Ulster University
degree classification calculator
Quick answer: Ulster weights Level 5 at 30% and Level 6 at 70%. Its promotion band is the widest of any university here — 2.5%, where most give one or two — and it is granted where half or more of your Level 6 credits sit in the higher band. Students who started before 2024/25 also had a second route, 100% of the final year, with the better mark used; that route was withdrawn for later intakes, so anyone finishing a standard three-year degree now has the 30:70 calculation alone.
Ulster degree classification calculator
Level 5 at 30% and Level 6 at 70%Level 5 — second year (30%)
Level 6 — final year (70%)
What do I need for a First?
Enter the marks you already have above. These boxes are the credits still to come in each year: a year with no marks yet is counted as all still to come. Change them if that is not right for you.
| Class | Mark needed in every remaining module |
|---|
Class boundaries
| Class | Weighted mark | Uplift rule |
|---|---|---|
| First Class Honours | 70% or above | or 67.5% with at least half of final-year credits at 70% or above |
| Upper Second Class Honours (2:1) | 60% or above | or 57.5% with at least half of final-year credits at 60% or above |
| Lower Second Class Honours (2:2) | 50% or above | or 47.5% with at least half of final-year credits at 50% or above |
| Third Class Honours | 40% or above | or 37.5% with at least half of final-year credits at 40% or above |
What do I need for a First?
The planner under the calculator works backwards from Ulster’s own algorithm. Enter the marks you have so far, leave the years you have not finished empty (or set how many credits are still to come), and it shows the lowest mark you would need in every remaining module to reach each class. It runs the same calculation as the calculator, using the year weights and the secondary rules in the table above, so a class reached through one of those routes shows the lower figure.
The answer is a single mark repeated across every remaining module. Real marks vary, and where only some credits count or a class can be reached through a share of high marks, an uneven spread can sometimes get there with a slightly lower average. “Already secured” means the algorithm gives that class even at 0 in what is left, but you still have to pass those modules.
Which algorithm applies to you depends on when you started
Ulster publishes a table with one row per intake, and the rows are not the same. Students who started between 2018/19 and 2023/24 had two calculations — Algorithm 1 at 30% of Level 5 plus 70% of Level 6, or Algorithm 2 at 100% of the final year — with the better mark used. For students starting 2024/25 and later, Algorithm 2 is marked N/A: only the 30:70 calculation applies. The University also says every student may have the best outcome from any algorithm in place during their period of enrolment, which agrees with the table rather than overriding it — Algorithm 2 had already gone before a 2024/25 intake enrolled. This page applies the 30:70 calculation, which is the live rule for anyone finishing a standard three-year degree now. If you started in 2023/24 or earlier, also work out your final year alone: whichever is higher is yours.
The promotion band is 2.5% — the widest on this site
Most universities give you one or two percent below a boundary. Ulster gives 2.5%, and has done for students awarding from 2024/25 onwards. You are promoted where you are 2.5% or less below a boundary and 50% or more of your credits at your highest level are in the higher classification. Ulster’s own worked example: an average of 57.5% with half your Level 6 modules in the 60+ band is promoted to a 2:1. Note what the test counts — credits at your highest level, which for a bachelor’s degree means Level 6 only, not the Level 5 modules that also fed the average.
A repeated module is recorded at the lower of the pass mark and the mark you earned
The Diploma Supplement is blunt about this: where a module or a component of a module has been failed and the assessment repeated, “the minimum pass mark or the actual mark achieved, whichever is the lower, is recorded”. So a resit that scores 65 is recorded as 40, and a resit that scores 32 is recorded as 32. There is no upside. Enter the recorded mark rather than the one on the script. The pass mark is 40% at Levels 1 to 6 and 50% at Level 7, and you must reach a satisfactory standard in each assessment element as well as passing the module overall.
Placement and intercalary years do not count
Ulster states plainly that your placement or intercalary years do not count towards your degree calculation. A sandwich year changes the length of your degree and what appears on your transcript, not the arithmetic of your classification. Level 4 does not count either — only Levels 5 and 6 enter the algorithm.
Where the algorithms stop applying
The degree algorithms do not apply to students on courses with an approved variation of the regulations for Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Body requirements; those courses use their own regulations, and Ulster notes this also covers students who completed Level 5 modules in 2024/25. An integrated master’s runs on a different table — 20% of Level 5, 30% of Level 6 and 50% of Level 7 — with the same historical second route for pre-2024/25 intakes. Students admitted with credit are handled separately again: fewer than 60 Level 5 credit points at Ulster, or direct entry at Level 6, and the calculation runs on Level 6 alone.
What this calculator does not do
It applies the published algorithm to the marks you enter. It cannot know your programme’s approved variances, any extenuating circumstances, capped resit marks, or how a Board of Examiners will use its discretion. Where a rule is a judgement rather than a formula, the page says so rather than guessing.
Sources
Every figure on this page is read from Ulster’s own regulations:
- Ulster University — How your degree award is calculated — read in full: the undergraduate algorithm table by intake year, showing 30% of Level 5 with 70% of Level 6 throughout and the withdrawal of the 100%-final-year alternative for 2024/25 starters; the integrated master’s table at 20:30:50; the 2.5% promotion rule introduced for students awarding from 2024/25, with its 50%-of-highest-level-credits test and the University’s own 57.5% worked example; the exclusion of placement and intercalary years; the credit-for-previous-study rules for students entering at Level 6 or with fewer than 60 Level 5 credit points; and the exclusion of courses carrying an approved PSRB variation.
- Ulster University — Diploma Supplement — the mark scale and assessment rules: percentage marking, the 40% pass mark at Levels 1 to 6 and 50% at Level 7, the requirement to reach a satisfactory standard in each assessment element as well as passing the module overall, and the rule that a repeated module is recorded at the pass mark or the actual mark, whichever is lower.
Regulations change between intakes. Your own cohort’s handbook is always authoritative.