UK Government Data Standards Catalogue

Metadata Value
Data Element

Unique Pupil Number
Is Part Of
Person Identifiers
Has Parts  
Version 2.0 
Status Release 
Previous Versions
Version: 1.0 Status: Release
 
Later Versions  
Date Agreed 18 November 2004

Back to table of contents

Name

Unique Pupil Number
Description A Unique Pupil Number (UPN) is allocated to each child in an English state school. It is an identifier for use in the educational context during a child's school career only and subject to Data Protection restrictions.
Business Format Annnnnnnnnnnn or AnnnnnnnnnnnA (for temporary UPN).
Element Type Data Item
XML Schema
View whole schema document Citizen Identification Types as XML
View definition UniquePupilNumberType as HTML
Validations
1. . The check letter at position 1 is found by calculating the modulo 23 sum of the digit position over the 12 numeric digits (for a permanent UPN) or the 11 numeric digits plus the final alphabetical character (for a temporary UPN).
2. . The position of the first numeric digit in the calculation is 2.
3. The resulting value is replaced by a letter of the alphabet following the rule:
4. 0 - >A, 1 - >B, .........22 - >Z.
5. I, O, and S are not used as a check letter or the final character of a temporary UPN.
6. . For the purposes of the modulo 23 calculation, for a temporary UPN the final alphabetical character is assigned the value equivalent as specified in 4 above (e.g. an “A” would be “0” (zero), a “B” would be “1” etc.
Values
The components of the 12 digit number are, from left to right:
A government allocated Local Authority Number (3 digits).
A government allocated Establishment Number (4 digits).
The last 2 digits of an academic year.
Plus 3 random digits (for a permanent UPN) or 2 random digits and an alphabetical character (for a temporary UPN).
No useful information can be derived from these components, but they may be used for validation.
DefaultValue
Owner Department for Education & Skills
Based On Pupil Common Basic Data Set
Verification
Comment