Decision making is the process of making offers to applications or rejecting applications. You can view the decisions in the decision builder. Offer tracking enables you to track the progress of offers. You can view offers in the conditions flow and, optionally, override the decision status and the status of conditions. The status of conditions on the applicant portal have different names. For more information, go to What are the condition statuses on the applicant portal?
For UCAS applications, decisions are exported to UCAS as described in the appropriate sections below. However, for a summary of when decisions are exported to UCAS, go to UCAS export and import.
Decision making
Decision making is the process of making offers to applications or rejecting applications based on the entry requirements for
The programme BSc in Marine Science has the following entry requirements:
- Main decision
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- 136 UCAS tariff points, including A level grade A in biology and physics.
- Maths at GCSE grade 5 or above.
- TOEFL overall score of 250 or above, or IELTS overall score of 6.5 or above.
- Additional conditions
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- Student visa
Make decisions
You can make decisions for individual applications or for cohorts of up to 50 applications. To make decisions, you choose to offer or reject applications as follows:
- Offer
- On making conditional offers, you can view the decision text that is sent to applicants when the decision is published and view the conditions of the main decision and any additional conditions in the decision builder. On making unconditional offers, you can only view the decision text.
- Reject
- On rejecting applications, you choose an appropriate offer for a rejection. You can also, optionally, choose the reason for the rejection. For example, when a course is already full. You can then view the decision text that is sent to the applicant.
Admissions staff with suitable permissions can customise decisions. For example, customise a decision to change the decision text or to change the required
Applications have a decision status that shows the progress of the application in decision making. Before making a decision, an application has the status Not started. Then, on choosing to make an offer or reject the applicant, the status is updated to Draft.
Submit decisions
After making decisions, you need to submit the decisions. Submitting a decision updates the application as follows:
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Adds non-academic conditions used in the main decision or additional conditions as clearance checks to the applications. Note that clearance checks are only added to applications automatically if the applications do not already have clearance checks for the additional conditions.
- Updates the submitted status of the application to succeeded
. You can resubmit the decision to recalculate decisions that are already submitted. For example, when new -
Calculates the decision status using the conditions in the main decision and additional conditions as follows:
- Passed
- The conditions of the main decision and additional conditions have been passed. Therefore, submitting unconditional offers sets the decision status to Passed.
- Failed
- The application failed to meet the offer conditions.
- Pending
- The conditions of the decision have not yet been passed or failed. Note that academic conditions that are calculated as Failed are shown as Pending. This ensures that applicants with predicted grades are not failed before their actual grades are known.
- Rejected
- The application was rejected.
Attention. Note the following:
- The submission status Submitted
may be displayed briefly, typically for a few seconds, during the calculation of the decision status. You can resubmit the decision if the submissions status does not update after a few seconds. - Submitted decisions are recalculated if the applicant's qualification or application points are edited.
Reset decisions
You can reset decisions or remove the additional conditions at any time until decisions are published. For example, if you notice an error or want to change the decision. Resetting the main decision updates applications as follows:
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Resets the main decision to the offer of the
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Removes any clearance checks from the application that were added when submitting the decision.
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Removes any additional conditions.
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Sets the decision status to Not started.
Publish decisions
Publishing decisions sets the published status to Completed and sends the decision to the preferred email address defined in the person profile for the applicant.
The user interface for setting up email communications will be available in a future release. However, until then, email communications must be set up by Tribal professional services.
After conditional offers are published, the details of the offer conditions can be viewed by applicants on the applicant portal.
You can only publish decisions with offer libraries that are approved. On publishing a decision, the application overview is updated to show the details of decision 1, as shown in the table Decision and response summary after publishing a decision.
| Field | Value | Field | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decision 1 | Conditional offer | Decision 1 date |
|
| Response 1 | Pending | Response 1 date | Pending |
After publishing a decision, you can unpublish and reset the decision if, for example, you notice an error. Unpublishing and resetting a decision updates the application as follows:
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Removes any responses to the offer.
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Removes the decision and response summary from the application.
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Resets the main decision to the offer of the
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Removes any clearance checks from the application that were added when submitting the decision.
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Removes any additional conditions.
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Sets the decision status to Not started.
Admissions does not inform UCAS that you have unpublished a decision. Therefore, you must make a new decision for the application. However, if you cannot make a new decision, you must inform UCAS directly so that UCAS can update their records. Failure to make a new decision or to inform UCAS results in applications not being synchronised in Admissions and UCAS, which could cause issues for applicants.
Respond to offers
Respond to offers to record the response to the application on behalf of direct applicants. On responding to offers, you set the date that the offer was accepted or rejected. The application overview is then updated with the response and response date for decision 1, as shown in the table Decision and response summary after responding.
| Field | Value | Field | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decision 1 | Conditional offer | Decision 1 date |
|
| Response 1 | Firmly accepted | Response 1 date |
|
After responding to an offer, you can remove the response if, for example, you notice an error.
Offer tracking
Offer tracking enables you to track the progress of offers. That is, track the status of the offer conditions. You can view offers in the conditions flow and, if required, override the decision status and the status of the conditions. You can add internal notes detailing the reason for overriding the decision
Status of the offer conditions
Offer conditions have the status Pending until the condition is Passed or Failed. For example, the academic condition for
For example, the table Decision status passed as conditions passed shows that the decision status is Passed as the academic condition of 136 UCAS tariff points has been met, together with the conditions of grade A in biology and grade A in physics. Also, the non-academic condition for a student visa has passed the clearance check.
| Condition name | Status | Met by | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 136 UCAS tariff points | Passed | 136 points | Main decision is passed and met by 136 UCAS tariff points. |
| A in biology | Passed | 1 qualification | Condition is passed and met by one qualification with an actual grade. |
| A in physics | Passed | 1 qualification | Condition is passed and met by one qualification with an actual grade. |
| Student visa | Passed | 1 clearance check | Additional condition is passed and met by one clearance check. |
Offer conditions with the status Not required no longer need to be met as the applicant has met an alternative condition that satisfies the same entry requirement.
The table Condition no longer required as alternative conditi6on passed shows the conditions 136 UCAS tariff points and A in biology or A in physics. In this example, the decision status is Passed as the academic conditions of 136 UCAS tariff points and A in biology are met. As the applicant has obtained an A in biology, the condition of A in physics is no longer required to be met and has the status Not required.
| Condition name | Status | Met by | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 136 UCAS tariff points | Passed | 136 points | Main decision is passed and met by 136 UCAS tariff points and an A in biology. The condition A in physics is no longer required as the alternative condition for grade A in biology is passed. |
| A in biology | Passed | 1 qualification | Condition is passed and met by one qualification with an actual grade. |
| A in physics | Not required | None | The requirement is to meet one of either A in biology or A in physics. The applicant has met the condition for A in biology, therefore the condition A in physics is no longer required. |
Override conditions
You can override the status of the conditions in the main decision and additional conditions. However, you cannot override included conditions. If you override the main decision, the included conditions are set to the same status as the main decision.
The table Override main decision to passed shows the status of the conditions for the main decision and conditions after the main decision was overridden to passed.
| Condition | Status | Met by | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Three A levels at grade A | Passed | Overridden | Main decision forced to passed and therefore met by overridden. |
| A in biology | Passed | Overridden | Included condition set to the same as the main decision. |
| A in physics | Passed | Overridden | Included condition set to the same as the main decision. |
| Student visa | Passed | 1 clearance check | Additional condition passed and met by one clearance check. |
Override decisions
You can override the decision status to manually set the decision status.
A good applicant has only achieved 128 UCAS tariff points. Therefore, the applicant failed the condition for 136 UCAS tariff points. However, as the applicant achieved grade A in physics and has a student visa, you override the decision status from Failed to Passed.
The table Override decision status to passed shows the status of conditions for an applicant that failed the conditions of the main decision, but the decision status was overridden to passed.
| Condition name | Status | Met by | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 136 UCAS tariff points | Failed | None | Main decision failed as the applicant did not achieve 136 UCAS tariff points and therefore met by is none. |
| A in biology | Failed | None | Condition failed and therefore met by is none. |
| A in physics | Passed | 1 qualification | Condition passed and met by one qualification. |
| Student visa | Passed | 1 clearance check | Additional condition passed and met by one clearance check. |
Confirm decisions after override
After manually overriding a decision, such as setting the decision status from Pending to Passed, you need to confirm the decision. On confirming the decision, the new decision is recorded on the application overview as decision 2.
The table Decision and response summary confirming override shows the decision and response values for the original decision, decision 1, which was a conditional offer, and the new decision, decision 2, which was created after the decision status was overridden.
| Field | Value | Field | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decision 1 | Conditional offer | Decision 1 date |
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| Response 1 | Firmly accepted | Response 1 date |
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| Decision 2 | Unconditional offer | Decision 2 date |
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| Response 2 | Firmly accepted | Response 2 date |
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For UCAS applications, on confirming the decision you can delay confirmation or change the programme as follows:
- Delay confirmation
- For applications with the decision Conditional firm, you can delay confirmation until you have more information. For example, the results of examinations taken later. Applicants are informed that the decision is pending further information.
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A decision must be made before the declined by default date. Otherwise, the applicant is declined.
- Change programme
- Change programme before confirmation enables the programme to be corrected when confirming the decision.
After confirming a decision, you can unpublish the decision. For example, if you notice an error. Unpublishing a decision updates the application as follows:
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Removes the response to the latest offer. For example, Decision 2.
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Removes the latest decision and response summary from the application. For example, Decision 2.
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Resets the decision back to the previous decision. For example, Decision 1.
Decision making and offer tracking demonstration
The video Decision making and offer tracking demonstration shows the decision making and offer tracking process as follows:
- Make decisions
- Submit decisions
- Reset decisions
- Publish decisions
- Respond to offers
- Track offers
- Override conditions
- Override decisions
- Confirm decisions after override
- Complete video (decision making and offer tracking)