We know that some users withdraw courses in error. This could be because they mean to close the course and reopen it in the same recruitment cycle. This is time consuming for both the provider and our development team - the provider needs to contact us if they’ve withdrawn in error and our development team need to reinstate the course.
In August 2022, we introduced a new ‘Closed’ status – this allows providers to close a course with the flexibility of reopening it again in the same recruitment cycle. Our hypothesis is that if providers have a way to close a course, we’ll see fewer courses being withdrawn in error.
What we changed
We improved the content on the ‘Are you sure you want to withdraw this course?’ page to make it clear that withdrawn courses cannot be published again in the same cycle. We also added content to remind the provider that they should:
- contact the candidate to let them know the course is being withdrawn
- offer the candidate a place on an alternative course if possible
We also added a link to ‘close the course instead’, highlighting that if they simply want to stop candidates from applying for now, they can close the course rather than withdrawing it.
