HEIapply Overview

Step into the future of the admissions process. Gone are the days of lengthy paperwork, stacks of applications, and endless queues. In this fast-paced world, educational institutions have revolutionised their approach by harnessing the power of technology.

• But how did the concept of Virtual Admissions come into existence?
• What is it about them that has captivated the education industry?
• And what are the key features that make a Virtual Admissions System stand out from the rest?

Enough of the questions, let’s explore the reasons behind their skyrocketing popularity.

A quick summary video covering the main points of the article.

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The Emergence of Virtual Admissions Solutions

What is a Virtual Admissions Solution

A virtual admissions system mirrors the traditional in-person admissions process, but it leverages a virtual platform for the interaction between students and admission counselors.

The Global Appeal of VAS:

Across the globe, forward-thinking educational institutions from public and private schools, international schools, private college centres, universities and many other types of institutions are embracing this new technology. You’ll find the term VAS commonly used in countries like the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, where the demand for streamlined, efficient admissions processes is on the rise.

The traditional application process and its challenges

The traditional process has had many challenges for institutions, primarily due to its reliance on manual procedures and paperwork. Such a system requires endless hours of laborious paperwork that needs to be filled out accurately and kept organized; it also demands long queues of prospective students waiting in line just to submit their applications. Additionally, the sheer number of applicants makes it difficult for administrators to review each person and application thoroughly and make a decision in a timely manner.

The digital revolution in education industry

The need for an efficient process gave rise to the concept of Admissions Systems, which are software solutions designed to streamline the entire admission process. These systems allow institutions to automate many tedious tasks from collecting applications to making decisions and sending notifications. Additionally, the use of artificial intelligence is sure to change how Admissions Systems work over the coming years.

The Covid-19 Pandemic and the Acceleration of Online Admissions Systems Adoption

The Covid-19 pandemic played a significant role in accelerating the adoption of Virtual Admissions. With the impact of the pandemic, educational institutions worldwide were abruptly pushed to transition to an entirely digital framework. Traditional admissions processes were no longer feasible due to lockdown measures and social distancing guidelines. As a result, there was a sudden surge in demand for digital solutions that could allow institutions to continue their admissions process remotely.

They proved to be the perfect solution for this challenge. They enabled the entire process to be carried out online, from application submission to decision notification.

This rapid switch to virtual platforms underscored the need for efficient, robust, and user-friendly admissions systems, further solidifying the significance of these systems in the education sector.

^{Admissions Software Lead, Action Starter Ltd}

The pandemic, albeit unwelcome, served as a catalyst in bringing about this digital transformation much faster than anticipated.

Top Universities Are Implementing New Improved Online Admissions Systems

The most obvious benefit is their ability to enable institutions to carry out their entire admissions process remotely. This offers a great degree of flexibility, allowing administrators to manage applications and make decisions even while on the go.

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Must-Have Features

The importance of user-friendly interface, robust security protocols, and capacity to handle large volumes of applications are some of the must-have features that should be considered when choosing a Virtual Admissions System. Here are some additional features that will ensure maximum efficiency for educational institutions:

Automated Lead & Application Submission

Ensure the system effortlessly collects applications from multiple sources, such as school websites and social media enquiry forms.

It should be able to handle decision-making process to suit your institution’s unique admissions preferences. Set criteria, assign evaluators, and provide applicants with personalised feedback.

Customisable Decision-Making Process

It should be able to handle decision-making process to suit your institution’s unique admissions preferences. Set criteria, assign evaluators, and provide applicants with personalised feedback.

It should offer schools a customisable decision-making process that can be adjusted according to an institution’s preferences. This includes setting criteria for screening applications, assigning evaluators, and giving applicants personalised feedback.

Realtime Reports & Realtime Analytics

Opt for a system with powerful data management and analytics capabilities. Gain valuable insights into your admissions and enrollment process to optimize efficiency and increase enrollment rates.

The system should also have the ability to generate reports and send out notifications in a timely manner. This ensures that administrators stay informed about their admissions and can follow up with applicants as needed.

Scalable Cloud Data Storage

Select a system equipped with scalable cloud data storage capabilities. This ensures that your system can adapt and expand seamlessly in alignment with your evolving requirements and growth.

The capacity for data management and analytics is also an essential feature. This enables institutions to gain valuable insights into their admissions and enrollment process in order to improve efficiency and increase enrolment rates.

Application Tracking from Enquiry to Enrolment

It should also seamlessly track the progress of each application through the entire process from interest to enrolment.

You should be able to effortlessly monitor the journey of each application, ensuring a seamless tracking process from the initial expression of interest to the final enrolment stage. Comprehensive tracking capability will provide invaluable insights into the entire applicant lifecycle, enabling your institution to make informed decisions and optimise your admissions process effectively.

Customisable Drag Drop Application Forms Builder

Your system should allow you to create tailored application forms effortlessly. The forms should then collect all necessary information, including questionnaires, essays, and other required documents, in a user-friendly manner.

The need for customisable application forms is also essential for a Virtual Admissions System to be effective. Institutions should have the ability to create their own forms, which can include questionnaires, essays, and other documents required by the institution. This allows institutions to collect all necessary information from applicants in one place and streamline their admissions.

Integration With Existing Systems

Choose a system that seamlessly integrates with your existing databases and software. Eliminate the need for manual data entry and ensure smooth operation.

This makes it easier for institutions to transfer data between different software platforms, eliminating the need for manual data entry.

Virtual Event Management

Your system should facilitate these events using tools such as Zoom, Facebook Live, and Teams, enabling you to reach prospective students worldwide.

Virtual events such as webinars, virtual open houses, meet the head, virtual tours, residence and campus tours are becoming increasingly important in today’s education landscape. Imagine being able to conduct a Virtual tour with thousands of prospective students from all around the world and the impact that can have on the number of applications without ever doing a visit in person.

Financial Aid Bursary And Scholarship Management

Another must have is the capability to manage financial aid and scholarships. The system should be able to manage financial aid and scholarships. The system should process applications quickly and accurately, ensuring that prospective students receive the support they need in a timely manner. This allows institutions to process applications for financial aid quickly and accurately, ensuring that prospective students receive the support they need in a timely manner.

Payment Processing

The advantage of integrated payment systems is also hugely beneficial. This eliminates the need to manually process payments for applications or exams, reducing processing time and improving accuracy.

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Benefits of Implementing a Virtual Admissions System

The implementation of such a system offers numerous benefits to educational institutions. This includes improved efficiency, increased accuracy, and communications and cost savings in terms of labour and resources.

Key Takeaways

In summary, the implementation of a Virtual Admissions System offers numerous benefits to educational institutions, including improved efficiency, increased accuracy and cost savings. It also offers powerful analytics tools for gaining insights into admissions process and robust security protocols for protecting sensitive information from unauthorised access or misuse. In addition, it provides a user-friendly interface for applicants

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Closing Remarks

The future prospects of Virtual Systems in The Admission Process

The future is promising and poised for further growth and development. As more educational institutions realise the value of automating their admissions process, the demand for these systems is expected to increase.

In the future, we can expect to see more advanced features such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning being incorporated. These technologies can further improve the efficiency and accuracy of decision-making in admissions. For example, AI could help in predicting successful applicants based on historical data, while machine learning could be used to continuously improve the decision-making process based on feedback and results.

Moreover, we can expect to see enhanced interoperability with other software platforms as integration becomes increasingly important. This will make it easier for institutions to manage their admissions process alongside other administrative tasks.

In summary, the future prospects are bright, with anticipated advancements in technology and increased integration with other platforms. These systems are set to become an integral part of the admissions process for educational institutions worldwide.

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– Streamlined Applicant Journey

All too often, the admissions process for educational institutions can be a cumbersome and time-consuming affair for both prospective students and staff alike. Our online Admissions Software seeks to streamline the process as much as possible whilst still ensuring that all the necessary information is gathered.

Applicants can complete their application form online at their convenience, upload supporting documentation, save progress, and return later if need be. They can also submit and track processing progress via a secure student log-in area, and make use of an instant messaging system linked directly to your school admissions admin team should they have any questions.

All the information provided can be easily sent into your school management system for enrolment and other post-enrolment activities.

– Optimised Administrative Activities

Easily manage staff access, programme listings and shortlisting applicants. Capture reviews from internal employees or external members of your team. Send out automated emails and communicate with your applicants from within the platform private messaging system.

HEIapply Overview

‘And this year’s Technology Award for Birmingham Young Professional of the Year goes to Simon Kaguramamba.’ It was a gruelling session with a judging panel comprising of some of the top, leading business people in the West Midlands at KMPG Headquarters in Birmingham. Simon fought with serious competition in another 300 nominees until he lifted this year’s BYBP Technology Award ‘Winning the Technology Category was amazing! I thank the awesome team around me, together we made this possible,’ commented Simon. If you would like to congratulate the mind behind HEIapply, please tweet Simon @simonkags. To find out how we can help you capture, manage and review thousands of submissions online, please click here to book a demo or give us a call on 0800 088 5833

– Streamlined Applicant Journey

All too often, the admissions process for educational institutions can be a cumbersome and time-consuming affair for both prospective students and staff alike. Our online Admissions Software seeks to streamline the process as much as possible whilst still ensuring that all the necessary information is gathered.

Applicants can complete their application form online at their convenience, upload supporting documentation, save progress, and return later if need be. They can also submit and track processing progress via a secure student log-in area, and make use of an instant messaging system linked directly to your school admissions admin team should they have any questions.

All the information provided can be easily sent into your school management system for enrolment and other post-enrolment activities.

– Optimised Administrative Activities

Easily manage staff access, programme listings and shortlisting applicants. Capture reviews from internal employees or external members of your team. Send out automated emails and communicate with your applicants from within the platform private messaging system.

HEIapply Overview

Privacy matters, and that is why we ensure your data is 100% protected at HEIapply. HEIapply provides the tools and access required to manage and clear personal data, helping and encouraging Organisations to comply with DPA legislation. We are also registered with the ICO. Super admin users of the system have the power to grant or revoke permissions to their users as required. Audit trails are in-built to track complete user activity. We use UK-based servers and data sits on a cluster environment, scalable horizontally and vertically. With guaranteed 99.9% uptime, the system is perfect for peak applications periods. To find out more about how we can help keep your data protected, please get in touch.

– Streamlined Applicant Journey

All too often, the admissions process for educational institutions can be a cumbersome and time-consuming affair for both prospective students and staff alike. Our online Admissions Software seeks to streamline the process as much as possible whilst still ensuring that all the necessary information is gathered.

Applicants can complete their application form online at their convenience, upload supporting documentation, save progress, and return later if need be. They can also submit and track processing progress via a secure student log-in area, and make use of an instant messaging system linked directly to your school admissions admin team should they have any questions.

All the information provided can be easily sent into your school management system for enrolment and other post-enrolment activities.

– Optimised Administrative Activities

Easily manage staff access, programme listings and shortlisting applicants. Capture reviews from internal employees or external members of your team. Send out automated emails and communicate with your applicants from within the platform private messaging system.

HEIapply Overview

Following the retirement of Adobe FormsCentral, many an organisation embarked on a journey to find a suitable replacement. Some saw no way but to shift back in time to an era of paper and pen. Picture this: you deal with around 50 applicant submissions each week to a Dance Course programme you’re running. The applicant has to fill out a PDF they printed off your website or collected from your Reception Desk. They then post it to you (unlikely given the increasing cost of postage), come and hand it in at the Reception (also unlikely given the increasing resistance to human contact) or email it to your specified department with little effort and no cost at all. Your Administrator has fun and games while sifting through hand-written forms, trying to translate variant legibility for entry into your chosen data capture method (most likely Excel spreadsheets). Spreadsheets are then passed around departments and Recruitment shortlists those who make it to the next or final stage. Back to Admin who either contacts everyone with an outcome, or only those who have been successful. Fast forward to enrolment day; numbers may have dropped since there are those who lose interest or go elsewhere. Despite succeeding to have an uptake, there is a pang of disappointment because of shortlists you were unable to retain despite lengthy, costly and labour-intensive efforts. There are perhaps thoughts that the shortlisting process was too rigorous and perhaps there are doubts that Admin by-passed forms they couldn’t read. The solution: Erase all doubts, reduce the margin for error and minimise effort, cost and time spent on the entire process. Go paperless and move back to the future! HEIapply is the web-based tool that converts your paper-based submission forms into elegant paperless processes. Whether an Application form for membership or a job, an Admission form for entry onto an academic or training programme, or an Enquiry form registering details and interest, we can help you increase conversion rates and reduce the amount of labour involved. Listening to our clients is at the heart of what we do. We ensure we attack real problems and provide the best solutions. In addition to our out-of-box software options, we provide bespoke solutions to fully tailor your needs. To find out more, give us a call today on +44 (0) 800 088 5833 or click here to book a demo

– Streamlined Applicant Journey

All too often, the admissions process for educational institutions can be a cumbersome and time-consuming affair for both prospective students and staff alike. Our online Admissions Software seeks to streamline the process as much as possible whilst still ensuring that all the necessary information is gathered.

Applicants can complete their application form online at their convenience, upload supporting documentation, save progress, and return later if need be. They can also submit and track processing progress via a secure student log-in area, and make use of an instant messaging system linked directly to your school admissions admin team should they have any questions.

All the information provided can be easily sent into your school management system for enrolment and other post-enrolment activities.

– Optimised Administrative Activities

Easily manage staff access, programme listings and shortlisting applicants. Capture reviews from internal employees or external members of your team. Send out automated emails and communicate with your applicants from within the platform private messaging system.

HEIapply Overview

Adobe completely retired its FormsCentral software tool on July 28^th 2015 after about three years on the web form builder market. Adobe cited lack of interest and less uptake than expected (despite the enthusiasm of many users) as the reason behind the closedown. The company’s retirement plan is to focus on continuing to provide world-class PDF creation products that are available on any device, anywhere in the world. Whether application related to a course or job, or registration related to a service or event – regardless of the multitude of purposes for each and every form, the FormsCentral users have been affected. What next for all the individuals and businesses displaced as a result? Forms and submissions undoubtedly constitute a chunk of the big data that businesses of all sizes rely upon. Alternative solutions had to be sought, built and adopted. Some reverted to outdated paper-based processes, most likely with the intention to resort to this short-term given the costs associated with the increase in manual labour. Some (mostly bigger organisations) decided to source and build internal solutions. And finally, there are those who embarked on the search for an affordable, sustainable and flexible replacement providing functionality as dynamic as FormsCentral despite Adobe’s recommendation for similar and popular alternatives. In the wake of this situation, Aston University (Birmingham, UK) favoured HEIapply for the final stages of its International Student Recruitment. HEIapply provides not only the functionality to create forms and capture data but to process, manage and review it as well. As a flexible paperless system, the tool provided the Institution with optionality beyond FormsCentral’s offerings. The integration was completed in June 2015. In addition to building a form tailored specifically to your purpose and brand, HEIapply features in-built analytical charts and reports, communication inboxes and chats and the ability to personalise the user journey retaining applicants and increasing conversion rates. To find out more about why you should integrate with HEIapply, please book a live demo.        

– Streamlined Applicant Journey

All too often, the admissions process for educational institutions can be a cumbersome and time-consuming affair for both prospective students and staff alike. Our online Admissions Software seeks to streamline the process as much as possible whilst still ensuring that all the necessary information is gathered.

Applicants can complete their application form online at their convenience, upload supporting documentation, save progress, and return later if need be. They can also submit and track processing progress via a secure student log-in area, and make use of an instant messaging system linked directly to your school admissions admin team should they have any questions.

All the information provided can be easily sent into your school management system for enrolment and other post-enrolment activities.

– Optimised Administrative Activities

Easily manage staff access, programme listings and shortlisting applicants. Capture reviews from internal employees or external members of your team. Send out automated emails and communicate with your applicants from within the platform private messaging system.