Admissions and enquiries assistant

• Routine questions are answered in seconds, day and night, from the university's approved and current published information. Every answer links to the page it came from.
• Fees, entry requirements and course facts come from the course catalogue through a tool and are quoted exactly, not paraphrased by a model.
• Visitors can book an open day, campus tour or call-back, and their enquiry is logged in the student CRM with a summary and their stated preferences.
• Questions that need a person, such as offers, qualification equivalence, individual visa circumstances, disability support and complaints, are handed to the right team with the conversation attached.
• Content owners are told when their pages contradict the catalogue or have passed their review date, before a wrong answer is given.
• What doesn't change: people make every admissions decision. The assistant never makes, predicts or implies an offer, and never gives advice on someone's immigration situation.

• OfSCondition C1 (consumer protection law) and the proposed condition C6 (treating students fairly)
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  C1 requires providers to show they have given due regard to guidance on consumer protection law in their policies, procedures and terms, which covers prospective students. The OfS consulted from 16 April to 9 July 2026 on a new condition C6, replacing C1 and C3, which would require clear, accurate and comprehensive information for prospective students. The assistant answers only from approved, current content, and its answers are logged so the university can show what each person was told.

• CMAConsumer law advice for higher education providers (updated May 2023) and the DMCC Act 2024
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  Misleading information and the omission of material information, such as additional course costs, are unfair commercial practices. Since 6 April 2025 the CMA can enforce directly, with fines of up to 10% of global turnover. Fees and costs come from the fee tables through a tool and are quoted exactly, with any additional costs the page lists.

• CMAComplying with consumer law when using AI agents (March 2026, updated October 2026)
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  The university is responsible for its assistant as it would be for a member of staff, including errors. People are told they are talking to an AI, it doesn't overstate what it can do, and a person is one click away. Monitoring and escalation are part of the design, not an afterthought.

• Immigration Advice Authority and Home OfficePart V of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
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  Giving immigration advice is regulated. Universities can advise their own students and prospective students under an exemption for educational institutions, through trained advisers following the IAA's Code of Standards. The assistant isn't one of them. It gives general published information, links to GOV.UK, and hands anything about a person's own circumstances to the university's international student advisers.

• Home Office (UKVI)Student sponsor guidance (updated 7 April 2026)
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  Sponsors must keep visa refusal rates below 5% and enrolment at 95% or more, and those using recruitment agents must commit to the Agent Quality Framework and record agent details on the CAS. The assistant never assesses visa eligibility or promises a CAS, gives every applicant the same published pre-arrival information, and records in the CRM when an enquirer says an agent is helping them.

• UUK and GuildHEFair Admissions Code of Practice (updated October 2025)
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  For signatories, admissions must be fair, transparent and consistent. The assistant describes entry requirements and contextual offers only as published, never says what grades will be accepted for an individual, and refers qualification questions to admissions staff.

• ICOUK GDPR, PECR and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025
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  Many applicants are 17, so treat the chat as a service children will use: collect only what's needed, no profiling by default, and clear privacy information. Marketing emails after an enquiry need consent, recorded in the CRM. Chat logs get a retention period, and the contract stops providers training models on them.

On a phone, the table shows the platform you pick. Sovereign / on-prem means open, portable components you can run in your own data centre or with a UK or European provider; IONOS is shown as one example, and others exist. What sovereign cloud means →

• A named owner for every page in the index, with a review date tied to the admissions cycle.
• A list of topics that always go to a person, agreed with admissions, the international advisers and legal, and tested before every release.
• A weekly accuracy review of a sample of answers, including translated ones, with fixes made in the source page, not in the prompt.
• Handoff rules and response times for each team, with cover planned for Clearing and visa deadlines.
• Advisers and admissions staff trained on what the assistant says and doesn't say, so their answers line up.
• A clear route for complaints about information given, with the logged conversation available to the person handling it.

1. 3–4 weeks

   Discovery

   Inventory the content and its owners, measure enquiry volumes and repeat questions, agree the always-to-a-person topics, and check the catalogue API.

2. Gate · must be true to passContent owners named, handoff topics agreed with legal and the international advisers, DPIA started, baseline measured.

3. 8–10 weeks

   Pilot

   Staff-assist first: the assistant drafts email replies that staff check and send. Then public chat for postgraduate taught courses only, outside any peak period.

4. Gate · must be true to passAccuracy above the agreed level, every out-of-scope test handed off, and admissions and compliance sign-off.

5. 4–6 weeks

   Production

   Public chat for undergraduate and postgraduate enquiries, with booking and CRM logging, monitoring, support and a rollback plan.

6. Gate · must be true to passMonitoring, handoff cover, rollback plan and staff training in place, and not launched in Clearing.

7. Ongoing

   Scale

   Add languages for priority international markets, then support during Clearing with clear routes to a person.

8. Gate · must be true to passEach new language or season passes the same accuracy and out-of-scope tests.

R ResponsibleA AccountableC ConsultedI Informed· not involved

Where I'd fit

1. 1

   Goes wrong

   Everything on the website goes into the index, including last year's fees and an old prospectus PDF.

   How the design avoids it

   Only approved pages for the current cycle, each with an owner and a review date. Anything out of date leaves the index automatically.

2. 2

   Goes wrong

   Someone asks 'will I get in with BBC?' and the assistant gives a hopeful answer.

   How the design avoids it

   Offer and grade questions are denied topics, backed by handoff rules in the workflow and tested before every release.

3. 3

   Goes wrong

   A visa answer is confident, specific and wrong for that person.

   How the design avoids it

   General published information and GOV.UK links only. Anything about someone's own circumstances goes to a trained adviser.

4. 4

   Goes wrong

   The model paraphrases a fee and changes its meaning.

   How the design avoids it

   Fees and entry requirements come from the catalogue through a tool and are quoted exactly, with the link.

5. 5

   Goes wrong

   It launches in Clearing week, with nobody free to take handoffs.

   How the design avoids it

   Launch outside peak periods, plan handoff cover first, and keep Clearing offers with people on the phone.

1. Expected late 2026
   The OfS decision on condition C6, treating students fairly, which would replace C1 and C3. The proposal brings the fairness duty in on publication, and a single student protection webpage three months later.

   Keep the logs of what the assistant told each person, and make the content owners' review process something you could show the OfS.

2. 1 January 2027
   The Graduate route falls to 18 months for bachelor's and master's graduates applying from that date. PhD graduates keep three years.

   Give visa content effective dates, so the assistant gives today's applicants the rule that will apply when they graduate, and review it with the international advisers.

3. 1 June 2027
   The Basic Compliance Assessment course completion threshold rises from 85% to 90%, and red, amber and green ratings are due to be published in summer 2027.

   Keep pre-arrival information consistent and logged, so applicants arrive with the right expectations.

4. From 1 August 2028 (draft legislation)
   An international student levy of £925 per international student per year for providers in England, after the first 220 students.

   If fees change, change them once in the catalogue. Nothing about fees should live in a prompt.

5. 2026–2027
   The ICO's code of practice on AI and automated decision-making, required by regulations in force since May 2026.

   Keep the answer logs, the handoff records and the scope decisions in a form you could show the ICO.