The Joint Academic Coding System system (JACS) is used by the Higher Education Statistics Board (HESA) and the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS) in the UK to classify academic subjects. This is because it will be replaced by the Higher Education Coding System (HECoS) and General Aggregation Hierarchy (CAH) for the academic year 2019/20.
The JACS code for one subject consists of letters and three numbers. The letters represent a broad subject classification, eg F for physics. The first digit represents the main subject area, e.g. F3 for physics, and the next number represents more details, similar to the Dewey Decimal System. The main subjects of physics, for example, are broken down into 19 detailed subjects, represented by letters plus three numbers: for example, F300 represents physics, F330 environmental physics and F331 atmospheric physics.
Video Joint Academic Coding System
Histori
HESA and UCAS are used to operate two different (although similar) subject coding systems - HESAcode and Classification of Academic Subject Subjects (SCAS) respectively. In 1996 a joint project was launched to bring these two systems together to create an integrated structure. A project team was established with two people from each of the two organizations. The project team is known as JACS because it is an acronym of their name (Jonathan Waller and Andy Youell of HESA, Clive Sillence, and Sara Goodwins of UCAS).
The first operational version (v1.7) of the Joint Academic Coding System (maintaining the JACS acronym) was published in 1999 and became operational under the UCAS and HESA systems for 2002/03.
The update exercise was conducted in 2005 and JACS 2 was introduced for the 2007/08 academic year. JACS 3 was introduced for 2012/13.
Maps Joint Academic Coding System
Code
The letters given in the subject and the letter of the number letters given to the main subject in JACS 3 are:
Code Y (joint study) is only used at the Course level in the HESA database and is not used to describe individual modules.
JACS code in UCAS system
The course code in the UCAS system is defined by the course provider and does not always conform to the JACS course code. The UCAS course code has a length of four characters but, unlike the JACS code, can consist of a combination of letters and numbers in any order. However, historically UCAS coded the course code of the JACS subject code and many institutions continue to do this, which can cause confusion between the two concepts.
Where courses involve more than one subject, UCAS has historically created course code based on JACS code aggregation. For courses divided between 50:50 between two subjects, codes with two letters and two numbers are used, which combine the main subject code that will be used for two subjects if studied as an individual degree.
Example
Consider BSc Mathematics and Physics courses:
- The main subject code for Mathematics is G1 , and the main subject code for Physics is F3 .
- The combined code used is GF13 and FG31 .
- The GFD3 , GF1H and GFH1 codes are also used.
Another example is Music and Philosophy . The main subject code is W3 (Music) and V5 (Philosophy). The combined code used is WV35 or VW35 , while WV53 , also used.
The same letter can be used twice (if two subjects are in the same common subject area), such as FF53 for Astronomy and Physics .
Courses with major/minor subjects
Coding is done differently for courses like "Mathematics with Physics", which is not the same as "Maths and Physics".
The format for such a course is Y1Z9 where:
- Y1 is the "main" subject that represents most degree programs
- Z9 is a "minor" subject that represents less than a course.
For example, Mathematics with Physics will be represented by G1F3, but Physics with Mathematics will be represented by F3G1. Therefore the sequence in which two subjects are notated is historically important.
See also
- List of doctoral studies
External links
- JACS 1.7 Classification (2002/03-2006/07) from HESA
- JACS Classification 2.0 (2007/08-20011/12) from HESA
- JACS 3.0 Classification (since 20012/13) from HESA
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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