Number of candidates taking exams: guide to the data submission process
Published 19 March 2021
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2021
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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.
What data will be collected?
Data on the number of candidates taking exams will be collected for GCSEs, AS and A levels. Data for England, Wales, Northern Ireland, other UK regions and Non UK is required.
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.
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 do 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 have 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
Please upload one CSV file per exam series. For example, if an awarding organisation has entries in all four exam series (January, March, June and November), four CSV files should be uploaded - one for each series.
Data should relate to candidates entered for units or components even if they are not certificating.
Applied subjects, double awards, single awards and full and short courses should be included.
Column headers must be an exact match.
Numeric values must not have any formatting.
Centre number ranges to be included should be as follows:
| Country | Region included | Centre ranges included |
|---|---|---|
| England | England | 10 to 66 |
| Wales | Wales | 68 |
| Northern Ireland | Northern Ireland | 71 |
| Other UK regions | Isle of Man Channel Islands Scotland |
45, 67, 69, 70 |
| Non-UK | Eire BFPO overseas |
72 to 76 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exam Series | Exam series data relates to, for example June 2017 | 1 | ^(January|June|March|November)([ ][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])$ |
Full month name of exam series and year. |
| Awarding Organisation | Name of the awarding organisation | 3 | ^.{1,100}$ |
One to 100 characters accepted |
| Centre No. | NCN number of centre at time of certification | 9 | ^.{1,5}$ |
One to 5 characters accepted |
| Qualification level | Level of qualification, for example GCSE | 4 | ^(GCSE|AS|A level)$ |
One of the following list: GCSE, AS, A level |
| Unique Candidate Identifier | Unique Candidate Identifier (UCI) | 13 | ^.{1,13}$ |
One to 13 characters accepted |
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