Changes to the UCAS Tariff – SPA considerations for HE admissions
March 2015
Introduction
The 2017 admissions cycle will see a significant change to the UCAS Tariff. At a basic level, this will
involve a new set of Tariff values for all Tariffed qualifications; at a more fundamental level, it
introduces a wholly new methodology for allocating Tariff points to individual qualifications.
SPA encourages all HE providers – whether a ‘Tariff-using’ institution or not – to take time to
understand how the UCAS Tariff has changed and what the potential impacts are for your
recruitment, selection and admissions activities, owing to the wide range of likely touch-points within
an institution. This list of considerations is not intended as a comprehensive, worked-through action
plan for engaging with the changes to the Tariff, but rather as a collection of prompts for thought and
reflective questions. They may highlight areas you haven’t considered or clarify points of uncertainty,
helping you to develop and implement your own action plan.
If you have any queries relating to engaging with the changes to the UCAS Tariff, or would like to
discuss your own plans with SPA, please do not hesitate to get in touch at enquiries@spa.ac.uk or
01242 544891. Any UCAS-related questions should be directed towards your designated
Relationship Manager.
How do you use the UCAS Tariff?
You may find the below table useful to determine what areas of your admissions operation may be
impacted by the Tariff changes. In a devolved environment, it might be worthwhile developing this
into a mini-survey to circulate among your faculties/departments.
All
courses
We use UCAS Tariff for…
UCAS main-scheme Conditional Offers
Clearing/Adjustment listings/IAG
Applicantfacing
admissions
processes
Expressing standard Entry Requirements
Guiding applicants on likely equivalent standard required in
qualifications with no specified Entry Requirements
Providing IAG to applicants on the basis of their Tariff
points (e.g. at UCAS fairs, through telephone enquiries)
Assessing UCAS main-scheme applicants
Internal
admissions
processes
Assessing Clearing applicants
Assessing applicants with non-standard qualifications
Setting/reviewing Entry Requirements – e.g. as a source of
information when determining qualification equivalences
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Some
courses
Not
used
In-cycle analysis and/or statistical reporting
Management
information
Key performance indicators
HESA returns
Who needs to know what?
A key concern for all HE providers should be to ensure that all relevant staff within the institution are
aware of the change to the UCAS Tariff and the impact(s) upon your admissions process. This is true
even for institutions who have answered not used to all of the above, as you may still encounter
applicant enquiries or external statistics that refer to Tariff points.
SPA advises all institutions to develop a clear internal dissemination/communication strategy for the
changes to the UCAS Tariff. This might include:

Establishing a working group to oversee communication of the Tariff changes (ideally with
representatives from all affected work areas)

A congruence survey inviting staff to indicate both their own level of understanding of the Tariff
changes and the level of understanding they require for their role(s) – this can identify gaps that
need addressing

The working group may wish to make their own decisions about who needs to know what
(e.g. why/how the Tariff is changing or just what the new values will be?) and compare
these with survey responses – do people need to know more/less than they think?

Further comparison with the working group’s perceptions of the knowledge requirements
for each role may also be productive

A session on the Tariff changes in staff briefing activities

Direct meetings with staff in key roles to ensure full understanding and identify any concerns

Development and distribution of factsheets/briefing notes targeted to particular roles or
processes, and/or use of UCAS’s factsheets

Setting up a network of key internal contacts/Tariff experts for any internal enquiries
You may find the tables below of use in considering who is/may be impacted by – and therefore
should be involved in discussing – the Tariff changes. The suggestions are based on role rather than
specific department/team – for example, in a devolved environment ‘admissions’ would include staff
within academic departments that have a role in processing and assessing applications. This is just
intended as a starting-off point, and we’d recommend adding to or adjusting it to fit the processes and
staffing structures at your own institution.
If you use the UCAS Tariff for applicant-facing admissions processes
Dealing with applicant enquiries
(by email, phone, social media)
Talking to applicants’ teachers and
advisors
Participating in school/college
visits, HE fairs, open days etc.
All staff with an applicant-facing role will need to be clear on:
 What the entry requirements/offer levels will be in the 2017 cycle
 That the new Tariff points only come into effect with the 2017 cycle
and do not apply to the 2015 or 2016 cycles
 Specifically, that deferred entry applicants in the 2016 cycle will be
assessed under existing Tariff values, even though they will be
starting study in 2017
You may wish to highlight key qualifications that have shifted in relative
Tariff value (e.g. AS levels) to staff.

Widening Participation/
Outreach
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
Academics at events


Schools and colleges liaison
Admissions staff


All staff at open days
Student ambassadors
UCAS are also working with HELOA (the Higher Education Liaison
Officers Association) to ensure that education liaison staff are aware of
the Tariff changes, and have produced resources to support teachers
and advisors in engaging with the changes.
Producing the prospectus, website
and other published content
All publications – both print and online – relevant to the 2017 cycle
should reflect the new Tariff values, and you may wish to highlight the
change to applicants explicitly. SPA would advise against referring to
the new Tariff values in your 2016-cycle materials, though you may
wish to include a brief note that Tariff values will be changing in
subsequent years.


Updating UCAS Course Collect
Central and departmental
website administrators
UCAS correspondents

Admissions staff
All staff responsible for making offers need to be fully briefed on what
offer levels should be and how they should be expressed, including
clarity on which qualifications should be explicitly specified in (or
excluded from) points-based offers. If you make use of offer libraries,
you may need to work with IT staff to ensure these are refreshed at the
correct point in the admissions process for use in the 2017 cycle.
For the 2017 cycle you may wish to include a system for sensechecking offers to see if they seem to be using pre-2017 Tariff points.


Using the Tariff during
Confirmation and Clearing

If you express entry requirements in terms of Tariff points, you will need
to update listings in Course Collect for all relevant courses.

Making offers expressed in terms
of Tariff points – wholly or partially
Marketing and recruitment
Admissions staff
Admissions staff
Academic decision-makers

IT systems staff
Confirmation and Clearing may involve substantial numbers of staff that
do not regularly engage with admissions, so it is particularly important
that all involved are clear on the Tariff changes and your offer levels.
Applicants and their advisors may not be clear on what their Tariff points
are, so it is vital that your staff absolutely are. Particular care should be
taken in August/September 2016, where Clearing applicants should be
assessed with current Tariff points, even though published entry
requirements for the 2017 cycle will refer to the new Tariff values.




Admissions staff
Academic decision-makers
Clearing call centre staff
Planning



Student records
Senior management
Marketing/recruitment (if
using Tariff in advertising)
If you use the UCAS Tariff for internal admissions processes
Assessing individual applications –
whether in main scheme, Clearing
or only for applicants with unusual
qualifications/combinations
All staff involved in assessing applicants will need to be clear on:
 What the entry requirements/offer levels will be in the 2017 cycle
 How to identify whether an applicant is in the 2016 or 2017 cycle
(especially with regard to deferred applications)
 Any significant shifts in the relative value of qualifications they are
likely to encounter.
UCAS have produced a Qualifications List that indicates the impact of
the changes on each qualification. Relevant staff should be encouraged
to refer directly to the Tariff tables and/or UCAS’s calculator and ready
reckoner tools as appropriate.

Admissions staff
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
Interviewers/assessors

Setting/reviewing entry
requirements
Academic decision-makers
If you use/have used Tariff points as a guide for setting/reviewing entry
requirements over a range of qualifications, then you may wish to
consider how the relative value of qualifications is changing in the new
Tariff. However, SPA recommends that you use the Tariff only as a
guide to inform your institution’s own academic judgement.



Admissions staff
Academic decision-makers
Planning


Subject convenors/tutors
Senior management
Even if you don’t use the UCAS Tariff at all in Admissions
All staff with an applicant-facing role should be clear that you do not
use the UCAS Tariff for offer-making and that your institution is not
bound by Tariff equivalencies, but they could also benefit from a rough
knowledge of Tariff values.
Dealing with applicant enquiries
(by email, phone, at events)



Widening Participation/
Outreach
Schools and colleges liaison
Admissions staff



Academics at events
All staff at open days
Student ambassadors
UCAS are also working with HELOA to ensure that education liaison
staff are aware of the Tariff changes
Handling requests for feedback or
complaints
Similarly, staff involved in providing feedback may need to clarify that
Tariff equivalencies do not apply to your admissions process

Admissions staff

Academic decision-makers
Thinking beyond admissions – whether you use the UCAS Tariff or not
While the HESA return itself does not involve submitting Tariff values,
modelling/prediction is likely to involve in-house calculations of
students’ UCAS Tariff points.
HESA return


Planning
Student records

Senior management
UCAS are also working with HESPA (the Higher Education Strategic
Planners Association) to ensure that planning and student records staff
are aware of the Tariff changes
Statistics and Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs)
Mentions of the UCAS Tariff in
other documentation
Careers advice
All staff involved in producing and/or interpreting in-house statistics or
KPIs based on Tariff values will need to understand the changes. Some
understanding will also be required for interpreting external statistics
that use the Tariff (e.g. UCAS and HESA statistics).
You may also wish to review your strategic plan, any relevant planning
documentation, promotional materials etc. to ensure that any
references to the UCAS Tariff are updated to reflect the new values.



Admissions staff
Planning
Marketing and recruitment


Student records
Senior management
Many graduate employers currently use the UCAS Tariff as part of their
long-listing processes. While UCAS is working with the Confederation
of British Industry (CBI) to alert employers to the changes, you may
also wish to ensure your careers service are also aware of the new
values.


Careers service
Student services
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
Graduate employers
However robust your communication strategy, it will be important to ensure that no-one has missed
the message, or forgotten about the changes between any briefing/training and putting things into
practice. Particularly in the 2017 cycle, you may wish to consider:

Repeat reminders of the UCAS Tariff changes at key points in the cycle

Additional safety/quality checks to identify any offers that appear to be using the wrong set of
Tariff values

Appointing and training Tariff experts/champions in each department/work area
The make-or-break question – should you use the UCAS Tariff?
With the significant degree of change to the UCAS Tariff in 2017, SPA recommends that HE
providers undertake a comprehensive review of how they use the Tariff for recruitment, selection and
admissions. Some HE providers may wish to take this opportunity to reappraise their current
approach to the Tariff – whether that is to use it for all offers and entry requirements, only for
particular courses or qualifications, to ignore it altogether, or somewhere in between. Even if this
exercise does not lead to a fundamental shift in your approach it can deliver benefits: in addition to
providing reassurance that your current stance is fit for purpose, it may help you to identify examples
of good practice that could be shared between departments or incorporated into training/briefing
materials.
You may find it a helpful approach to think of the pros and cons of your current practice across
different aspects of the admissions process, and compare these with a future approach in which you
do or do not use the new UCAS Tariff. This could be conducted on an institution-wide basis, or
looking at each Department/Faculty or course separately, as best suits your institution.
We have included a sample grid for making such comparisons as Appendix A, but SPA would
encourage you to adapt this template to match your own internal structure and processes.
As a start, though, you may find it useful to think in terms of these key overarching questions:

What is the impact of using the UCAS Tariff on our ability to run a fair, professional admissions
process and identify students with the potential to succeed on their chosen programme?

What is the impact on how clear our IAG, entry requirements and offer conditions are to
applicants and their advisors, and on how transparent our admissions process is generally?

Are any specific groups (either in terms of qualifications taken or non-academic characteristics)
particularly advantaged or disadvantaged by use of the UCAS Tariff?
Regarding this last point, SPA would certainly recommend conducting a full equality impact
assessment before instigating any major change to the way you run your recruitment, selection and
admissions process.
If you are considering moving away from (or towards) use of the Tariff in offer-making, please feel
free to contact SPA (enquiries@spa.ac.uk) to discuss your approach and any concerns.
Using UCAS Tariff to assess applicants – key points to consider
If your institution uses the UCAS Tariff to set entry requirements, to express offer conditions, or just
to assess applicants internally (while using grade-based entry requirements and offers), you will need
to give careful consideration to how the Tariff changes will impact on your admissions operation.
While the below checklist highlights some key considerations, we would recommend all HE providers
using the Tariff to read through UCAS’s guidance (HEP login required) in full and think carefully
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about their admissions process end-to-end. Note that the new Tariff values will apply to all AS
qualifications – whether taken in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, and whether modular or
linear/decoupled.



All entry requirements will need to be reviewed and rewritten – can this be done as part of your
business-as-usual annual review of entry requirements, or do you need to allow additional
time/resource? You should particularly note that:

In porting qualifications over to the new Tariff values, UCAS has maintained key existing
relationships between qualifications (e.g. A level A/C/E = BTEC D/M/P). Other
qualifications, however, have seen a degree of shift in their relative value – UCAS has
provided a Qualifications List detailing current and new Tariff values for all qualifications,
highlighting the degree of change relative to A levels

The AS has been repositioned from 50% of the equivalent A level grade to around 40% of
the corresponding grade. This shift has also affected qualifications that had previously
been deemed ‘AS equivalent’, but notably not the Extended Project, which will continue to
be worth half the equivalent A level grade.

This coincides with the introduction of the decoupled AS in England, but should not be
seen as indicating a drop in standard of the AS between the 2016 and 2017 cycles – rather
Ofqual has affirmed that the reformed AS will have the same level of demand as the
previous modular AS.

The repositioning of the AS relative to the A level means that two ASs no longer equate to
a full A level at the same grade in Tariff point terms. If you have previously used this
equivalence to make offers (e.g. to applicants presenting with two A levels and two AS),
you should consider whether you wish to continue with this practice – bearing in mind that
it is only the UCAS Tariff points that are changing, not the level of demand of the AS
qualification itself.
For most applicants, SPA anticipates that the changes in Tariff points would have no impact on
their chances of securing an offer. There is a small risk, however, that applicants whose
qualifications have changed substantially in value, or who sit very near your offer threshold will
find that they would receive an offer/be accepted at Confirmation in 2016 but not in 2017 (or
vice versa). You may wish to monitor ‘near misses’ to identify and give any appropriate
additional considerations to such cases. UCAS’s Qualifications List will help you identify any
qualifications you frequently encounter that will experience larger degrees of change.

However, you should remember that all applications should be processed and assessed in
terms of the cycle in which they are made – an application made in UCAS’s 2016 cycle
should be assessed on the basis of current Tariff points and qualifications received
during/before Confirmation 2016, regardless of whether the application is for deferred entry
in 2017.

Similarly, where a deliberate decision has been made to raise/lower entry requirements
between 2016 and 2017 this should be adhered to on a cycle-by-cycle basis.
If you express offers in terms of UCAS Tariff points or use the Tariff during Clearing, you should
consider whether shifts in the relative value of different qualifications will impact on your
modelling (e.g. of likely conversion rates). You may find it helpful to do a ‘dummy run’ using
2015 and/or 2016 application data with 2017 Tariff points to identify any potential impact on the
accuracy of any models used. However, it should be remembered that the introduction of the
new UCAS Tariff coincides with substantial qualification reforms across the UK, and any
attempt to model likely outcomes on the basis of previous cycles will need to be taken with a
substantial pinch of salt.
Page 6 of 10

As part of the new UCAS Tariff process, HEPs will be asked to nominate qualifications that they
believe should be incorporated within the Tariff, and will be given the opportunity to provide
feedback on existing Tariff point allocations. While UCAS communications will alert you to this
process at the relevant points in the year, you may wish to develop an internal procedure for
analysing your applicants’ qualifications.

Finally, however robust your internal communication strategy has been, there is likely to be an
increased risk of error while the new UCAS Tariff points bed in. You should review your
process for double-checking/signing off on decisions to satisfy yourself that it is sufficiently
robust. The substantial difference in Tariff points between the current and new systems should
help to mitigate this risk, however – for example, an offer of 300 Tariff points should stand out
clearly among a group of 120-point offers.

The new Tariff points feature less ‘round numbers’ in key qualifications, and you may find
that staff feel less comfortable doing the mental arithmetic needed to calculate Tariff point
totals in the new system. Something as simple as ensuring all recruitment/education liaison
and admissions staff have access to (and feel comfortable pausing to refer to) pocket
calculators/calculator apps may help alleviate this problem.

UCAS have developed an online Tariff calculator to assist applicants in working out their
Tariff points in the new system, which may also be of use to HE staff.
Your key guiding principle throughout this process should be that of identifying applicants with the
potential to succeed on their chosen programme of study. If a particular combination of
qualifications has been deemed sufficient evidence of potential on the current Tariff system, an
applicant with these qualifications will have approximately the same level of potential in the 2017
cycle, even if the relative value of their qualifications on the Tariff has been reduced.
Are your data systems ready for the change?
Since the UCAS Tariff changes are, at root, simply exchanging one set of values for a new set of
somewhat lower values, it should not prove too technically challenging to implement these changes.
However, it is vital that all systems are switched from the old to new Tariff values at the correct point
for implementation from the 2017 cycle onwards.
The questions below may help you to consider what needs to be done with regard to your data
systems. Watch out for Tariff values that are hidden in behind-the-scenes processes!

Are you clear on when your in-house data systems will switch from old to new UCAS Tariff
values? Will there be any period of down time?

Do you have a clear contact within your technical/IT team in case of any issues?

Are you confident that all uses of the Tariff within your systems have been identified and can be
updated? These should be reviewed and updated every year.

Any offer libraries, if you make Tariff-point offers

Any lookup/reference tables that use Tariff values

Any algorithms or formulae that make calculations based on Tariff values or use
assumptions derived from Tariff values (e.g. 2 AS grades = 1 A Level grade)

Are you clear on when any external suppliers/software houses you are working with will
implement the switch?

How do Tariff values and/or any derived data travel through your in-house record systems? Are
you confident that they are correctly recorded and reported on in all instances?
Page 7 of 10

Will you need to make use of both old and new Tariff values at the same time? e. g. in
September 2016 will you be looking both at Clearing applicants from the 2016 cycle and early
applications in the 2017 cycle?
UCAS Resources
UCAS has produced a useful suite of resources to support HE providers in understanding the
changes to the UCAS Tariff, and to help with the dissemination of this information throughout
institutions. This includes a slideshow pack for internal presentations, a brief video about the Tariff,
and factsheets for:

general HE provider audiences

planning/student records teams

international admissions teams
These resources are all available in the Providers section of the UCAS website –
https://www.ucas.com/providers/services/qualifications/new-ucas-tariff (log-in required).
HE providers may also be interested in these additional UCAS resources, which do not require a
Provider log-in to access:

for teachers and advisors – https://www.ucas.com/advisers/guides-and-resources/tariff-2017

for applicants – https://www.ucas.com/ucas/undergraduate/getting-started/entryrequirements/tariff/new-tariff
 UCAS’s wider qualification reform guide – https://www.ucas.com/sites/default/files/ucas-guideto-qualification-reform.pdf
If you have any queries or would like to discuss you approach to implementing the UCAS Tariff
changes in more detail, please do not hesitate to get in touch (enquiries@spa.ac.uk, 01242 544891).
SPA would also welcome any feedback on this document, or any examples of good practice you may
wish to highlight.
Peter Chetwynd, SPA
March 2015 (v.1)
Page 8 of 10
Appendix A
Template for HEPs evaluating the pros and cons of using the new UCAS Tariff
SPA recommends that you adapt this template to suit the particular needs of your institution
Scope: (e.g. Course/Department/Institution-wide)
Current practice
Using new Tariff
Not using new Tariff
Pros
Pros
Pros
Cons
Cons
Cons
Pros
Pros
Pros
Cons
Cons
Cons
Entry requirements:
– how clear are entry requirements for applicants and advisers?
– are there risks that they will be misinterpreted and/or generate a
large volume of enquiries?
– how easy/efficient is the process for updating entry requirements – in
the prospectus, online and in Course Collect?
Pros
Pros
Pros
Cons
Cons
Cons
Assessing applications:
– how efficient is our process for assessing applications, and is it
effective at selecting applicants with the potential to succeed?
– how transparent is it?
– how do we deal with non-Tariffed qualifications?
– how often would we want to override Tariff equivalence and use a
different, in-house equivalence between grades/qualifications?
– how much staff training/briefing is required?
Pros
Pros
Pros
Cons
Cons
Cons
Fair admissions (you may wish to use these questions to guide your
thoughts in other sections too):
– how transparent is our admissions process?
– are we able to select the students with the potential to succeed,
consistently and across a diverse range of qualifications?
– are any particular groups unfairly disadvantaged?
Information, advice and guidance (IAG):
– how clear or simple is published IAG for applicants?
– how clear and/or efficient are our responses to enquiries?
– do our applicants show a marked preference for/against the Tariff?
– how easy/efficient is our process for updating published IAG
Page 9 of 10
Expressing Conditional offers and Confirmation:
– how clear are our offer conditions to applicants?
– how many caveats would Tariff offers potentially require?
– how easy do staff/academics find it to construct and monitor offers?
– how easy is it to use, review and maintain our offer library?
– how efficient is each approach when it comes to Confirmation?
Pros
Pros
Pros
Cons
Cons
Cons
Clearing:
– how clear is our IAG for applicants/advisors during Clearing?
– how efficient is each approach in advising and evaluating Clearing
applicants, and what risk of error is there?
– how well does our offer-making process match with our
statistics/tracking processes during Clearing?
Pros
Pros
Pros
Cons
Cons
Cons
Statistics and monitoring:
– how suitable is each approach for internal reporting purposes?
– will particular groups be overlooked/excluded from key statistics or
KPIs in each approach?
– how well does each approach allow us to compare our performance
with the national picture and/or competitors?
Pros
Pros
Pros
Cons
Cons
Cons
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