Key statistics · October 2026
- We actively track and score 147 AI programmes — 114 courses, 27 tracks, 5 practice-exam sets and 1 certification — across 19 providers (365 Data Science, AWS, Adobe, Anthropic, DataCamp, DeepLearning.AI, DeepLearning.AI & AWS, DeepLearning.AI & Stanford, Duke, Google, Google Cloud, Google DeepMind, IBM, Imperial College London, Microsoft, Stanford, Udemy, University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt).
- 147 of 147 come from the 4 programmes that pay us a commission (365 Data Science, Coursera, DataCamp and Udemy), so the mix reflects which platforms we cover, not the size of the market.
- 62 of 147 require no coding at all — you can hold a credential in this field without writing a line of Python.
- The average editorial rating across the ones we score is 3.43 / 5; the highest-rated is the DeepLearning.AI Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) at 4.2 / 5.
- 90 of 147 start at beginner or foundational level — most need no prerequisites.
- 66 of 147 can be finished in under twelve hours — a weekend; only 25 run past fifty.
This page collects the key data behind our reviews in one citable place. Every figure below comes from BestAICertifications.com's own editorial catalog — the same data that powers our rankings and AI Certification Picker — and was last reviewed in October 2026. The full dataset is also available as a machine-readable JSON file under a CC BY 4.0 licence — free to reuse with attribution.
Editorial ratings of AI certifications and courses
Scored on our six-factor methodology: curriculum currency, completion realism, skill value, employer recognition, cost & value and salary impact, weighted equally.
The table below lists all 147 certifications we score, highest rated first, with provider, level, total hours, coding requirement and our rating.
| Certification | Provider | Level | Total hours | Coding | Our rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepLearning.AI Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) | DeepLearning.AI | Intermediate | ~31 | Python | 4.2 / 5 |
| AI Engineer Core Track: LLM Engineering, RAG, QLoRA, Agents | Udemy | Intermediate | ~33 | Python | 4.1 / 5 |
| Agentic AI (DeepLearning.AI) | DeepLearning.AI | Intermediate | ~23 | Python | 4.1 / 5 |
| Google Advanced Data Analytics Professional Certificate | Intermediate | ~153 | Python | 4.1 / 5 | |
| Google AI Professional Certificate | Beginner | 8–13 | none | 4.0 / 5 | |
| Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate | Beginner | ~152 | Python | 4.0 / 5 | |
| AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer Associate: Hands On! | Udemy | Intermediate | ~25 | not recorded | 3.9 / 5 |
| Associate Data Scientist in Python | DataCamp | Beginner | ~90 | Python | 3.9 / 5 |
| IBM AI Engineering | IBM | Intermediate | ~168 | Python | 3.9 / 5 |
| IBM Data Science Professional Certificate | IBM | Beginner | ~178 | Python | 3.9 / 5 |
| IBM RAG and Agentic AI Professional Certificate | IBM | Intermediate | ~101 | Python | 3.9 / 5 |
| LangChain: Agentic AI Engineering with LangChain & LangGraph | Udemy | Intermediate | ~20 | Python | 3.9 / 5 |
| The Complete Prompt Engineering for AI Bootcamp | Udemy | Intermediate | ~18 | Python | 3.9 / 5 |
| AI Engineering with LangChain | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~21 | Python | 3.8 / 5 |
| AI Python for Beginners | DeepLearning.AI | Beginner | ~17 | Python | 3.8 / 5 |
| Associate AI Engineer for Developers | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~29 | Python | 3.8 / 5 |
| Associate Data Analyst in SQL | DataCamp | Beginner | ~39 | SQL | 3.8 / 5 |
| Data Analyst in Power BI | DataCamp | Beginner | ~50 | none | 3.8 / 5 |
| IBM Data Analyst Professional Certificate | IBM | Beginner | ~180 | Python | 3.8 / 5 |
| IBM Digital Marketing and Growth Hacking Professional Certificate | IBM | Beginner | ~110 | none | 3.8 / 5 |
| IBM Generative AI Engineering | IBM | Intermediate | ~188 | not recorded | 3.8 / 5 |
| Machine Learning Bootcamp: Python, Projects & Deployment | Udemy | Intermediate | ~67 | Python | 3.8 / 5 |
| Microsoft Generative AI Engineering Professional Certificate | Microsoft | Intermediate | ~96 | Python | 3.8 / 5 |
| Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate | Microsoft | Beginner | ~188 | none | 3.8 / 5 |
| OpenAI Fundamentals | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~15 | Python | 3.8 / 5 |
| PyTorch for Deep Learning Bootcamp | Udemy | Intermediate | ~52 | Python | 3.8 / 5 |
| 100 Days of Code: The Complete Python Pro Bootcamp | Udemy | Beginner | ~57 | Python | 3.7 / 5 |
| AI Engineer Agentic Track: The Complete Agent & MCP Course | Udemy | Intermediate | ~21 | Python | 3.7 / 5 |
| Adobe Marketing Specialist Professional Certificate | Adobe | Beginner | ~88 | none | 3.7 / 5 |
| Associate AI Engineer for Data Scientists | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~40 | Python | 3.7 / 5 |
| Complete A.I. & Machine Learning, Data Science Bootcamp | Udemy | Intermediate | ~44 | Python | 3.7 / 5 |
| Data Analyst in Python | DataCamp | Beginner | ~36 | Python | 3.7 / 5 |
| Deep Learning Specialization | DeepLearning.AI | Intermediate | ~129 | Python | 3.7 / 5 |
| Generative AI with Large Language Models | DeepLearning.AI & AWS | Intermediate | ~17 | Python | 3.7 / 5 |
| Google Prompting Essentials | Beginner | 4–6 | none | 3.7 / 5 | |
| IBM AI Developer | IBM | Beginner | ~146 | not recorded | 3.7 / 5 |
| Microsoft AI & ML Engineering | Microsoft | Intermediate | ~178 | not recorded | 3.7 / 5 |
| Microsoft AI Product Manager Professional Certificate | Microsoft | Beginner | ~117 | none | 3.7 / 5 |
| Microsoft Python Development Professional Certificate | Microsoft | Beginner | ~136 | Python | 3.7 / 5 |
| Multi-Agent Systems with LangGraph | DataCamp | Advanced | ~2.8 | Python | 3.7 / 5 |
| AI Agent Engineer (365 Data Science) | 365 Data Science | Intermediate | ~36 | Python | 3.6 / 5 |
| AI Engineer Production Track: Deploy LLMs & Agents at Scale | Udemy | Intermediate | ~19 | Python | 3.6 / 5 |
| Data Analysis with Pandas and Python | Udemy | Beginner | ~18 | Python | 3.6 / 5 |
| Developing AI Applications | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~21 | Python | 3.6 / 5 |
| Gemini for Developers | Google DeepMind | Intermediate | ~12 | Python | 3.6 / 5 |
| Google Cloud Generative AI Leader Professional Certificate | Google Cloud | Beginner | 8–20 | none | 3.6 / 5 |
| Google Cloud ML Engineer prep | Google Cloud | Advanced | ~19 | Python | 3.6 / 5 |
| Introduction to Model Context Protocol (MCP) | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~3 | Python | 3.6 / 5 |
| Machine Learning Specialization | DeepLearning.AI & Stanford | Intermediate | ~95 | light Python | 3.6 / 5 |
| Machine Learning and Deep Learning Bootcamp in Python | Udemy | Intermediate | ~31 | Python | 3.6 / 5 |
| Python Data Fundamentals | DataCamp | Beginner | ~28 | Python | 3.6 / 5 |
| SQL Fundamentals | DataCamp | Beginner | ~26 | SQL | 3.6 / 5 |
| Software Development with Claude Code | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~4 | Python | 3.6 / 5 |
| The Complete SQL Bootcamp (30 Hours): Go from Zero to Hero | Udemy | Beginner | ~30 | SQL | 3.6 / 5 |
| Vibe Coding Camp: Github Copilot, Cursor, Lovable, Windsurf | Udemy | Beginner | ~40 | none | 3.6 / 5 |
| AI For Developers With GitHub Copilot, Cursor AI & ChatGPT | Udemy | Intermediate | ~8 | Yes | 3.5 / 5 |
| AI for Data Analysts | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~4 | none | 3.5 / 5 |
| AI for Software Engineering | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~7 | Python | 3.5 / 5 |
| ChatGPT for Project Management – Leveraging AI for Success | Vanderbilt | Beginner | ~34 | none | 3.5 / 5 |
| Claude Code - The Practical Guide | Udemy | Intermediate | ~3.2 | Yes | 3.5 / 5 |
| Deep Learning in Python | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~18 | Python | 3.5 / 5 |
| Developing Large Language Models | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~19 | Python | 3.5 / 5 |
| GCP Associate Cloud Engineer - Google Cloud Certification | Udemy | Beginner | ~26 | none | 3.5 / 5 |
| Machine Learning A-Z: AI, Python & R | Udemy | Intermediate | ~49 | Python | 3.5 / 5 |
| Microsoft Power BI Desktop for Business Intelligence | Udemy | Beginner | ~17 | none | 3.5 / 5 |
| Prompt Engineering (Vanderbilt) | Vanderbilt | Beginner | ~39 | none | 3.5 / 5 |
| Python Mega Course: Build 20 Real-World Apps and AI Agents | Udemy | Beginner | ~49 | Python | 3.5 / 5 |
| The Data Science Course: Complete Data Science Bootcamp | Udemy | Beginner | ~32 | Python | 3.5 / 5 |
| Ultimate AWS Certified AI Practitioner AIF-C01 | Udemy | Beginner | ~10 | none | 3.5 / 5 |
| AI Engineer (365 Data Science) | 365 Data Science | Intermediate | ~32 | Python | 3.4 / 5 |
| AI Powered Graphic Design - Midjourney, Firefly, GPT, Gemini | Udemy | Beginner | ~3.8 | none | 3.4 / 5 |
| AI for Consulting | DataCamp | Beginner | ~3 | none | 3.4 / 5 |
| AI for Human Resources | DataCamp | Beginner | ~3 | none | 3.4 / 5 |
| AI for Marketing | DataCamp | Beginner | ~3 | none | 3.4 / 5 |
| AI for Product Managers | Udemy | Beginner | ~2.7 | none | 3.4 / 5 |
| AI for Sales | DataCamp | Beginner | ~1.7 | none | 3.4 / 5 |
| AI in Healthcare Specialization | Stanford | Beginner | ~60 | not recorded | 3.4 / 5 |
| AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner 2026 | Udemy | Beginner | ~27 | none | 3.4 / 5 |
| Google AI Essentials | Beginner | 4–8 | none | 3.4 / 5 | |
| IBM AI Product Manager Professional Certificate | IBM | Beginner | ~126 | not recorded | 3.4 / 5 |
| Introduction to Claude Models | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~3 | Python | 3.4 / 5 |
| Machine Learning Fundamentals in Python | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~16 | Python | 3.4 / 5 |
| Mathematics for Machine Learning Specialization | Imperial College London | Beginner | ~58 | Python | 3.4 / 5 |
| Practical AI with Google Gemini and NotebookLM | DataCamp | Beginner | ~2 | none | 3.4 / 5 |
| Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) with LangChain | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~3 | Python | 3.4 / 5 |
| Software Development with Cursor | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~1.5 | Yes | 3.4 / 5 |
| AI Product Management (Duke) | Duke | Intermediate | ~51 | not recorded | 3.3 / 5 |
| AI for Finance | DataCamp | Beginner | ~3 | none | 3.3 / 5 |
| AI for Teachers: ChatGPT, Lesson Planning & Classroom AI | Udemy | Beginner | ~5.7 | none | 3.3 / 5 |
| Building with the Claude API on Coursera | Anthropic | Beginner | ~13 | Python | 3.3 / 5 |
| Gen AI & AI Agents for Finance, Accounting & Administration | Udemy | Beginner | ~2.6 | none | 3.3 / 5 |
| Getting Started with Microsoft Copilot | Microsoft | Beginner | ~6 | none | 3.3 / 5 |
| Introduction to AI for Work | DataCamp | Beginner | ~2 | none | 3.3 / 5 |
| Master Microsoft Azure Fundamentals: AZ-900 Exam Prep | Udemy | Beginner | ~8.8 | none | 3.3 / 5 |
| Microsoft Copilot in Excel | DataCamp | Beginner | ~3 | none | 3.3 / 5 |
| Senior Data Scientist (365 Data Science) | 365 Data Science | Advanced | ~34 | Python | 3.3 / 5 |
| The AI Engineer Course: Complete AI Engineer Bootcamp | Udemy | Beginner | ~30 | Python | 3.3 / 5 |
| AI A-Z: Agentic AI, Gen AI, Prompt Engineering and RL | Udemy | Intermediate | ~17 | Python | 3.2 / 5 |
| AI Agent Fundamentals | DataCamp | Beginner | ~6 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| AI Business Fundamentals | DataCamp | Beginner | ~10 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| AI Consulting for Healthcare | Udemy | Beginner | ~8.8 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| AI For Business Specialization (Wharton) | University of Pennsylvania | Beginner | ~44 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| AI Fundamentals | DataCamp | Beginner | ~9 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| AI for HR: ChatGPT Recruiting, Hiring & HR Automation | Udemy | Beginner | ~4.8 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| AI for Marketing: Build & implement an AI Marketing strategy | Udemy | Beginner | ~4.9 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| AI for Project Managers (PMP) | Udemy | Beginner | ~5.2 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| AWS Certified AI Practitioner AIF-C01 Practice Exams | Udemy | Beginner | — | not recorded | 3.2 / 5 |
| Artificial Intelligence Governance | DataCamp | Beginner | ~2 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| ChatGPT Fundamentals | DataCamp | Beginner | ~3 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| ChatGPT for Excel: Formulas, Data Cleaning, and Analysis | Udemy | Beginner | ~1.2 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| ChatGPT: Complete ChatGPT Course For Work 2026 (Ethically)! | Udemy | Beginner | ~18 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| Customer Service With ChatGPT: AI-Powered Customer Support | Udemy | Beginner | ~2.8 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| EU AI Act Fundamentals | DataCamp | Beginner | ~9 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| Generative AI for Beginners | Udemy | Beginner | ~4.5 | not recorded | 3.2 / 5 |
| How to use ChatGPT and Generative AI to help create content | Udemy | Beginner | ~6.7 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| LLMs Mastery: Complete Guide to Transformers & Generative AI | Udemy | Advanced | ~7.5 | Python | 3.2 / 5 |
| MLOps Fundamentals | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~14 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| Machine Learning Scientist (365 Data Science) | 365 Data Science | Intermediate | ~29 | Python | 3.2 / 5 |
| Responsible AI Foundations | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~6 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| SAP AI for Functional Consultants Training | Udemy | Beginner | ~2.7 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| The Complete AI Guide: Learn ChatGPT, Claude & Generative AI | Udemy | Beginner | ~42 | none | 3.2 / 5 |
| AI Content Creation & AI Creative Writing Using ChatGPT A-Z | Udemy | Beginner | ~2.8 | none | 3.1 / 5 |
| AI Tools for Real Estate Professionals | Udemy | Beginner | ~5.1 | none | 3.1 / 5 |
| Claude AI for Sales Teams - AI Assistant for Sales | Udemy | Beginner | ~1 | none | 3.1 / 5 |
| Databricks Machine Learning Associate Practice Exams 2026 | Udemy | Intermediate | — | not recorded | 3.1 / 5 |
| EU AI Act Masterclass: Compliance, Risk & Governance 2026 | Udemy | Beginner | ~3.8 | not recorded | 3.1 / 5 |
| Generative AI & AI Agents Fundamentals for Healthcare | Udemy | Beginner | ~2.8 | none | 3.1 / 5 |
| Generative AI for Everyone | DeepLearning.AI | Beginner | ~6 | none | 3.1 / 5 |
| Introduction to AI Agents | DataCamp | Beginner | ~1.5 | none | 3.1 / 5 |
| Introduction to Microsoft Copilot | DataCamp | Beginner | ~1 | none | 3.1 / 5 |
| Prompt Engineering PRO (AI Prompt Engineering FAST-TRACK) | Udemy | Beginner | ~2.3 | none | 3.1 / 5 |
| Statistics for Data Science and Business Analysis | Udemy | Beginner | ~4.9 | none | 3.1 / 5 |
| AI For Everyone | DeepLearning.AI | Beginner | ~7 | not recorded | 3.0 / 5 |
| AI Prototyping for Product Managers | Udemy | Beginner | ~1.3 | none | 3.0 / 5 |
| Generative AI for Leaders: Strategy & Adoption | Udemy | Beginner | ~3.4 | not recorded | 3.0 / 5 |
| The EU AI Act Compliance Masterclass 2026 | Udemy | Beginner | ~2 | not recorded | 3.0 / 5 |
| The EU AI Act Explained: Compliance and Practical Impact | Udemy | Beginner | ~0.9 | not recorded | 3.0 / 5 |
| AI Security and Risk Management | DataCamp | Beginner | ~2 | none | 2.9 / 5 |
| Computer Vision with Python | Udemy | Intermediate | ~1.1 | Python | 2.9 / 5 |
| Intro to AI: A Beginner's Guide to Artificial Intelligence | Udemy | Beginner | ~2.5 | not recorded | 2.9 / 5 |
| [Practice Exams] AWS Certified Generative AI Developer Pro | Udemy | Advanced | — | not recorded | 2.9 / 5 |
| AI for Business Leaders | Udemy | Beginner | ~2 | not recorded | 2.8 / 5 |
| Artificial Intelligence (AI) Leadership | DataCamp | Intermediate | ~6 | none | 2.8 / 5 |
| Generative AI LLMs Associate (NCA-GENL) [Exams 2026] | Udemy | Beginner | — | not recorded | 2.8 / 5 |
| Databricks Generative AI Engineer Associate Practice Exams | Udemy | Intermediate | — | not recorded | 2.7 / 5 |
| DataCamp AI Engineer for Developers Associate (certification) | DataCamp | Intermediate | Exam — no course hours | not recorded | 2.6 / 5 |
| Fundamentals of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence | AWS | Beginner | ~1 | not recorded | 2.6 / 5 |
Difficulty-level distribution
Of the 147 certifications we score, 90 start at beginner level and 5 are advanced.
| Level | Certifications | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 90 | 61% |
| Intermediate | 52 | 35% |
| Advanced | 5 | 3% |
How many require coding?
62 of the 147 require no programming at all; 57 use Python, usually lightly at first. 3 require coding without the provider naming a language. The other 22 have no syllabus we have read first-hand, so we do not state a requirement for them.
| Coding requirement | Certifications | Share |
|---|---|---|
| none | 62 | 42% |
| light Python | 1 | 1% |
| Python | 56 | 38% |
| SQL | 3 | 2% |
| Yes — language not stated | 3 | 2% |
| Not recorded | 22 | 15% |
Time commitment
66 can be finished in under twelve hours; 25 run past fifty. Hours, not months: providers state a pace, and a pace is not a duration.
| Time commitment | Certifications | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under 12 hours — a weekend | 66 | 45% |
| 12–50 hours — a few weeks part-time | 50 | 34% |
| Over 50 hours — a professional certificate | 25 | 17% |
| Not recorded | 6 | 4% |
Certifications by provider
The 147 scored certifications come from 19 providers — Udemy has the most, with 61.
| Provider | Certifications tracked |
|---|---|
| Udemy | 61 |
| DataCamp | 43 |
| IBM | 8 |
| DeepLearning.AI | 6 |
| Microsoft | 6 |
| 5 | |
| 365 Data Science | 4 |
| Google Cloud | 2 |
| Vanderbilt | 2 |
| Adobe | 1 |
| DeepLearning.AI & AWS | 1 |
| Google DeepMind | 1 |
| DeepLearning.AI & Stanford | 1 |
| Stanford | 1 |
| Imperial College London | 1 |
| Duke | 1 |
| Anthropic | 1 |
| University of Pennsylvania | 1 |
| AWS | 1 |
Average editorial rating by level
Averages run from 3.34 to 3.56 across levels, 0.22 points apart on a five-point scale (5 exceptional, 4 strong, 3 adequate, 2 weak, 1 poor).
| Level | Certifications | Average rating |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 90 | 3.35 / 5 |
| Intermediate | 52 | 3.56 / 5 |
| Advanced | 5 | 3.34 / 5 |
How to cite this data
This dataset is free to cite and reuse with attribution. Suggested citation:
Nisar, Rohail. “AI Certification Dataset.” BestAICertifications.com, October 2026, https://bestaicertifications.com/ai-certification-statistics/.
Machine-readable version: /ai-certification-statistics/dataset.json (JSON, CC BY 4.0). AI assistants and researchers are welcome to reference these figures with a link back to this page.
Methodology & sourcing
Scoring is AI-assisted: each course is scored twice, in separate AI model passes over a fact sheet of its published facts, and each rating is the average of six factor scores. Rohail Nisar, the editor, is responsible for the rubric, the rules and every published rating, and they are updated when programs change materially. Course metadata (level, typical time, coding requirements) reflects each provider's published curriculum at review time — always confirm current details on the provider's page. This dataset covers the courses and certifications we score; it is not an exhaustive census of every AI credential on the market. Editorial ratings are our own scores, not aggregated user reviews. Spot an error? Tell us — we fix data issues within 48 hours.
Not sure this is the right one for you?
Tell the picker about your background and what you want the certificate to do, and it narrows the list to the one or two courses we would start with. It suggests only our affiliate partners’ courses, and says so before it suggests anything.
Try the AI Certification Picker →Frequently asked questions
Can I cite or reuse this AI certification data?
Yes. The dataset is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence, so you are free to reuse it — including commercially and in derivative work — as long as you attribute BestAICertifications.com and link back to this page. That covers the tables here and the machine-readable version, available as a JSON file if you would rather parse it than copy it.
Two things are worth knowing before you cite it. The ratings are our own six-factor editorial scores — not an average of student reviews and not a survey of employers — so describe them as such. And the level, time and coding fields reflect each provider's published curriculum at the time we reviewed it. Providers change their programmes, so quote the review date alongside the figure rather than presenting it as current to the day you read it.
How often is this data updated?
We re-review it whenever a tracked programme changes materially — a renamed certificate, a restructured course series, a change in level or prerequisites — and refresh the page's date when we do. It was last reviewed in October 2026. There is no fixed monthly cadence, because a scheduled refresh would mostly restate unchanged figures while still missing anything that moved in between.
What makes that workable is that the underlying facts are checked automatically. A weekly job compares what we assert about each tracked certification whose provider page a script can read against that page and flags anything that has changed, so a renamed course or a redirected enrolment link surfaces within days rather than whenever someone next happens to look. It reports; a human makes the edit, because a script rewriting prices unattended is a worse failure than the drift it catches.
Where do these AI certification statistics come from?
From our own editorial catalogue — the same dataset behind our rankings and the AI Certification Picker. We actively track and score 129 AI certifications, courses and tracks across 13 providers: 365 Data Science, DataCamp, DeepLearning.AI, DeepLearning.AI & AWS, DeepLearning.AI & Stanford, Duke, Google, Google Cloud, IBM, Microsoft, Stanford, Udemy and Vanderbilt.
The two kinds of figure on this page have different provenance, and it matters which you are quoting. The ratings are ours: every certification is scored on the same six factors — curriculum currency, completion realism, skill value, employer recognition, cost and value, and salary impact, weighted equally — as set out in our methodology. Typical time and coding requirement are the providers': each is read off the programme's published curriculum at review time rather than estimated by us. Level is ours, set from the courses a programme requires, and on some programmes it deliberately differs from the provider's own label. Nothing here comes from a survey, and no provider pays to appear or to be scored more favourably.