When you register your students and make unit and certification entries for Cambridge Advanced Nationals, you need to provide the following information.

Provide candidate name and personal details:

• 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.

This is a four-digit number, usually allocated by the centre at the time of entry, which candidates will need to write on their question papers.

• Ensure the four-figure candidate number is unique for the series and that a GCSE/Cambridge Nationals candidate does not have the same number as an AS and A Level, Cambridge Advanced Nationals or Cambridge Technicals candidate.
• Candidate numbers cannot be changed during a series.
• If you can, it’s best to use the same candidate number throughout the candidate’s exam career.

This is a 13-character code. It is mandatory and is used mainly to link a candidate’s unit results across series (and across different centres) for all their entries so they can be certificated.

• Any entries submitted without a UCI will be rejected.
• Exam administration software packages can usually generate UCIs but the JCQ has more information about calculating a UCI to help you.
• It is essential candidates only have one UCI: If a candidate has more than one UCI, we cannot link their unit results and they risk not receiving a final subject grade. If you find a candidate has more than one UCI, please email entries@ocr.org.uk from your centre’s registered email address with details of the UCIs in use and the candidate’s name. We will then merge the candidate details.
• If a candidate comes from another centre, use the original UCI they bring with them.

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 us.

To generate a ULN, please refer to the Learning Records Service. For more information about ULNs, see our FAQs.

All registrations, unit and certification entries are made using a four-digit entry code. These details are provided in the entry codes booklet. 

There is a single entry code per NEA unit. You do not need to tell us when making NEA unit entries the method of moderation (visit or virtual visit). Teachers will specify the method of moderation when requesting a visit.