UCAS renews IT services contract with Infosys to drive automation

The UK’s Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) has renewed its IT contract with InfoSys. The new three-year deal aims to drive greater automation, innovation and efficiency across the service.

UCAS provides vital admissions and information services to students, schools, advisers and higher education providers, offering more than 30,000 courses to prospective applicants each year. It supports about 700,000 applicants every year– with 60,000 more this year than in 2020, and current predictions suggesting there will be one million applicants to higher education in the UK by 2025.

Infosys has been a technology partner for the admissions service for UK higher education since 2015. As part of the new agreement, the company said it will be working with UCAS to develop capabilities that connect learners to universities, awarding bodies, schools and other organisations using a dynamic digital suite of systems that can  respond to the evolving UK higher education sector.

Sander Kristel, chief operations officer at UCAS, said: “The new contract represents a real shift in our partnership, and will focus extensively on automation, innovation and efficiency across the business, which is key to delivering on our strategy for the future. 

“UCAS is seeing an increase in student demand across all areas. A demographic uplift and a growing demand from mature students and overseas applicants means we are anticipating a million undergraduate applicants by 2025. We need to ensure that the future services that we provide reflect the diverse range of options that applicants will have, for instance when looking for an apprenticeship.

“That is why this new contract with Infosys is fundamental for us to continue to deliver an efficient and effective service for all of our customers and stay at the top of our game as the go-to place for higher education across the globe.”

UCAS said it had its busiest-ever results day ever on 10 August, with 1.5 million logins registered in UCAS Track (peaking at 2,000 logins per second), 182,126 page views on the Career Finder tool, and UCAS teams supporting more than 11,000 students with queries on the phone or via social media. According to UCAS, the traffic figures are the highest volume its systems have ever seen.

Infosys said it would continue to help UCAS lower costs, optimise and enhance services for students, deliver more robust security and provide business-as-usual services between legacy and new digital systems.

Ashiss Kumar Dash, executive vice-president and segment head – services, utilities, resources, energy at Infosys, said: “We will continue to bring together industry-leading capabilities, ecosystems and talent to deliver new experiences that reflect the growing expectations and changing dynamics in the higher education sector. With a focus on delivering greater innovation and seamless customer service experiences, we look forward to supporting UCAS retain its position as a highly trusted and accessible service.”