recruitment cycle, by subject area and/or by course title/keyword, what do offer to firm acceptances look like for us and our competitor set. Are there any other fields it would be useful to have, such as; tariff on entry, entry qualifications or type of school? 

      

    The data fields we would use 

    • Specified cycles
    • Applications, offers, accepts
    • Accepted applicant tariff band by course name and provider, based on 10 competitor providers

    Pricing

    This data request would cost from £1,808.28/£1,446.63 standard/internal license.

    Let's talk

    All prices shown are examples and will vary based on the specific requirement. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you solve your marketing challenges.

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    How universities are using EXACT

    Using data to punch above its weight

    The North West of England is a challenging place to do business for higher education thanks to competition from Liverpool and Manchester. Discover how the Univeristy of Chester uses EXACT data to make informed business decisions, identify opportunities, and calculate and verify potential for new programmes: 


    University of Chester

     
    Solving strategic challenges

    Find out how the University of Sheffield is using EXACT’s premium service to steer their strategic direction data to support decision-making throughout the recruitment cycle, so they can make decisions about admissions, open days, new courses, portfolio reviews, marketing campaigns, and more.  


    University of Sheffield

    Evidence driven decisions with EXACT

    Find out how EXACT has been a useful tool for our partners, helping them to use data to better understand their targets and empowering them to make evidence-driven decisions.

    EXACT subscription packages

    Access EXACT throughout the year, with no need to wait for your planning team so you can make the most of the data at your fingertips, exactly when you need it.

    With our EXACT subscription packages, you can change your questions each time, so every department gets the answers they need: 

     

    The Daily

    A new question answered every week day

     

    The Weekly

    A new question answered every week

     

    The Bundle

    10 individual data outputs 
    Ad-hoc over the course of a year, however you see fit.
     

    For more information on pricing, please contact your Customer Success Manager or Customer Success Director.

     
    One-off requests

    If you have a single question to answer, get in touch and we will provide a bespoke quote for you.

     

    What does an EXACT output look like?

    See an example:

    EXACT for business

    There’s nothing quite like the student market. With EXACT, we can help you uncover its patterns, its trends, and the answers to your commercial questions:

    Ask us: What do they plan to study? Is it vocational or academic?
    Find out: The potential market for customers who want your product/service.

    Ask us: Where do they plan to study? Will they stay at home?
    Find out: The regional or geographical potential for tenants and homebuyers.

    Ask us: What kind of background are they from?
    Find out: Whether your campaigns are pitched right for this market. 

    EXACT isn’t just for the higher education sector. We’re trusted by charities, NFPs, professional bodies, private and commercial businesses to help them understand the data behind the 700k+ applicants applying to Higher Education every year.

    If you are…

    • An employer recruiting apprentices – discover potential skills gaps and reveal cold spots by location, helping you to determine the right number of roles to create for your graduate scheme, and to identify the right locations in which to promote your graduate roles. You can also identify specific schools to target in your outreach activity.
    • A professional body – understand how many sixth formers are studying a subject relevant to your profession, or discover the universities which offer courses that you don’t accredit.

    • An accommodation provider – understand migration into your priority towns and cities, or help you identify new locations based on demand.  

       

    Student using laptop and mobile

    Let's talk

    All prices shown are examples and will vary based on the specific requirement. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you solve your marketing challenges and get the most out of your data.

    Get in touch

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    BSI mark of trust logo

    Being ISO 27001 certified means we adhere to the highest international standards for information security management. At UCAS, this certification underscores our commitment to safeguarding the sensitive data entrusted to us. It assures our clients that their information is handled with the utmost care and protection. Our certification not only ensures compliance but also signifies our dedication to maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of data.