Ulster University revolutionized its admissions process by implementing Gecko to automate and streamline both UCAS applications and clearing. The platform transformed their largely manual, email-based system into an efficient automated workflow that maintains personalized communication with applicants while saving significant staff time and reducing administrative burden.
Ulster University educates over 30,000 students on its three campuses, which are spread across Northern Ireland in Belfast, Coleraine and Derry~Londonderry. Up until 2018, Ulster relied largely on snail mail and telephone calls to communicate with applicants for its wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses. This meant that around clearing – the short period of time over the summer recess when course places become available because some candidates fail to make their offer grades – the admissions office, became particularly manic. The introduction of Gecko, however, put a welcome end to that chaos and it’s improved the overall application process too.
Here, Martin Smith, the University Admissions Office campus manager at Ulster University, explains how Gecko took the stress out of its complex and high-volume clearing process and eased up the overall application process along the way.
“Some colleagues within our global engagement team had started to use Gecko in around 2018 for email marketing and mailshots, but nothing more than that,” says Martin “Then, around 2019, I just got fed up with typing up offer letters and emailing them out and I just thought there has to be a better way to do this and I decided to see what we could do with Gecko.”
Martin initially worked with the IT team to create a template for a form for people going through clearing. “It covered all the bog-standard stuff, their name, email address, student number, programme name, programme code, everything we needed to map a decision,” he explains. “We’ve now evolved it and have set up forms that do all sorts of data collection stuff for us. Then when they get approved for an offer, again, an email goes out saying ‘congratulations, you’ve received an offer.’ The email then gives them the opportunity to click to accept or decline. It’s all automated and those offers go out to students quicker as well.
Having been able to save hours of administration work during clearing, Martin then began looking at how he could use Gecko for applications going through the formal UCAS process. Up until then, Ulster had always let UCAS handle its applications and it had never corresponded directly with applicants. But, by combining Gecko’s broadcast functionality with sophisticated segmentation and personalization, the university has now transformed its entire admissions communications processes.
“I thought it would be nice to create an email that would thank applicants for applying and now we have a series of broadcasts that go out to UCAS applicants for different scenarios. We have broadcasts set for those to whom we make an offer, those who go on to make us their first choice if they meet their grades and then another broadcast if they make us an insurance choice, for example. We will then ask them to send us copies of their GCSE passes, passports etc., basically all the things we need from them in advance of starting here, to reduce the admin when it comes to enrolment and induction.” Once an offer is confirmed Ulster uses Gecko to send out further comms with joining and registration instructions that link through to a personalized page.
Gecko has also come into its own when it comes to allocating interviews for applicants. “Before Gecko, we would have had, say, 20 interviews to arrange and we would go through them in alphabetical order, allocating time slots and these would then be emailed out to candidates. Then within 15 minutes, someone replies with I can’t do 9 am, can I do 11 am? It was so annoying. Now we just set up an event with Gecko and they select their own slot through the workflows and then they receive a confirmation and are told where they need to go. It’s that easy.”
While the candidates are receiving all this engaging correspondence via Gecko, the platform is also busy sending automated emails to university staff. “Once some data is in the workflow, it gets assigned to whoever processes applications for that particular programme,” says Martin. “Staff get two emails. One informs them that a task has been assigned to them and another provides them with further background information and a link to another form that is used for decision-making, where a drop-down box lets them approve the application, hold it, seek additional information, etc.”
The digital paper trail that Gecko creates is also useful. It makes it possible to see if emails have been opened and it means that if someone is off sick, the person covering for them can still access Gecko and follow up on inquiries.
Gecko helps Martin’s team of 40 efficiently manage all their applications and individual inquiries, showing them what’s outstanding and what needs chasing up. “In terms of the work that we do throughout the year, I don’t know if it’s calculable or not. But even from the most simple tasks of copying and pasting an email and the like, that’s still going to take a couple of minutes, whereas with Gecko, it takes ten seconds,” says Martin. “There is barely a stage where you need to create anything new from scratch. I just use the clone function when creating new email templates, forms, broadcasts, etc.”
To conclude, we ask Martin what he would say to other educational institutions considering deploying Gecko. He says: “Go for it and don’t just limit it to managing your clearing. When you use Gecko for all aspects of communication with applicants, creating events, all that sort of stuff, it’s invaluable. Without it, we would really struggle now.”
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