Guidance

Alternative assessment: guide to the data submission process

Published 6 March 2024

Applies to England

Introduction

In order to fulfil our regulatory and accreditation functions as set out in the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, we require awarding organisations to provide exams delivery data for regulated qualifications.
We collect the data on behalf of CCEA Regulation and share this data with them.

When will data be collected?

Data will be collected according to the reporting schedule which is agreed and maintained by Ofqual’s data services team.

What data will be collected?

Data on grades determined using alternative assessment evidence where no other reasonable adjustments allowed a disabled candidate to sit their examinations will be collected. Data will be collected for all GCSEs, AS and A levels. Data is required for Ofqual’s qualifications delivered in England.

Updates to formats and guidance

This guidance document will be updated regularly. Any changes to procedure will be incorporated into the guidance document.

How to submit your data

Your data should be submitted to us in CSV format. Please refer to the ‘Connecting to Ofqual’s data portal and uploading data’ document on our web page to help you submit your files to us. If you need to ask us about a data submission please contact the Data Services team. Please do not send your data files via email to Data Services or to any other Ofqual email address, or via Contact the Regulator in the Portal.

Uploaded data

Once files have been successfully uploaded, the data will be validated against a set of validation rules. These are detailed in the sections below. If validation is successful, the data is automatically transferred into our systems and you will receive email confirmation. If the file is unsuccessful at any stage of validation you will receive an email with details of the validation failure. Please correct your file and resubmit it.

Amendments to data

Ofqual staff will not alter data once it has been submitted. If you find an error or omission after you’ve had a successful upload, please notify us by email. We need to reject the existing submission before you can upload a new file.

How your data will be used

This data will be used to undertake our regulatory activities and, where required, to produce Official Statistics to fulfil our responsibility as a government department.

General completion guidelines

Data should include all applications received for grades to be determined using alternative assessment evidence for assessments within the reporting period.

For applications with a request for multiple grades to be determined using alternative assessment evidence, data should be provided for each individual grade – one row of data for each grade.

File format

The file must be CSV format and the first row must be headers as displayed in the ‘Name’ column of the table below. The subsequent rows must have the values of the data to be reported which must match the format and validation rules below.

Name	Description	Position	Validation Regular Expression	Description of Regular Expression
ReportingDate	Date the file was due to be submitted regardless of when it was actually uploaded. Format accepted 120 ODBC canonical yyyy-mm-dd	1	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	The date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits)
AwardingOrganisation	Name of the awarding organisation	2	^.{1,100}$	One to 100 characters accepted
QualificationNumber	Qualification Accreditation Number as it appears in Ofqual’s Register of Regulated qualifications, for example 123/1234/1	3	^.{1,10}$	One to 10 characters accepted
QualificationLevel	Level of qualification, for example GCSE	4	^(GCSE|AS|A level)$	One of the following list: GCSE, AS, A level
SpecificationCode	Specification code also known as Subject Award Code and Cash-in Code	5	^.{1,7}$	One to 7 characters accepted
SpecificationTitle	Specification title, also known as subject title	6	^.{1,150}$	One to 150 characters accepted
ULN	Unique Learner Number	7	^.{1,10}$	One to 10 characters accepted.-2 accepted if not available
UCI	Unique Candidate Identifier	8	^.{1,14}$	One to 14 characters accepted.-2 accepted if not available
FirstName	Candidate’s first name. If middle name cannot be separated from first name, please provide both names in the FirstName field	9	^.{0,150}$	One to 150 characters accepted
Surname	Candidate’s surname	10	^.{0,50}$	One to 50 characters accepted
DOB	To indicate candidate’s date of birth. Format accepted 120 ODBC canonical yyyy-mm-dd	11	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	Date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits). 2999-12-31 accepted if DOB unknown
UKPRN	UK Provider Reference Number. “-2” if not known	12	^.{1,8}$	One to 8 characters accepted.-2 accepted if not known
NCN	Centre ID – National Centre Number	13	^.{1,5}$	One to 5 characters accepted
ReferenceNumber	Application for grade to be awarded using alternative assessment evidence reference number	14	^.{1,50}$	One to 50 characters accepted
RequestDate	Date when the request for grade to be awarded using alternative assessment evidence was made	15	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	Date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits)
DecisionDate	Date when the application was accepted or rejected	16	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	Date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits)
Status	Status of the applicationPossible values: •Approved •Rejected •Pending	17	^(Approved|Rejected|Pending)$	Accepted values: •Approved •Rejected •Pending
RejectionReason	Reason for rejection (where applicable)Possible values: •Ineligible •Insufficient evidence	18	^(Ineligible|Insufficient evidence)$	Accepted values: •Ineligible •Insufficient evidence. -2 accepted if not known
ExamSeries	Exam series when the request for a grade to be awarded using alternative assessment evidence was made for	19	^(June)([ ][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])$	Full month name of exam series and year
Grade	Grade awarded using alternative assessment evidence.“-2” if application was rejected	20	^(A*|A|B|C|D|E|U|X|Q|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|1-1|2- 1|2-2|3-2|3-3|4-3|4-4|5-4|5-5|6-5|6-6|7-6|7-7|8-7|8-8|9-8|9-9|-2)$	One of the following list: A*, A, B, C, D, E, U, X, Q, 9 to 1, 9-9 to 1-1. -2 accepted for unknown value

Contacts

For all queries relating to the data collection process, amendments to data previously provided, or for general guidance. please contact:

Data services

Ofqual
2nd floor, 1 Friargate
Station Square
Coventry
CV1 2GN

Email Data.Services@ofqual.gov.uk