Ontario Secondary Transcript Course Codes
This is a list of all the Ontario Secondary School Course Codes available in OCAS systems.
Data Files
- Course List
- Course List, with diacritics (eg. French Characters) substituted with ASCII equivalents
Text File Format
The file COURSE.TXT has the following file layout.
| Position | Length | Data Item Name | Data Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | course_code_pfx | A | Course Code Prefix |
| 4 | 2 | course_code_mid | A | Course Code Mid positions 4 and 5 |
| 6 | 1 | course_language | A | E for English and F for French |
| 7 | 40 | course_title | A | Course Title |
Note: There may be several titles for the same course code prefix. This accounts for English, French and variations of title amongst the Secondary Schools. MET provides this file to us with this content and it is used to validate courses.
Course Code Layout
These can be found published on the Ministry of Education website here: https://www.dcp.edu.gov.on.ca/en/course-descriptions-and-prerequisites
First 3 Characters
Indicates the subject of the course.
4th Character
The fourth character indicates the grade of a course as follows:
- 1 (Grade 9)
- 2 (Grade 10)
- 3 (Grade 11)
- 4 (Grade 12)
- 0 (OAC)
- K for College
- U for University
- P for other post-secondary level course
For courses in ESL, it indicates the level of a course, as follows:
- A (Level 1)
- B (Level 2)
- C (Level 3)
- D (Level 4)
- E (Level 5)
5th Character
The fifth character indicates the type of course, as follows:
- D (academic)
- P (applied)
- O (open)
- E (workplace preparation)
- C (college preparation)
- U (university preparation)
- M (college/ university preparation)
- T (college delivered dual credit)
Transfer courses are indicated as follows:
- H (academic)
- J (applied)
- K (university preparation)
- L (college/university preparation)
- Q or R (college preparation)
- S (workplace preparation)
Locally developed courses are indicated as follows:
- 1 (academic)
- 2 (applied)
- 3 (open)
- 4 (compulsory English, math or science)
- 5 (workplace preparation)
- 6 (college preparation)
- 7 (university preparation)
- 8 (college/university preparation)
Courses that are OAC level equivalents will be coded as such following the course code (i.e., ENGOAC).
For students who began secondary school between 1984-1985 and 1999-2000, the fifth character indicates the level of difficulty of a course, as follows:
- Courses based on ministry curriculum guidelines:
- A (advanced)
- B (basic)
- G (general)
- Non-guideline courses:
- X (advanced)
- Y (basic)
- Z (general)
6th Character (optional)
The sixth character is set aside for an individual secondary school or board to use. The values in this position are extremely varied (i.e., not suitable for editing).
Other notes
Course codes beginning with K indicate courses consisting of alternative expectations, which do not lead to credits. These codes are structured somewhat differently: the fourth character indicates the year of attendance in secondary school (A for the first year, B for the second, etc.) and the fifth character, N, indicates a non-credit course.
QEV is the code for credits received in the Grade 9 program from 1993-1994 to 1998-1999 (a total of 8 credits, including the compulsory credits). PLE is the code for equivalent credits granted for previous learning outside Ontario or in a non-inspected private school in Ontario.
The codes indicating credits granted to mature students who re-entered secondary school before September 2003 are as follows:
- QEE (equivalent-education credit)
- QAP (apprenticeship-training credit)
- QMA (maturity-allowance credit)
- QSE (credit for course work completed outside Ontario)
OCAS has a MET course code file available to the colleges. This file contains the course codes and titles.
International Evaluation courses
For courses taken abroad and evaluated by a third party for equivalencies, the course codes are structured as close to the Ontario Curriculum codes as possible. The following list of course code prefixes is provided by ICAS to indicate which course codes they may use in their equivalencies.
| Code | Course |
|---|---|
| ADA | Dramatic Arts |
| AMU | Music |
| ASM | Media Arts |
| ATC | Dance |
| AVI | Visual Arts |
| BAC | Accounting |
| BDZ | Entrepreneurship |
| BMZ | Marketing |
| BTZ | Information and Communication Technology (applied to Business) |
| BUS | Business Studies |
| CGU | Geography |
| CHY | History |
| CHA | American (US) History |
| CLN | Legal Studies |
| CPZ | Political Science |
| ECZ | Economics |
| ENG | English |
| EBT | Business English |
| ESL | English as a second language |
| FRA | Français |
| FSF | French as a second language |
| FSL | French as a second language |
| GZZ | Guidance Career Studies |
| HFA | Food and Nutrition |
| HSZ | Social Science / Humanities |
| HRT | World Religions |
| HZZ | Philosophy |
| ICS | Computer Studies |
| LVL | Latin |
| LVG | Ancient Greek |
| LYZ | All Other International Languages |
| MAT | Mathematics |
| MCV | Calculus and Vectors |
| MCT | Technical Mathematics |
| MDM | Statistics / Data Management |
| MTB | Business Mathematics |
| MBZ | Business Mathematics |
| MCZ | Business Mathematics |
| OTH | Other |
| PPL | Physical Education and Healthy Living |
| PPZ | Health |
| PSZ | Kinesiology |
| SNC | General Science |
| SBI | Biology |
| SPH | Physics |
| SCH | Chemistry |
| SVN | Environmental Science |
| SEZ | Geology / Earth Sciences |
| TZZ | Technological Studies - General |
| ZOO | Zoology |
| ZZZ | Other doesn't fit into any of above categories |
Usage
This list is presently used by
- Domestic on Demand
- Coltrane
- eTMS