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Subjects, disciplines, industries and occupations

These pages include current and historical coding frames used in HESA data collections and publications.

Subjects of study

HECoS - the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) is the new subject coding system used by HESA, UCAS and the Student Loans Company from 2019/20. Also contains information about the subject groupings in the Common Aggregation Hierarchy.

JACS - the Joint Academic Coding System has been used to classify subjects from 2002/03 to 2018/19. Also contains information about the previous HESA Code classification.

Academic departments and Disciplines

Cost Centres - financial reporting tool used as a proxy for academic departments in HESA data.

REF 2014: Units of assessment - lists the coding of disciplines for the 2014 Research Excellence Framework and the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.

Industries and occupations

Industrial and occupational classifications - information and breakdowns for the UK Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities (SIC) and the UK Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system.