Enrolment

At the beginning of each academic year, all students are required to enrol with the University.

What is enrolment?

Enrolment is the process through which you:

  • agree to become a student of the University for the whole, or part of the academic year
  • formally sign up in confirmation of your agreement to abide by the University’s Statutes, Ordinances and Regulations, Policies and Procedures
  • become liable for fee payments
  • check, update and confirm as correct the key personal information that will be held in your student record

The enrolment process

You will enrol with the University through our online enrolment facility. Before you come to University, you can part-enrol online, which involves updating your personal details and uploading a photograph for your student identity card.

Then there are 3 steps you need to complete when you are on campus before you are fully enrolled:

Step 1: pre-enrolment meeting

You must attend a pre-enrolment meeting within your academic School or postgraduate Institute in order to have your programme of study and choice of courses (if appropriate) approved by your Director of Studies or Supervisor.

To find out when and where your pre-enrolment meeting is please refer to the enrolment timetable for your programme.

You will receive more specific programme induction information – including the date and time of your library induction session – from your academic department at this event.

Step 2: supported online enrolment

After your pre-enrolment meeting, you can either complete online enrolment on-campus or off-campus. If you remain on-campus please refer to the New Students Guide to find which computer laboratory you need to go to in order to complete online enrolment, or ask your academic School or postgraduate Institute.

The online enrolment process will take about 20 minutes to complete, depending on whether you have part-enrolled or not.

You will be asked to provide/confirm the following information through the online facility:

  • HWU Person ID (found on any recent letter from us)
  • date of birth or your PIN number if you have part enrolled
  • personal details (home and term-time addresses; ethnicity; disability information; visa information, if relevant)
  • passport-style photograph
  • programme and course information
  • fee information
  • acceptance of University terms and conditions

Once you have completed your online enrolment, you can print your confirmation letter if you wish. This letter can be used to confirm you are a student to third parties, eg to open a bank account. It will only be valid once it is stamped by Academic Registry or the Student Service Centre, which can be done after your ID check in the final step of enrolment.

Step 3: enrolment completion

Enrolment completion takes place at:

  • Edinburgh Campus: Specified location as stated in the enrolment timetable for your programme. Then from the 16th September 2013 the Student Service Centre, Hugh Nisbet building.
  • Scottish Borders Campus: High Mill
  • Dubai Campus: details of how to complete your enrolment will be sent to you separately

Completing enrolment includes the following:

  • identity verification (ID) check
  • passport and visa check (only if you are an international student who is subject to immigration control)
  • collection of your student identity card

To ensure that the identity checks can be carried out, you must ensure that you bring formal photographic identification (passport or driving licence) with you.

If you are subject to immigration control then you must bring your passport and visa along.

Once this step has been completed, you will be formally enrolled at the University. This means 3 things:

  • If you have been awarded funding, we will alert the Student Loans Company and Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) to release funds into your designated bank account.
  • You will be automatically registered to use the Library. Your student identity card acts as your library borrower’s card, and your library number is printed under the barcode. (You may borrow from the library the day after completion of the enrolment process.)
  • You will be automatically registered to use our computing facilities, normally 24 hours after enrolling.