For unnamed entries, you need to provide the number of full qualification entries or the number of unit entries you would like for each qualification plus an order number.

For named entries, you must provide all of the following information:

Provide candidate name, date of birth and gender:

• We recommend you enter candidates under names that can be verified against suitable identification, such as a birth certificate, passport or driving licence.
• This helps prevent issues at a later date, when they need to verify they are the person named on the certificate. However, it is up to the centre and candidate to choose the name they are entered under.
• Please make sure candidates know the name they are entered under and use that on their exam script.
• Be careful not to transpose the date of birth information! We often receive requests to swap the day and month.

The candidate’s name and date of birth appear on the certificate exactly as the entry so, if you don’t get it right, making changes after the certificate has been issued will mean you have to pay for a replacement certificate.

If you have students who have accented characters in their name and they would like these to appear on their results certificate, please see our guidance.

An optional field for named qualifications, this number can be allocated by a centre if you wish to add an additional reference; it can be up to four digits long.

This is an eight-digit number allocated by OCR which allows a candidate’s units to be linked together when claiming for multiple units or full awards. For candidates entering for OCR qualifications for the first time, this should be left blank. If the candidate has a previous OCR candidate number, you should provide this to avoid additional numbers being generated.

If you wish to make EDI entries via A2C, the UCI must accompany a candidate’s entry. If you make entries via Interchange and include the UCI, you will receive EDI results via A2C. The unique candidate identifier (UCI) is a 13-character code, which examination administration software packages will usually be able to generate. The following diagram shows the components of a UCI:

This is a personal ten-digit number, which is used to ensure learner achievement information can be provided to their Personal Learning Record (PLR). ULNs are provided and administered by the Learning Records Service (LRS).

If a candidate does not have a ULN, the ULN field should be left blank; you must not add a piece of placeholder text, such as ‘9999999999’ or ‘TBC’.

Where a ULN is included with an entry, we will check the ULN and candidate details with the LRS. Candidate details submitted to us need to match exactly with those held on their PLR. If there are any differences, we will not be able to validate the ULN. This will not prevent your entries from being processed, but we will not be able to send results data to their PLR until the ULN and candidate details held by us have been validated correctly. If you need to make a change to a learner’s details, you must update them in a number of places:

• Within their PLR
• Within your management information system
• You then need to send updated candidate details to OCR.

For more information, and to generate a ULN, please refer to the Learning Records Service.

The order number will be quoted on your centre’s invoice. It can be either an official order number or simply a reference, e.g. a tutor’s name. It is good practice to provide an order number as this enables invoices to be matched to your entries easily. You can use the same order number for as many entry submissions as you wish and it can be up to 20 characters long.

Provide entry codes of the full qualification(s) and/or details of the specific unit(s) as appropriate. All entry codes can be found in the entry codes booklet.