Managing Your Higher National Data

Approval

You can only enter candidates for Group Awards and Units that you are approved to offer. If you need to seek approval, this must be done using Form SA1(2). If you try to enter a candidate for a qualification you are not approved to offer, the entry will be rejected.

Registration - who and when

It is vital that a candidate has only one Scottish Candidate Number (SCN) as this record will hold details of his/her SQA achievements for life.  

What to do if your candidate doesn't have or know their SCN

No candidate should be allocated more than one SCN. You can use SQA.net to search for a candidate's SCN. Alternatively, ask the candidate if he/she has a certificate previously issued by SQA, or contact your Data Management Team.

Look in the Operational Help Centre for guidance on the registration process.

If you come across a candidate who appears to have two or more SCNs, please contact your Data Management Team who will arrange to have the numbers merged. Please e-mail: candidate.merge@sqa.org.uk

Changes to candidates' details

Please make sure that you inform us of any changes to a candidate's personal details (eg change of address - we need to know where to send certificates).

How to submit candidate entries to us

We will accept entries for Higher National qualifications throughout the year. You can find full details of the procedures for entering candidates in the Operational Help Centre. The Data Management Team can assist you with any queries you may have about entering candidates for Higher National qualifications; but you may find the following points useful.

Submitting entries

• It is good practice to wait until you have received confirmation that your registration details have been successfully processed and there are no errors before you submit entries. 
• Codes - always use the up-to-date codes for approved awards and Units.
• If your candidate is completing a full Group Award (GA) you should ensure that the Group Award code is entered before or at the same time as the contributing Units. We cannot automatically enter candidates for the Units because most HNC/Ds have options.
• Enter the candidate for the Group Award code, and its anticipated completion date. The completion date for the Group Award is the date when the candidate is expected to have completed all of the contributing Units. The completion date must be after the date an entry is processed.
• Enter the candidate for the contributing Units and Graded Units and, if they differ from the completion date of the Group Award, give the predicted completion dates for each of the Units. Entries for all the contributing Units do not have to be submitted at the same time as the entry for the Group Award.
• As the completion date informs the timing of external moderation please be as accurate as possible with these dates. External moderation takes place throughout the year and can be on both incomplete and complete evidence.

Free-standing Units

Some candidates may wish to undertake individual free-standing Units, without embarking on an HN Group Award. Others may choose to do individual Units which will contribute to a Group Award in future years. We will accept entries for free-standing Units throughout the year.

You must indicate when the individual Units will be completed. The completion date is used to arrange visiting moderation, so it is important you are as accurate as possible with each date.

What we do with the information you send us

When entry information is submitted to us, whether on paper forms or in an electronic format, it will be processed on our Awards Processing System. The most efficient way to send in your data is through SQA.net.

We will send you confirmation of your entries once they have been processed. At the same time we will inform you if there were any problems processing your data, tell you the nature of the problem and, where appropriate, how to resolve it. SQA.net file transfer submissions will receive a processing report indicating what has been processed and where there are errors via that system.

You should check these reports against your own records to ensure that the information we hold is accurate. The information can also be checked using SQA.net.

Your entries will have been subject to a number of checks to ensure that they conform to rules we have put in place. If any of your entries have been rejected, your Processing Report will detail the reason for the rejection. When you receive a report, you will need to review the cases highlighted and re-submit the information for the candidates concerned. We will then process this updated information, subjecting it to the same checks as the original submission.

We will provide the same type of reporting system to you for updates to entry information.

Withdrawing an entry

If a candidate leaves your centre or decides not to proceed with the qualification you should withdraw the candidate from the Unit, Graded Unit or Group Award as soon as possible. For more information about withdrawing candidates please refer to the Operational Help Centre.

Submitting Unit results

You can submit entries and results throughout the year for Higher National Units.

• For unrevised HN Units, results will be Merit, Pass, Fail or Withdraw.
• For revised HN Units they will be Pass, Fail or Withdraw; and for Graded Units results will be A, B, C, Fail or Withdraw.

You must provide a result for all candidates by the completion date of the Group Award (though completion dates can be amended). Remember that, to receive a Group Award, candidates must pass all of the contributing Units.

If you submitted your entries electronically, submit your Unit results the same way, remembering to use the correct file format. Centres which submitted their entries on paper will be sent forms on which to submit Unit results.

Group Awards

Candidates must be entered for Group Awards - if they have only been entered for Units they will not receive the Group Award, even if they have completed all the Units which make up that award. 

Remember that all Unit and Graded Unit assessments are subject to SQA's quality assurance procedures. If a Unit is selected for external moderation, results remain provisional until completion of the moderation process.

Results submission deadline

For all Units or Graded Units with a completion date of July or earlier, you have until 30 September to provide outstanding results. After 30 September, all outstanding results will be changed to withdrawals.

For more details of the Registration, Entries and Results process, please refer to the Operational Help Centre.