Heriot-Watt University has become the first institution in the UK to transfer data between the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) and its Banner by Ellucian administrative system using the XML-Link web service.
The interface to the new web service was developed by Ellucian and is available at no additional cost to its Banner customer institutions.
XML-Link is a web service provided by UCAS for institutions to retrieve reference data, the details of an applicant and their application, and download it into their own campus administrative system. The link enables admissions decisions to be uploaded to UCAS, and transactions to be executed in real time and processed immediately.
Ellucian claims to be the first software vendor in the UK to develop an interface to UCAS via XML-Link. The interface was developed and delivered through Ellucian’s European Solutions Centre.
Marcus Gilchrist, student systems business manager, Office of Student & Academic Affairs at Heriot-Watt University, said: "We are very pleased to be live with XML-Link. We had an excellent level of cooperation between Heriot-Watt and Ellucian staff; Ellucian was very attentive and responsive during the implementation."
UCAS is the organisation responsible for managing applications to higher education courses in the UK. UCAS processes more than 2.5m applications every year for about 650,000 prospective students across the UK and beyond. In addition to XML-Link, institutions can transfer data from UCAS via ODBC-Link.
Michael Agnew, VP, Software Development, International, Ellucian, said: "The delivery of this interface is another example of the value of Ellucian’s understanding and commitment to supporting the local market.
"We are on the leading edge of enabling our customers to leverage the benefits of new technology options as they become available."
