Guidance

T5 online v traditional marking: guide to the data submission process

Updated 21 September 2026

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 the following data for regulated qualifications.

This data will be used to undertake our regulatory activities, publish reports, and to fulfil our responsibility as a government department.

Northern Ireland data will also be shared with CCEA Regulation to fulfil their own purposes as a regulator.

What data will be collected?

Data should relate to the number of papers, scripts and non-exam assessment marked online and traditionally for the time period and qualifications in scope of the collection.

Qualifications in scope

The following qualification types are in scope of this collection:

• GCSE (including GCSE short course)
• AS
• A level

Data should include both exam and non-exam assessments, but exclude endorsements.

Countries in scope

Data should be included for all students in centres in:

• England
• Northern Ireland (also collected on behalf of CCEA Regulation)
• Wales
• Non-UK
• Other UK regions

Time period in scope

Data is collected once per academic year, including both the latest summer and November exam series.

When data will be collected

Data will be collected according to the reporting schedule which is updated regularly.

How to submit your data

Your data must be submitted to us in CSV format. Please refer to the Connecting to Ofqual’s data portal and uploading data document for more information. 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 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.

If validation is successful, the data is automatically transferred into Ofqual’s internal 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.

The specific validation rules which are in place for this template are detailed in the ‘validation rules’ and ‘file format’ sections below.

Amendments to data

Errors or omissions in the data

Once the data has been successfully uploaded, it will be checked by Ofqual staff. If an error or omission is spotted, the data may be queried, and you may be requested to resubmit it. We will need to reject your existing submission ahead of a resubmission.

If you find an error or omission after you’ve had a successful upload, please notify Data Services by email. We need to reject the existing submission before you can upload a new file.

If you wish to see your latest submission of a data return, for example to check the submission if it has been queried, please know it is available to download in the data portal.

Scheduled revisions of data

Each submission of this data is intended to show a snapshot in time. Therefore, there will be no resubmissions required to reflect any further updates to the data already submitted, unless an error or omission is spotted.

General completion guidelines

1. Numeric values must not have any formatting.
2. All fields are mandatory unless otherwise specified.
3. Submit 1 row of data per country per qualification type.
4. Only include components where there has been at least 1 entry.
5. ‘Other UK regions’ includes Scotland, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Whilst the Isle of Man and Channel Islands are not part of the UK for administrative purposes they are grouped as such for our reporting in line with the approach taken by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) and other education organisations.
6. Data should relate to the marking method, not how scripts are delivered to examiners. For example, if a script is delivered to an examiner electronically but is marked traditionally, it should be classified under traditional marking.
7. Non-exam assessments (NEA) are defined as any type of assessment that is not externally set and taken by students at the same time under controlled conditions, for example, coursework, practicals, performances or orals. This includes externally marked NEA which should also be included in the fields: ‘Non-examination assessments marked’ and ‘Candidate non-examination assessments marked’.

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	Description of Regular Expression	Validation Regular Expression
Reporting date	Date the file was due to be submitted to Ofqual regardless of when it was actually uploaded (this date will be made available by Ofqual)	1	The date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day-of-month (2 digits) Format accepted: yyyy-mm-dd	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$
Exam series	Exam series data relates to, for example June 2024	2	Full month name of exam series and year	^(March|June|November)([ ][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9])$
Awarding organisation	Awarding organisation acronym as it appears in Ofqual’s Register of Regulated organisations	3	Valid awarding organisation acronym. 1 to 150 characters accepted	^.{1,150}$
Qualification	Type of qualification	4	Accepted values: • GCSE • AS • A level	^(GCSE|AS|A level)$
Country	The country the data relates to	5	Accepted values: • England • Wales • Northern Ireland • Non UK • Other UK Regions	^(England|Wales|Northern Ireland|Non UK|Other UK Regions)$
Papers marked online	Total number of papers marked online	6	Up to 7-digit integer accepted	^\d{1,7}$
Candidate scripts marked online	Total number of student scripts marked online	7	Up to 7-digit integer accepted	^\d{1,7}$
Papers traditionally marked	Total number of papers marked traditionally	8	Up to 7-digit integer accepted	^\d{1,7}$
Candidate scripts traditionally marked	Total number of student scripts marked traditionally	9	Up to 7-digit integer accepted	^\d{1,7}$
Non-examination assessments marked	Total number of non-exam assessments marked, for example internal assessment, coursework	10	Up to 7-digit integer accepted	^\d{1,7}$
Candidate non-examination assessments marked	Total number of students’ non- exam assessments marked, for example internal assessment, coursework	11	Up to 7-digit integer accepted	^\d{1,7}$

Validation rules

A data submission is only considered complete once it has successfully passed the validation rules.

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. A file may be successful but with warnings. Warnings will not cause failure in the validation process but will highlight entries which may need to be checked. You will receive an email with details of the warning in an attached “Data Validation Warnings Report”. If you receive this, please review the report and contact Ofqual Data Services should the data require any amendment.

The validation rules for this template check that each field is correctly formatted. The correct formatting of the fields are detailed in the ‘file format’ section. Failure to format the fields in line with the validation regular expression will result in unsuccessful validation. Additional validation rules are also in place for this template and may include cross-referencing with other templates. These validation rules along with whether they result in failure or a warning are detailed in the following table.

Validation rule	Result if not met
‘Reporting date’ values match date the file was due to be submitted to Ofqual regardless of when it was actually uploaded (this date will be made available by Ofqual)	Fail and rejected
‘Exam series’ value is in scope of the return	Fail and rejected
‘Awarding organisation’ is valid acronym in Ofqual register	Fail and rejected

Recent changes to this guidance

Date of change	Description of change
21/09/2026	Updated the document template and clarified aspects of the text. Time period in scope changed so data is collected once per academic year, including both the latest summer and November exam series. Updated format for ‘Reporting date’ to only accept yyyy-mm-dd as valid date format.

Contacts

For all queries or feedback 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