Operational and technical webinars

During this session our product teams will be discussing the following: 

• Apply 2026 – Initial investigations on some of the upcoming objectives on our roadmap such as:
  • allowing applicants to select multiple disabilities so providers can give the right support
  • allowing applicants to demonstrate they are being supported by an agent or sponsor
  • improvements to the employment section for collection of better work experience data
• Document management – an update on design plans and document naming convention. Should applicants be asked to include specific details?
• Product sessions at the UCAS Conference.

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The following topics were discussed:

• Springpod – following the launch of subject spotlights on ucas.com, this will be an opportunity for providers to see how we’ll embed subject spotlights into course details pages to raise students' awareness and signpost to experiential content where it exists.
• EU residence questions in the application – are these still needed?
• UCAS Tracker – a demonstration of what's been built.

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The following topic was discussed:

• Similarity detection – review of UCAS' process for identifying and flagging similar personal statements. Attendees were asked to let us know how they use the information we provide, and whether improvements could be made in this area.

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The following topics were discussed:

• Personal statement reform – a review of the feedback received and continued discussion of plans to reform the personal statement.
• Amendments to web-link export files to incorporate the new data which will be captured as part of the 2025 application.

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This session focused on:

• Document management – attendees were asked to advise which of an applicant's qualifications they may need documents for.
• Enrolment data – should enrolment data be shared with UCAS? Attendees were asked for opinions on this idea for potential future development
• Personal statement reform – an update on current plans and options for consideration. This item will be discussed in more detail at the next webinar on 6th March.

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This session focused on:

• Confirmation and Clearing filters in the search tool
• a demonstration of the plans to add a choice to the application from the search tool
• personal statement reform – the background to the proposed changes, and a chance to feed into the development going forwards 

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This session focused on:

• personal statement reform
• contextual data visibility in web-link
• reason for Confirmation pending
• end of year round-up – a summary of all of the developments discussed in 2023, and updates on when those are planned for delivery. You can view the summary here (49.78 KB). 
• Feedback request – attendees were asked to give feedback on the development webinars. We are keen to receive feedback all year round. If there is ever anything you would like to suggest or request for future webinars please email [email protected]

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This session focused on:

• statutory returns changes – update on plans for 2024
• Apply 2025 changes – displaying the new fees, residency, nationality, and address history data in web-link
• independent references – attendees were asked for feedback, and any challenges they have with independent references
• document management – continuing the discussion about proposed document categories we aim to collect as part of the application 

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This session focused on:

• document management – attendees were asked to share opinions on document retention and requirements for documents related to care experience
• English language proficiency – whether changes should be made to the evidence collected on the application
• entry grades – a demonstration of updated wireframes and timelines for development

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This session focused on:

• operational update 
• odbc-link decommission update 
• development update
• ucas-link demo 

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Operational and odbc-link decommission update slides  (366.55 KB)

Developments update slides (218.57 KB) 

This session focused on:

• year-round accommodation – attendees were asked whether UCAS should include a question about year-round accommodation on the application
• record of offer – further investigation into requirements, specifically amendments after offer, and cycle dates
• 2025 application changes in web-link – attendees were asked for initial thoughts on how the new data could be integrated into web-link

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On Wednesday 18 October our product teams discussed: 

• Variable start dates –some time to review the recommendations made by the Variable Start Dates Working Group and to capture any additional areas of concern. View the recommendations here.
• Apply 2025 – an overview of planned changes for the 2025 cycle.

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This session covered:

• an operational update
• odbc-linkdecommissioning update
• a roadmap update
• changes for the 2025 cycle
• xml-link infrastructure changes

View the webinar slides (773.71 KB)

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Missed the last development webinar? We discussed the following:

• Extenuating circumstances – an update. 
• Residential category – summary of 2025 Apply changes, with specific focus on residential category.
• Record of Offer – further investigation into requirements for conditional RPAs (now known as RO – record of offer).
• Variable start dates – some time to review the recommendations originally made by the Variable Start Dates Working Group. View the recommendations here.

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What exactly is the data showing us 28 days since JCQ results day?

Play back the webinar from Tuesday 19 September and join Director of Marketing, Dave Penney, Principal Data Scientist, Carolyn Wong, Head of Data Research, Richard O'Kelly, and Head of Policy, Ben Jordan, who presented Day 28 data and provisional findings from Decline My Place research.

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This session focused on the following:  

• TEF: sharing how Search plans to display TEF outcomes
• Proposed changes to data provided for statutory returns
• Continuing discussions regarding documents requirements

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This session focused on the following:  

• Shaping the UCAS backlog and delivery roadmap - Item for discussion: allowing a student to demonstrate that they are being supported by an agent/adviser who is not a UCAS registered centre. This will be your opportunity to directly feed into prioritising and shaping the UCAS admissions future product development roadmap by sharing your insight and knowledge.
• Outreach Connection Service Introduction
• Clearing Plus - adding new qualifications for next year

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This session focused on the following:  

• Apply Roadmap –an overview of upcoming development plans
• Shaping the UCAS backlog and delivery roadmap - Item for discussion: Making conditional offers via the RPA route.  This will be your opportunity to directly feed into prioritising and shaping the UCAS admissions future product development roadmap by sharing your insight and knowledge. 

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Play back the webinar with Kim Eccleston and Carolyn Mindos from Tuesday 18 July, for an update on:

• personal statement for 2026 entry
• personal statement themes and timeline
• adviser and sector feedback

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Play back our development webinar and join Jenny Garner and Kate Bevan from our Product Team as they take you through: 

• Contextual admissions statement addition to the collection and search tools.

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Last year, we undertook independent research to understand how we could make actual entry grades information accessible and transparent to students and have developed a new feature to surface this information to students in course search.

You can play back the webinar below.

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This session looked at key developments planned and how you can prepare for them. It was also an opportunity to feedback on these changes and help us shape the future.

The webinar considered the Journey to a Million, the implications for the accommodation sector and beyond.

Lynsey Hopkins, Head of Operations, and Andy Frampton, Service Delivery Manager discuss Confirmation and Clearing in this admissions update. 

During this session they will be discussing the following topics:

• What is new for C&C this year
• Our top tips for C&C
• Essentials checklist
• Your key dates

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• Update on the non technical solution for CF decline my place - Conclusion of our ongoing work of CF decline my place for 2024, looking into a change of the business rules.
• Education and Qualifications improvements - Introduction to improvements of the Education and Qualification section. 
• Fees and Residency - A summary of feedback so far in relation to fee and residency questions on the application, and some proposals for future questions to feed back on

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• Clearing Plus development update
• Fees and Residency questions

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• Current roadmap plans; Should UCAS remove or replace the text: "this offer is subject to you obtaining"?; * Is it relevant/necessary for UCAS to ask students if they plan to live at home while studying?; Should UCAS create a new section for students to add non-qualification achievements to their application?
• Tariff Calculator - An opportunity to share how you use the tariff calculator
• UCAS delivering document management  - Discussion on the requirements for document upload

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Lynsey Hopkins, Head of Operations, and Andy Frampton, Service Delivery Manager look at the 2023 cycle and discuss the following:

• What can you expect for Confirmation and Clearing 2023?
• 2023 Results Embargo update
• What’s happening in the world of admissions?
• Your upcoming key dates

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Kim Eccleston, Head of Strategy and Reform and Lynsey Hopkins, Head of Operations discuss the following:

• What feedback did we hear at the Reform Roadshows?
• Your opportunity to feedback on the personal statement themes

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Our Product Team and Service Delivery Manager discussed:

• odbc-link decommissioning – what do you need to know?
• what changes are being made to Clearing Plus?
• your suggestions for content in future webinars, and an opportunity to provide feedback on the format of the webinars

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Our Product Teams hosted a development webinar, focusing on: 

• modernised contextual data service (MCDS) – an overview of our plans to make the MCDS data available via UCAS-link
• Career Finder – development of searching and viewing apprenticeship vacancies
• historical entry grades – displaying historic entry grade profiles in the search tool
• Course Code Application Only (CCAO) in bulk – development of assigning CCAO to courses in bulk
• conditional firm decline my place options – feedback on alternative options for conditional firm decline

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David Penney, Director of Marketing, Ben Jordan, Head of Policy, and Richard O’Kelly, Head of Data Reporting and Research, explored the January ECD data and discussed the following: 

• What is the January equal consideration deadline data showing? 
• What is influencing the 2023 cycle?
• What do we expect to see for the remainder of the 2023 cycle? 
• What does this mean for the journey to a million?

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Our Product Teams hosted a development webinar. The session focussed on the following: 

• Reason for confirmation delay
• Removal of National and Dual ID
• Establishment Groups and Types (you can find out more information here)
• Clearing Plus feature options

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On Thursday 1 December, Nicola Turner, Senior Fair Access Adviser, Emily Bennett, Lead Data Scientist at UCAS, and Fiona Ellison, Director - Unite Foundation and Arron Pile, Campus & Residence Life Manager - University of Salford Manchester, hosted a webinar focusing on the new data shown in the latest report.

The webinar talked through the key findings and provided recommendations as to how you could better support care-experienced students transitioning to HE.

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Webinar Q&As