NQC by district: where no candidate qualified for a university course
Of the 260 course and university rows in the UGC's 2025/2026 cut-off list, Mannar had no qualified candidate in 107 (41.2%). Colombo and Ratnapura had the fewest, 12 each.
The numbers
Across all 6,500 district places in the table, 1,026 (15.8%) are marked NQC. They are far from evenly spread: the four districts with the most, Mannar, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, hold 39% of them. Of the ten districts with the most NQC rows, 9 are among the 16 districts the UGC classes as educationally disadvantaged. No course row is NQC in every district.
Darker bars are educationally disadvantaged districts.
Every district
| District | NQC rows | Share | Rows with a cut-off | Median cut-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mannar(EDD) | 107 | 41.2% | 153 | 1.0505 |
| Mullaitivu(EDD) | 103 | 39.6% | 157 | 1.0505 |
| Kilinochchi(EDD) | 100 | 38.5% | 160 | 1.1465 |
| Vavuniya(EDD) | 93 | 35.8% | 167 | 1.1661 |
| Polonnaruwa(EDD) | 60 | 23.1% | 200 | 1.2172 |
| Trincomalee(EDD) | 53 | 20.4% | 207 | 1.2645 |
| Nuwara Eliya(EDD) | 47 | 18.1% | 213 | 1.2104 |
| Jaffna(EDD) | 42 | 16.2% | 218 | 1.3342 |
| Matale | 41 | 15.8% | 219 | 1.3325 |
| Batticaloa(EDD) | 39 | 15% | 221 | 1.3184 |
| Monaragala(EDD) | 36 | 13.8% | 224 | 1.3141 |
| Matara | 35 | 13.5% | 225 | 1.4013 |
| Puttalam(EDD) | 32 | 12.3% | 228 | 1.3040 |
| Galle | 30 | 11.5% | 230 | 1.3870 |
| Hambantota(EDD) | 30 | 11.5% | 230 | 1.3448 |
| Anuradhapura(EDD) | 26 | 10% | 234 | 1.3159 |
| Ampara(EDD) | 24 | 9.2% | 236 | 1.2898 |
| Badulla(EDD) | 20 | 7.7% | 240 | 1.3227 |
| Kalutara | 20 | 7.7% | 240 | 1.3690 |
| Kegalle | 19 | 7.3% | 241 | 1.3566 |
| Kurunegala | 17 | 6.5% | 243 | 1.3480 |
| Gampaha | 14 | 5.4% | 246 | 1.3195 |
| Kandy | 14 | 5.4% | 246 | 1.3363 |
| Colombo | 12 | 4.6% | 248 | 1.3409 |
| Ratnapura(EDD) | 12 | 4.6% | 248 | 1.3422 |
What NQC means
NQC means No Qualified Candidates. The UGC lists three ways it happens: the district quota for that course was already filled by students from that district, the course filled up with higher Z-scores from other districts, or nobody from that district met the minimum requirements. It is not a Z-score of zero, and it does not mean the course is closed to that district next year.