15 November 2007

Dundee first in Scotland to start `paperless’ postgraduate applications

The days of students having to fill in paper applications for postgraduate courses are over with the launch of a new online system.

The University of Dundee is the first higher education institution in Scotland to adopt the UKPASS system for postgraduate applications, which removes a massive amount of paper from the system.

"We get around 3000 postgraduate applications every year and each one of those fills a fair chunk of paper and has to be posted or couriered to the University," said Dr Ramanee Peiris, Postgraduate e-Recruitment & Admissions Manager at Dundee.

"Opening the system to online applications makes things easier and more accessible for students, quicker for us to process and will also remove mountains of paper from our offices!"

While school leavers have been making applications online for several years through the official body UCAS, graduates applying for MSc courses have had to make do with pen and paper.

That has changed with the launch today (November 15th) of UKPASS (the UK Postgraduate Application and Statistical Service) for anyone wanting to apply for Taught and Research postgraduate programmes in the UK.

This has been created by the world leaders in student applications, UCAS, with data being provided by Graduate Prospects (the most visited graduate career advice website).

Applicants can avoid multiple form filling as core data is captured once, so if they are applying for more than one programme they just need to answer those questions specific to that institution or course. They can also send attachments as part of that process. An email is sent to the applicant if an institution has made a decision allowing them to track their progress and reply to offers online at any point, all within the same area.

This entirely online service provides options for institutions to personalise applications with the university or college logo and to add tailored questions to allow them to extract information specific to that application. Being a centralised system, it offers universities additional market intelligence about their applicants and also their competitors at the touch of a button.

The introduction of UKPASS presents exciting opportunities for the postgraduate sector as a whole and will be formally launched by Anthony McClaran, the Chief Executive of UCAS and Bill Rammell, the Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education at a postgraduate event at Woburn Conference Centre in London on 15 November.

Dr Wendy Webster from Admissions & Student Recruitment at Dundee University has been a member of the UKPASS technical working group. She will be representing the university at the UK launch.

For further information about UKPASS refer to www.ukpass.ac.uk or contact the UKPASS Team info@ukpass.ac.uk

For media enquiries contact:
Anna Day
Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: a.c.day@dundee.ac.uk