UCAS - Record number of people applying for postgraduate study through UKPASS

Record number of people applying for postgraduate study through UKPASS

UKPASS, the postgraduate admissions service from UCAS, received a record 8,156 applications last month - up 36.5 per cent on March 2011.

The service is also celebrating its fifth anniversary, after launching in April 2007.

UKPASS brings together the expertise of 2 organisations; UCAS, responsible for managing the application process for higher education, and Graduate Prospects; the UK's official provider of student and graduate career information, advice and study opportunities and home to UK higher education's official postgraduate study database.

Students are able to log onto www.ukpass.ac.uk, search the courses that interest them, apply for their course online and then track their application. UKPASS gives applicants and institutions flexibility in the applications process by not having strict deadlines.

Cathy Gilbert, Director of Customer Strategy at UCAS, said: "UKPASS as it has consistently grown in the last five years. As well as record applications, we've had record numbers of people visiting the site, almost 750,000 in the last year, which is up 60 per cent. More and more universities and colleges are coming on board as UKPASS becomes the place to apply online for postgraduate courses."

In total, there have been 128,898 applications from 94,148 applicants since the system went live in April 2007.

Press Office contacts

UCAS Press Office: 01242 545 469

James Durant, Press Officer
Email: j.durant@ucas.ac.uk

James Woodward, Press Officer
Email: j.woodward@ucas.ac.uk

Notes to Editors

UKPASS is an online postgraduate application service brought to you by UCAS. UCAS has been helping people apply for UK undergraduate higher education courses for over 50 years. UKPASS was established in 2007 to provide an admissions service that would help institutions recruit postgraduate students and give applicants a simple and efficient online application.

All programme data is provided by universities and colleges through Graduate Prospects. Applications made through the Graduate Prospects website for any institutions using the UKPASS system will automatically be redirected to UKPASS.

UCAS is a charity and is the world's leading shared admissions service for higher education. We manage applications for full-time undergraduate courses, together with applications through GTTR (Graduate Teacher Training Registry), CUKAS (Conservatoires UK Admissions Service) and UKPASS (UK Postgraduate Application and Statistical Service).

Graduate Prospectsis the commercial arm of HECSU (Higher Education Careers Services Unit), a registered charity owned by Universities UK and GuildHE.

Every year, HECSU spends between £750k and £1million supporting careers services and helping students and graduates with their careers, and supporting the work of higher education careers services in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

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