Joint Academic Coding System: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:16, 10 May 2017

Revision as of 04:23, 10 May 2017

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UCAS creates course codes based on the JACS codes of the course subject. In many cases the UCAS course code will be the same as the JACS subject code and this can lead to confusion between the two concepts.

Where a course involves more than one subject the UCAS course code is based on an aggregation of the JACS codes. For courses which are split 50:50 between two subjects, a code with two letters and two numbers is used, which combines the simplestprincipal (highest level)subject codes which would be used for the two subjects if studied as individual degrees.

===Example===

Consider the BSc course '''Mathematics and Physics''':

*The simplestprincipal subject code for Mathematics is G100'''G1''', and the simplestprincipal subject code for Physics is F300'''F3'''.

*The combined code uses '''G1''' for Mathematics, and '''F3''' for Physics.

*The combined code is '''GF13''' because the letters always precede the numbers.

Another example is '''Music and Philosophy'''. The principal subject codes are W300'''W3''' (Music) and V500'''V5''' (Philosophy). The combined code is '''VW53''' (also represents "Philosophy and Music"). Although it could theoretically be WV53, the letters are placed in alphabetical order by convention, and the numbers are placed in the same order following the subjects.

The same letter can be used twice (if the two subjects are within the same general subject area), such as GG41FF13 for Computer ScienceChemistry and MathematicsPhysics.

===Courses with major/minor subjects===

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The format for such courses is Y1Z9 where:

*Y100Y1 is the "major" subject which represents most of the degree course

*Z900Z90 is the "minor" subject which represents less of the course.

For example, Mathematics with Physics would be represented by G1F3, but Physics with Mathematics would be represented by F3G1. Hence the order in which the two subjects are notated is important.