These are the terms and conditions (the "Terms") on which we supply the "Apply" service (the "Service") to you.
It is important that you read these Terms carefully so that you are happy you understand their content.
1 About UCAS
What we do and how to contact us.
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- 1.1 We are the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, a company incorporated in England and Wales with company number 02839815, whose registered office is at Rosehill, New Barn Lane, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL52 3LZ (‘UCAS’, ‘we’, ‘us’).
- 1.2 You can contact us by telephoning our customer service team on 0371 334 4 447, emailing us at webenquiries@ucas.ac.uk or by writing to us at the above address.
- 1.3 Our role is to provide application services for people applying for undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as making choices after their GCSEs.
2 Provision of the Service
Details of the service we give to you when you make your application to an education provider.
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- 2.1 We will begin the provision of the Service in connection with your Application to one or more education providers (‘Provider’), on the date we accept your Application. The estimated completion date for the provision of the Service is the earlier of: (i) two months from the course start date; or (ii) nine months from the date you last used the Service.
- 2.2 Data about Providers and course data contained in the Service are supplied to enable completion of your Application only, and do not constitute any form of advice or recommendation relating to any particular course or provider.
- 2.3 Data about Providers and course data contained in the Service reflect the most current information known to UCAS. Providers may add or cancel courses at any time. You should check each time you use the Service, to see if there have been any changes made which may affect your Application.
- 2.4 We will try to process Applications and decisions efficiently and accurately. However, we are not responsible for mistakes, delays, or any loss or damage suffered by you, due to the acts or omissions of Providers, or which are otherwise outside of our reasonable control. If our supply of the Service is delayed by an event outside our control then, we will contact you as soon as possible to let you know, and we will take steps to minimise the effect of the delay. Provided we do this, we will not be liable for delays caused by the event, but if there is a risk of substantial delay you may contact us to end the contract.
3 Use of the Service
Our service is for your personal use - this section explains how to keep your information secure.
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- 3.1 When using the Service, you may copy material (by printing off individual pages on to paper) for your personal non-commercial use only.
- 3.2 You must not:
- 3.2.1 use the Service for any commercial purpose whatsoever; or
- 3.2.2 publish or disclose to any unauthorised person, any confidential information relating to the Service, or any passwords or user names provided to you by UCAS, to enable the use of the Service or our website.
4 Your Application
This section describes how we use your application data.
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- 4.1 Postgraduate Apply will allow you to hold and be enrolled on two or more course simultaneously. If you find yourself in this position, you must confirm your attendance with the Provider for the course you are going to attend, and notify any other Providers that you are withdrawing your application.
- 4.3 We and/or the Provider may, at any time, ask you, your referee, or your employer to provide more information about your Application. For example, we may need to see proof of:
- 4.3.1 your identity
- 4.3.2 your status
- 4.3.3 your qualifications
- 4.3.4 your employment history
- 4.4 If we do not receive that information after a reasonable period of time, or if the information is not satisfactory, we can cancel your Application. If your Application is cancelled by UCAS, you will not be able to submit another Application for entry in the same admissions cycle.
- 4.5 Your personal statement must be completed by you, and we may undertake checks to verify that it is your own work. If your personal statement includes material that appears to have been copied from another source, we may notify your current school, college, or other UCAS-registered centre (where you have given permission for UCAS to share such information) and the Providers to which you have applied, whose decision it will be to take what action they consider appropriate.
- 4.6 If we, or a Provider, have any reason to believe that you or your referee has:
- 4.6.1 left out any relevant information, including qualifications you have completed, qualifications with an unsuccessful grade, or qualifications for which you are still awaiting results
- 4.6.2 given false or misleading information we may take any necessary steps to check with you and other parties, including Providers, and examination and awarding bodies, whether the information you have provided is accurate and/or complete.
- 4.7 If you have any reason to believe that information we hold about you is not true, complete and/or accurate, you must tell us.
- 4.8 We have the right to cancel your Application if we determine (having carried out any necessary checks), or have reasonable belief, that your Application contains false information.
5 Your personal information
This section describes how we use your application data.
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- 5.1 When submitting your Application, you confirm that the information you have given is complete and accurate. When you agree to these Terms, by ticking a box to submit your Application, you will be providing your consent to the processing of your personal information, as defined by the Data Protection Act 1998 (the ‘DPA’), by UCAS and its related companies, which include UCAS Media Limited.
- 5.2 You hereby grant to us a licence (including the right to sub-license) to use all data, text, information, or other materials, which you provide to us in connection with your use of the Service and your Application (‘Application Data’) to:
- 5.2.1 process, store, and electronically reproduce the Application Data, and display the Application Data on the Service; and
- 5.2.2 reproduce and distribute, through any media now known, or hereafter developed, excerpts of the Application Data to Providers chosen by you as part of your Application, and any other agreed third parties
- 5.3 When you submit an application, we may use your personal information for the following purposes:
- 5.3.1 Managing your application to postgraduate education
- a. We share personal information in your application with the universities and colleges that you have applied to, so that they can consider and process your application. This will also include sharing your results from the examination and awarding bodies with the universities and colleges where you hold offers.
- b. We may correspond with your examination board or awarding organisation about your results and we may undertake surveys they may commission on their behalf.
- c. We will, if appropriate, share information with relevant professional and regulatory bodies in connection with enquiries relating to your fitness to practice.
- d. If you are an international applicant, we may share personal information with UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) in connection with verification procedures for your entry into the United Kingdom for study purposes.
- 5.3.2 Reporting to organisations with responsibilities for higher education
- a. Personal information may be provided to organisations who have either statutory or regulatory responsibilities for ensuring the effective operation of the higher education sector or monitoring the effectiveness of government policies for higher education. We will only supply personal information that identifies you for these purposes if the provision of statistical analysis is not suitable, the disclosure will not have a direct impact on your application and the uses of personal information provided are agreed under contractual terms.
- b. Providing statistical analysis to the higher education sector
- c. We will retain a copy of your application and use it, sometimes in combination with other information we hold for the purpose of producing statistical analysis and research in respect of the admissions schemes managed by UCAS. Any statistical analysis reports published will not allow any individual to be identified.
- 5.3.3 Other uses of personal information
- a. Prevention and detection of crime — to prevent and detect crimes of any nature, we may share personal information we hold with relevant bodies, such as government departments, local authorities, the NHS, law enforcement agencies, student finance bodies, examination and awarding bodies, professional bodies and other international admissions organisations.
- b. Surveys — we may send you surveys to ask for your opinions or to inform you about the development of UCAS’ admissions services and admissions to higher education. Your responses will not be disclosed by UCAS to anyone else in a manner that identifies you.
- c. Uses required or permitted by law — we may also share personal information we hold where we are required or permitted to do so by law.
- 5.3.4 Sensitive personal information
- a. To support the application process, ‘sensitive personal data’, as defined in the Data Protection Act 1998, may be collected and shared with the universities and colleges to whom you apply.
- b. To assist universities and colleges in monitoring their compliance with the Equality Act 2010, we collect details of your ethnicity. This information is provided to your chosen university or college after you have secured a place or at the end of the application cycle.
- c. For the purposes of making sure that your chosen university or college can meet any specific needs that you may have, we ask you to provide information about whether you have a disability, special needs or a medical condition.
- d. We ask you to declare if you have any relevant unspent criminal convictions or punishments. Confirming that you have a relevant criminal conviction or punishment will not exclude you from the application process and is collected to help the universities and colleges consider the suitability of applicants for the courses to which they have applied and to reduce the risk of harm or injury to students and staff caused by the criminal behaviour of other students. You may find further details about how a criminal conviction declaration is handled by a university or college on their website (including your right to appeal any decision they make).
- 5.4 Further information Please refer to UCAS’ privacy policy for a more detailed explanation as to how we use personal information when you use our website. It also provides information about:
- how to request a copy of your personal information
- how to request us to change, delete or stop using the personal information we hold about you
- the ways you can contact us about your personal information
- how long we retain your personal information
6 Cancellation
You have the right to cancel your application.
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- 6.1 You have the right to cancel your whole Application. To do this, please contact us.
7 Offers
An offer gives you important information, which is likely to form the basis of your contract with the education provider.
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- 7.1 When you receive an Offer, the Provider which has made the Offer should also provide you with, or make available to you, the 'pre-contract' information which is required under consumer protection legislation. This information should include, amongst other things, relevant information about course information and costs, such as tuition fees and any other relevant costs, such as for field trips or specialist equipment required for the course, arrangements for making payments to the university or college, and their complaints handling process, including your right to cancel your contract should you change your mind. The Provider should also provide you with information about their terms, rules, and regulations relating to student conduct, which explain your rights and obligations to the Provider and, likewise their obligations to you, as a student at their institution.
- 7.2 You should read and understand this information before making a decision about an Offer, as this is likely to form the terms and conditions of the contract between yourself and the Provider if you subsequently enrol there. If you do not receive the required information, or you wish to make a complaint, or if you are not clear about anything relating to your Offer and the information provided, you should contact the Provider directly to ask for further advice.
- 7.3 If you become a student, under your contract with the Provider, they must do all they can to provide the educational services in accordance with the contract that you have with them. If the Provider is unable to provide these services for any reason, they should do all they can to keep the disruption to your education to a minimum, for example, by offering you a place on a suitable alternative course, or providing assistance to help you find a suitable alternative place elsewhere.
- 7.4 If you make an Application through more than one of our application schemes, you may find yourself with more than one confirmed place. If this happens we will ask you to accept one and withdraw from any others.
8 Termination
Details of how and when our service terminates, and our complaints procedure.
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- 8.1 The agreement between you and UCAS will terminate automatically on the earlier of: (i) two months from the course start date; or (ii) nine months from the date you last used the Service.
- 8.2 UCAS shall have the right to cancel your Application and terminate your use of the Service immediately, if you fail to comply with these Terms.
- 8.3 If for any reason we cancel your Application you have the right to appeal. Further information on how to appeal is given at the time of cancellation. All appeals will be considered within a reasonable time by an independent and senior member of staff not involved in the initial decision to cancel. An appeal may be either upheld in which case your Application will be reinstated, or dismissed in which case your Application will remain cancelled. We will let you know the outcome of your appeal as soon as possible.
- 8.4 The appeal process relates only to applicants whose Application has been cancelled by us. If you are not happy with some other aspect of our service, please follow the separate complaints procedure.
