UCAS - Approvals - what we do

UCAS Entry Profiles: The approvals process

If you would like help writing and managing your institution's Entry Profiles, come to one of our free training workshops, aimed at helping member institutions understand and enhance Entry Profiles. For more information, please contact the Professional Development Team on 01242 545712 or professionaldevelopment@ucas.ac.uk.

All Entry Profiles undergo a process of approval before being published onto Course Search. This process includes both the institution and UCAS approving the content and design of each submitted Entry Profile for courses that appear on the UCAS Course Search and also the GTTR Course Search. Within UCAS, it is the Data Collection Team who manage the approval process.

Each Entry Profile is reviewed against the following criteria:

Grammar and spelling

British English is used as standard. For example, any words with the ending '-ize' will be reviewed and replaced with an '-ise' ending where appropriate. Double character spacing at the beginning of sentences will be removed. Sentences which are ambiguous or difficult to understand, for example through a lack of commas, will be amended. However, UCAS will not specifically edit the text of an Entry Profile as a whole for any other reason.

If the text contains inappropriate material, unsubstantiated claims (eg, 'this is the best course for anyone wishing to be a nuclear physicist') or legally dubious material, the Entry Profile will be returned without approval to the institution for further editing.
Broken URLs

All embedded URLs should be active, current and link to relevant material, whether they are in the section headings or in the main body of each text field. For example, URLs which are embedded within the section that details entry requirements should not link to a main institution home page but should lead directly to a page that contains entry requirements. Where this is not possible, we recommend that text is used instead.
Out-of-date information

Any Entry Profile which includes out-of-date information will be returned to the institution. For example, if an Entry Profile is attached to a course open for 2011 applications and refers to course fees for 2008, we would return the profile to the institution and request that either the current year's fees be included or that section be removed completely from the profile.
Duplicate information

Entry Profiles must contain course-specific information. There may be a certain amount of information that is generic to all the courses that an institution offers, perhaps across a specific Faculty or Department's provision, but it is expected that the majority of the Entry Profile to be unique in every case. However, information should also not be repeated under multiple headings within an individual Entry Profile.

If an institution submits multiple Entry Profiles with only identical text in each, the Entry Profiles will be returned to the institution for further amendment.
Blank Entry Profiles

Occasionally, Entry Profiles have been submitted for approval by institutions when no URL or text has been added. Entry Profiles that do not include text or links in any of the fields will be returned to the institution for development.
Additional formatting points

Institutions may use images and graphics in their Entry Profiles. However, we suggest that these are kept to a minimum as potential students may have difficulty viewing these while using school or college computers due to internet security software. The maximum recommended size of any graphic or image is 430 pixels wide. Any graphic or image that distorts the overall page layout should be reduced in size. Institutions wishing to include YouTube-style videos in their Entry Profiles should add only the link URL to the Entry Profile wherever possible and not embed the video in the page.

Formatting such as bullet points, bold text and italics can be used, but must be correctly coded with HTML.

Coloured text is permitted, but must be correctly coded with HTML. We would strongly advise institutions to keep to a small palette of colours, for example, the colours used within the institution's logo or corporate colour scheme. Please keep in mind that the rest of the web page will be branded with the UCAS corporate colours.

Less is often more. Entry Profiles that are very long are unlikely to engage a potential student's interest for more than a few seconds. Try to keep your Entry Profiles concise and to the point, giving bite-size chunks of relevant information. If you have to scroll more than two or three times on your mouse to view the entire Entry Profile, it is likely that you have too much text.

For more information about how to use these guidelines, please contact the Data Collection Team on 01242 544864 or email coursesdata@ucas.ac.uk.