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Data specifications for GRADE data sharing

Specifications of the data sets for the Grading and Admissions Data for England (GRADE) project.

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Applies to England

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GRADE(Grading and Admissions Data for England) is a joint open data initiative by Ofqual, the Department for Education, andUCAS. The main aim is to make data available for independent research that serves the public good.

GRADEmakes available a data set of linked micro-data from Ofqual,DfEandUCAScovering the period between 2017 to 2024. TheGRADEdata set includes detailed information on students progression from school to universities and colleges. It includes information on students qualifications, prior schooling, socio-economic background and their university and college applications and admissions.

The GRADE data set includes 3 main sources of data:

  • Ofqual Summer awarding data routinely submitted by awarding organisations covering students of all ages taking GCSEs or A levels in the summer exam series in schools and colleges inEngland
  • Department for Education extracts of the National Pupil Database (NPD) covering school-aged learners in England, with data on GCSEs and A levels linked to students socio-economic characteristics
  • UCAS university application process data covering English 18-year-olds cohorts for the UCASapplicationcycles

TheGRADEdata set is shared by theOffice for National Statisticsunder theDigital Economy Act 2017and can be accessed under theResearch Accreditation Frameworkvia theSecure Research Service(SRS).

For more information, see the GRADE user guide.

Updates to this page

Published 14 October 2021
Last updated 31 July 2026 Show all updates
  1. 31 July 2026

    Updated data specifications to reflect the third release of the GRADE data set with added years 2023 to 2024

  2. 23 July 2025

    GRADE DfE data specification updated to add specifications for npd_urn_lookup and to add information on pseudonymised "missing" URNP values

  3. 8 January 2025

    Updated the 'GRADE UCAS data specification' HTML attachment. Updated the 'GRADE Ofqual data specification' file attachment. Updated the 'GRADE DfE data specification' file attachment.

  4. 14 October 2021

    First published.

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