How the Allocation Process Works for Postgraduates

The postgraduate college allocation process for full time applicants is detailed below.

When the automated allocation process commences the below steps are followed.

1.	Applicants are sorted into two groups: Those who have expressed college preferences (via the College Application). Those either expressed ‘No Preference’ or did not submit a College Application.
2.	The preference group is ordered randomly.
3.	Starting with the first applicant record in the preference group, the process looks at the first college preference for that applicant and attempts to make an accept decision. If sufficient offers are available for the algorithm criteria (department, level and fee status) then this will succeed.
4.	If the limit in a specific college for the algorithm has been reached, the applicant will be passed to a temporary holding table.
5.	This process repeats until all applicants in the preference group have either been accepted or passed to the holding table.
6.	Taking the holding table where a second college preference has been ranked, the process repeats steps 3-5.
7.	Taking the holding table where a third college preference has been ranked, the process repeats steps 3-5.
8.	There will now be a holding table containing applicants who stated a first, second or third college preference where the process was unable to make an accept decision based on any preferences.
9.	The process will move through applicants in the holding table. It will randomly order remaining colleges not stated as preferences to make an accept decision for the first college on the list. If sufficient offers are available for the algorithm criteria then this will succeed.
10.	If the limit in the specific college for the algorithm has been reached, the process will move onto the next college in the randomly ordered list and repeat step 9.
11.	This step repeats until a successful accept decision is made.
12.	The process then moves to the next record in the holding table and repeats steps 9-11.
13.	The process will now look at the group who either expressed ‘No Preference’ or did not submit a College Application. The process will repeat steps 9-11 for these applicants.

At the end of this process, all applicants who have accepted their academic offer will have received a provisional membership alloction. The process will then run on a regular basis accordingly and allocate future applicants who accept their offer at a later stage.

The process uses acceptance factors based on historical statistical data for postgraduate recruitment to fill the place. This differs by fee status, level and department.