When you are using Applications with a UCAS or direct applications data feed (Passive Applications), existing applications can be updated with a new Academic Year of Entry or new Course details.
All applicants who have Deferred or Changed Course will then be flagged in the application record, which allows you to use that value in Touchpoint conditions or in a Segment.
These changes are also included on the Application's activity log, to ensure that the history of that application, even after the deferral or course change, is accurate.
In order for this to happen you must specify a unique application ID in the mis_application_id field with each application that does not change when an application is deferred or changes to a new course.
When deferring an Application, you must ensure you send the correct Course Code for the new Academic Year, as this may have changed from the previous Year.
Read more about the Passive Applications data feed using our API in the Developer Centre (login using your Student CRM login details).
FAQs:
Q. How do I specify a unique application ID?
A. Best practice is to specify a unique and static application ID using a combination of values from your SRS. The following would be a good example for a UCAS application.
MIS_Applicant_ID + UCAS-Choice-No + UCAS-ApplicationSchemeCode
Q. What happens if the MIS application ID changes after a course change/deferral?
A. This will result in a new, orphan application record being created in Applications (APV). We call this an orphan as it's disconnected from the original application record. This may have the knock on effect of inflating the number of application records artificially.
Q. How can I tell if an application has changed course?
A. The change will be reflected on the Application with changed_course being set to 1:
The change will also be noted on the Activity Log for that application:
Q. How can I tell if an application has been deferred?
A. The change will be reflected on the Application with deferred being set to 1:
The change will also be noted on the Activity Log for that application:
Note that the Course Code for Trad Jazz changed from 'ghi' in 2024 to 'TJ' in 2025.