Centre approval

The first step to offering OCR qualifications is becoming an approved centre. All centres must abide by the OCR terms of business.

For general qualifications and Cambridge Nationals, you need to have a minimum of ten candidates per year.

You also need to follow the JCQ General Regulations and, where relevant, the following JCQ publications:

Once you’re approved, you can offer any of our general qualifications/Cambridge Nationals without having to seek approval individually.

To apply for centre approval, please contact us at centre.approval@ocr.org.uk.

Depending on your circumstances we may contact awarding bodies for references, arrange for a representative to visit your centre or carry out a credit check.

Visiting your centre 

A visit from one of our team will be required if you do not already have approval to run formal timetabled examinations.

See the fees list for details of fees charged for approval visits.

Credit checking

If you are a company, sole trader or partnership, we have a credit checking process in place to help us verify your credit worthiness.

You need to have been established, and trading on credit terms, for a minimum of six months and be able to supply us with two credit references (banks, solicitors and accountants are not considered as trade creditors and cannot be used as referees).

If you cannot satisfy these requirements, we will be unable to process your application.

We can, however, review your application after six months of trading.

If you cannot meet these criteria but think there are extenuating circumstances, please email the details to our customer support centre.

Once your application is approved you will receive a letter of confirmation. You can then enter candidates for the qualifications that you are approved to offer.

Approval is subject to continued centre activity; if there are no entries or certification claims for a qualification for two consecutive years, centre approval will automatically lapse for that qualification.

Get in touch with our customer support centre.