Infosys has signed a new minimum three-year contract with UCAS, the admissions service for UK higher education. UCAS provides vital admission and information services to students, schools, advisers, and higher education providers, offering over 30,000 courses to prospective applicants each year.

UCAS and Infosys have been technology partners since 2015 but following an extensive tender process the new contract represents a major step-change in the relationship. Ashiss Kumar Dash, EVP and Segment Head-services, utilities, resources, energy at Infosys, said, “In the next three years, 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.”

UCAS supports approximately 7,00,000 applicants every year and has reported 60,000 more this year than in 2020. Further, current predictions suggest there will be 1 million applicants to higher education in the UK by 2025.

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As part of the new agreement Infosys will provide a wide range of digital services that will enable UCAS to further develop the capabilities that connect learners to universities, awarding bodies, schools, and other organisations, built on a dynamic digital suite of systems able to rapidly respond to the evolving UK higher education sector. Infosys will continue to concentrate on helping UCAS achieve its ambitious targets on lowering costs, optimising, and enhancing services for students, delivering more robust security, and providing business-as-usual (BAU) services between legacy and new digital systems, according to the company.

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This announcement comes on the heels of UCAS’ busiest Results Day ever on August 10, with 1.5 million logins registered in UCAS Track (peaking at 2,000 logins per second), 1,82,126 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. The traffic is said to be the highest volume to UCAS’ systems ever seen on the most important day of the year for UCAS.

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Sander Kristel, UCAS’ Chief Operations Officer, said, “This new agreement with Infosys 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, based on which the company is 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 ahead in the market,” Kristel added.