Rachel Reeds has spent fifteen years in UK higher education, nine of them in senior admissions leadership. She explains what the rules now require of admissions teams, and what changes when more of the work is automated.
Free to attend. Register once and we will send the joining link and the recording.
Admissions teams make thousands of decisions a year against published criteria. Most are never questioned. When one is, the team has to show how it was reached, who made it, and that the same rules were applied to everyone.
Three sets of rules have tightened since April 2025. The CMA can now fine directly for breaches of consumer law. The Home Office has raised the thresholds that student sponsors must meet. And the UK rules on automated decisions changed in February 2026.
At the same time, more admissions work is being automated. Done well, that makes decisions faster and more consistent. It also changes what you need to be able to show when an applicant, a regulator or your own data protection officer asks how a decision was made.
What has changedSources: Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. Home Office Basic Compliance Assessment, from 1 June 2026. Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, section 80.
About Rachel and Think Bold ›This is a practical session, not a product demo. Rachel works through where the rules apply and what to have in place, in order.
Where consumer law, visa sponsorship duties, the Equality Act and data protection law each touch the admissions cycle, from enquiry to enrolment.
The points where applications stall, get handled more than once, or where two assessors could reach different answers on the same file.
What the new rules on automated decisions mean in practice: telling applicants, letting them challenge a decision, and keeping a person able to step in.
The questions that come up before an admissions system goes live, and how to have the answers ready.
Founder, Think Bold
CEO and Founder, Niico
Anyone who signs off how admissions decisions are made, or the systems that make them.
Wednesday 30 September 2026, 13:30 to 14:30 BST. If you cannot make it live, register anyway and we will send you the recording.
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