UCAS - Register with Apply

Setting up Apply

Using a mouse Your team should appoint one member of staff to be your 'Apply coordinator'. That person will have responsibility for setting up your staff area, including adding members of the team and allocating appropriate levels of access. Once your staff area is set up, you will be asked to create a 'buzzword' (similar to a password) which will enable your applicants to link their application to your centre.

We recommend that you complete the registration process in June, although you can register at any time. This allows you enough time to inform your applicants of your buzzword before they leave for the summer break.

The initial set up is only necessary the first time your centre registers to use Apply. For subsequent application cycles, you can carry forward the list of groups and staff members. Each staff member will automatically be given a new username and password each year. The coordinator will only need to add access levels and to update any records where changes are required.

Step 1 - check centre details

Log in and check your centre's contact details. These will be pre-filled from details on our main database but they can be updated if necessary for use in Apply. Any changes that you make to the following fields will also be updated in our main database: address; email address; telephone number; fax number; website; roll count (part-time and full-time); total number in post-16 education. For any other changes to your centre's details, please email customerdatabase@ucas.ac.uk.

You can specify any dates when all students will be unavailable for interview. Any such dates will be pre-filled on all applications, but can be changed later (by the referee) for individual students as required.

Step 2 - set up groups

In addition to the default group you will be able to set up other group names, if necessary, to help staff members manage applications. This is particularly helpful if there are large numbers of applicants. Some schools set up groups based on tutor groups or subjects. Applicants can then select the relevant group when they register. Applicants will appear in the default group if they do not select a group when they register

Step 3 - choose a payment method

There are three payment methods to choose from.

You can opt to receive a bill from UCAS (in which case applicants send payment direct to you).
You can opt for applicants to make payment direct using a credit or debit card.
You can allow applicants themselves to decide which of those methods to use.

You can still accept cheques from individuals, but if they are made payable to 'UCAS', your centre must send them to us only as part of an invoice payment. Individual applicants must not send cheques direct to us.

Step 4 - select qualifications

Select the qualifications that are taught at your centre or those that are most likley to be taken by the applicants you administer. This will create a shortlist for quick and easy entry of qualifications for each applicant. Applicants will still be able to select other qualifications from an A-Z list.

Step 5 - create a buzzword

Once your staff area is set up, you can create your 'buzzword'. A buzzword is an item of between 6 and 30 alphabetic and/or numeric characters, which is unique to your centre. It is used just once by each applicant the first time they use the service so that they register through the correct centre. This will also ensure that completed applications are passed to your centre to check and for a reference to be attached before being sent to us to process.

Some helpful advice

Use the links on the left-hand side of the screen to navigate between sections and access help text for each section.
Within the reference section, click on the envelope symbol to send an email to the applicant.
Always use the log out button when you have finished using Apply.

Managing staff and student passwords

Once you have set up each member of staff the system automatically generates their individual username and password. You should take a print of this screen for each user, because after leaving this screen, passwords are not displayed again.

The first time each user logs in to the staff area, Apply will ask them to change the password to one of their own choosing. This allows the user to choose a more memorable password than the system-generated version.

If a member of staff or an applicant forgets their password, the coordinator can change this for them in the 'security' section of Apply.