New decision processing codes 2017

We have added a large number of  

and changes to existing codes, which are not yet included in the UCAS Decision Processing Manual. These changes will be live within the link products from Friday 10 March.

General Certificate of Secondary Education
We have added a range of new decision codes to reflect the move to numerical grading in GCSEs in England. From 2017 onwards reformed GCSEs in England will begin to be graded 9 – 1, with 9 being the top grade.

The grade codes that must be used are G1 through to G9 – see examples below:

• .GS,G9 expands to: General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) Grade 9.GS
• G8@MATHS expands to read: General certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) Grade 8 in Mathematics

We have also included two new offer codes, to reflect the high volume of usage of a GCSE grade 4 by universities or colleges, for some or all of their courses. The new codes will be:

• .G4 expands to read: GCSE at grade 4 or above in
• .G4,ENG,MATHS expands to read: GCSE at grade 4 or above in English and Mathematics
• .EO which reads Pass at grade 4 or above in English and Mathematics

If you have a different entry requirement, e.g. grade 5, this can be achieved using the existing .GS code, specifying the grade and subject. Alternatively, you can set up a standard or your own offer abbreviation through the link products.

Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate and Skills Challenge Certificate (first award 2017)
We’ll be collecting the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate and WJEC Advanced Level 3 Skills Challenge Certificate separately this year. We have added two new decision codes to reflect the changes to the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate.

The new codes will allow you to specify a Pass overall for the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate, and a grade of A* to E for the Skills Challenge Certificate. You can also add separate coding for the Level 3 element within the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate. Examples of this are:

• .WD,P reads Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate, Pass
• .WF,A* reads WJEC Skills Challenge Certificate, Grade A*

You might want additional Level 3 qualifications included in your offer by using existing coding for GCE A levels or even BTEC qualifications.

IBO standard level certificate
We have included two codes for the IBO standard level and higher level certificates. For the standard level certificate, please use the grading codes XS1 through to XS7, so it expands to read Grade S1 through to Grade S7.

Subject codes
We have added new subject codes for some of the qualifications. These have been updated in the link products and are available for you to use.