AFD Software helps universities maintain accurate student data through address, email and phone validation, and batch cleansing. IMD, POLAR and TUNDRA datasets can be returned automatically, eliminating the need for separate lookups and manual checks.
Point Blank Music School found around 30% of records required correction before implementing AFD’s solution. After introducing automated address validation and contextual admissions data, this fell to 1.67%, saving an estimated two weeks of staff time each year.
“A very manual task for every single student. There was quite a high chance of human error.”
Gabby McLaren,
Head of Data and Insight at Point Blank Music School
Joint guidance published by Universities UK, UCAS and the Sutton Trust in July 2026 names IMD, POLAR and TUNDRA as the area-based indicators for contextual admissions. Covering more than 150 universities and colleges as signatories of the Fair Admissions Code of Practice, it also advises institutions to replace manual checks with verified, centralised data where possible.
The Sutton Trust’s evidence review, published alongside the guidance, warns that area-based measures can produce false positives and false negatives. Data quality is a key factor: an incorrect postcode can result in the wrong deprivation classification, potentially affecting contextual offer decisions. As UCAS address data is often incomplete or inconsistently formatted, validating addresses before carrying out any lookup helps improve accuracy.
Student address data received
Address verified and standardised
Datasets returned automatically
Trusted data for decisions and analysis
Universities and colleges need widening participation datasets that are accurate, consistent and readily available for reporting. AFD removes the need to source and maintain this information manually by returning IMD, POLAR and TUNDRA data automatically as part of the address validation process. The data is delivered from a single trusted source, ensuring records remain consistent across admissions, student services and reporting teams.
Participation Of Local Areas
Developed by the Office for Students (OfS), the POLAR classification groups areas across the UK based on the proportion of the young population that participates in higher education.
Tracking Underrepresentation by Area
TUNDRA classifies local areas in England into five groups (quintiles) based on the proportion of 16 year old state-funded mainstream school pupils who progress to higher education at 18 or 19.
Over 100 universities use our solutions, and more than 200 colleges. When Point Blank Music School asked us for TUNDRA, it was because their admissions team were taking every applicant’s postcode to the OfS lookup site, copying the codes out, and pasting them into the student record by hand. We added the data to our HE specific solution removing their manual and error prone task.
If you’re looking for an address lookup that returns IMD, POLAR, and TUNDRA in one call, or a batch cleanse that appends them to your existing records, talk to one of our experienced HE data quality specialists on 0333 433 0711 or email postcode@afd.co.uk
Source: Contextual Admissions: A guide to fair and transparent practice – UUK/UCAS/Sutton Trust, July 2026.
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