Work has started on making some mandatory compliance changes for the 2016 cycle. These changes are only applicable to UCAS – providers and third parties are not required to take any action. These include:
- Consumer protection
Guidance issued last month by the Competition and Markets Authority to UK Higher Education Providers (HEPs) on consumer protection law, and the impending Consumer Rights Act (due to come into effect in October 2015), have prompted us to review our systems and processes. We need to ensure not only that we comply with the relevant legislations, but also that our services and processes will assist our HEP customers to comply with their consumer protection obligations. Consumer protection reforms started last year with the change of the ‘cooling off’ period from seven to 14 days. For UCAS, this means we have increased the reply swap window from seven days to 14 days.
As a result, we have already made changes to our cancellation policy, to ensure applicants are able to cancel applications within 14 days and receive a full refund. We are now reviewing our applicant-facing documents and processes to ensure they are ‘consumer’ friendly, clear and informative to applicants on what they can expect from the admissions process (e.g. they should receive pre-contractual information from HEPs before they accept any offers).
- Information Commissioner’s Office recommendations
Following discussions with the Information Commissioner's Office, we have agreed to make changes to the way we obtain consent from applicants about their marketing opportunities options, and provide clearer information about how we use applicant data within our privacy policy.
This will mean applicants have a greater choice in respect of the types of commercial mailings they choose to receive, and consent will be obtained specifically for:
- study or careers opportunities and health information
- student living and lifestyle information