UCL REGISTRY
Educational Liaison
Admissions
Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS)
Guidance Notes for Academic Departments
Background of Scheme
The Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) is a Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) initiative that came into effect on 1st November 2007. The aim of ATAS is to prevent certain countries from using the UK to train scientists and engineers in technologies that might be useful in the development of weapons of mass destruction.
Along with all other UK universities, UCL's participation in the scheme is compulsory.
The FCO has identified various subject areas that fall under the scheme. In order to obtain an entry clearance visa, students from countries outside of the European Economic Area (EEA)[1] and Switzerland admitted to these subjects will be required to complete an on-line ATAS application in addition to the standard entry clearance procedures. They will not be granted entry clearance without first receiving ATAS approval. Universities are required to provide additional information to supplement the official offer letter that will be used by students to apply for an ATAS certificate.
Subject Areas Affected at UCL
The scheme covers research (including visiting research students in attendance for over six months, entering the UK on a student visa) and a small number of taught masters programmes. The subject areas covered have been derived by the FCO from the national Jacs code system (used by HESA and HEFCE).
By using the Jacs codes associated with programmes of study, the following UCL departments have been identified as admitting research students and visiting research students that require ATAS clearance:
Anatomy and Developmental Biology
Biochemical Engineering
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Biology
CAIS
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
CHIME
Computer Science
CoMPLEX
Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Epidemiology and Public Health
Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit
Geography
Mathematics
Mechanical Engineering
Medical Physics and Bioengineering
Pharmacology
Physics and Astronomy
Physiology
Space and Climate Physics
Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research
The following taught programmes will require ATAS clearance:
MRes Advanced Instrumentation Systems
MSc Applied Instrumentation
MSc Biomedical Engineering and Medical Imaging
MSc European Medical Physics
MSc Marine Engineering
MSc Mechanical Engineering
MSc Medical Image Computing
MSc Nanotechnology
MSc Physics
MSc Power Systems Engineering
MSc Radiation Physics
MSc Space Craft Technology and Satellite Communication
MSc Systems Engineering Management
Departmental Actions Required for Research and Visiting Research Students
Departments can identify applicants that will potentially require ATAS certificates from an applicant’s nationality and provisional fee status assessment which is indicated on the UCL graduate application form. If an applicant’s nationality is outside of the EEA or Switzerland and they have been identified as likely to be overseas fees, then ATAS clearance will be required. If an applicant’s fee status is marked as “X” (unknown), the applicant may require an ATAS certificate depending on their visa status.
For those research applicants identified as requiring an ATAS certificate and to whom the department is recommending that offer of admission be made, departments are required to supply a short statement, which has been agreed with the applicant, indicating the planned area of research. The agreed statement should be six to seven sentences in length. The statement can include complex technical detail and needs to define the scope and application/use of the research. Examples of good and bad statements as provided by the FCO can be found at Appendix 1.
The research statement will be included with the offer of admission and departments will need to submit statements to Admissions before an offer of admission can be issued.
Statements should be e-mailed to and include the application number and applicant name. Electronic submission of statements will enable Admissions staff to copy the text directly into the offer of admission and thereby avoid any errors where complex language might be being used.
It is important that the statement has been agreed with the prospective student as they are required to enter the identical statement in their ATAS certificate application. Students have to present both their ATAS certificate and their offer of admission in order to obtain entry clearance, so it is vital there are no discrepancies in the research statement.
In addition, departments will be required to supply the name of at least one of the proposed supervisors.
A research offer of admission will not be issued until the research statement and supervisor name have been provided.
Revised offers of admission will need to be produced for those applicant already holding offers of admission for a start date after 1st November 2007.
Current students who are renewing visas will also need to apply for ATAS clearance. Admissions will contact departments regarding statements for such students on a case by case basis.
Departmental Actions Required for Taught Masters Students
The FCO has been provided with a list of compulsory modules for the taught programmes listed above. The list has been derived from information contained in the Portico Programme Diets.
On their ATAS application, students will be required to indicate which optional modules they are intending to take. Students will be referred to departmental webpages for this information.
It is vital that module details are included on departmental webpages and that these are kept up to date.
FCO Processing of ATAS Applications
The FCO aim to issue a decision on an ATAS application within a week of receipt. In more complex cases this may take up to three weeks. Admissions will be notified of the decisions from the FCO and, in cases of refusal, will notify departments of the decision.
Contacts in Admissions
Until 3rd December, departments should contact the main Admissions telephone number (extn: 37381) or their current departmental contact in Admissions for queries regarding specific applicants who require ATAS clearance.
From 3rd December, please use the designated Admissions contacts below for any graduate applicant queries, whether ATAS related or otherwise:
Biomedical Sciences:
Tracey Smith, , extn: 32498
Life Sciences and Mathematical & Physical Sciences:
Gordon Holiday, , extn: 37742
Engineering Sciences:
David Morris, , extn: 33571
Helen Barrett, , extn: 37383
Bella Malins, Head of Admissions, is acting as the liaison point with the FCO. Any general queries regarding the scheme should be directed to Bella (extn: 33087, ).
Summary of Actions Required
For research applicants falling under ATAS, when recommending a candidate for admission, departments are required to provide the following to Admissions:
1) A short (6-7 sentence) research statement that has been agreed with the applicant
2) The name of at least one of the proposed supervisors.
This information needs to be e-mailed to , including the applicant’s name and application number.
For taught masters programmes falling under ATAS, departments are required to ensure that a full list of available course modules appears on the departmental website.
Full details of ATAS are available on the FCO website at www.fco.gov.uk/atas. The FCO website is also used by applicants to apply for ATAS clearance. Brief details of the scheme are on the immigration pages of UCL’s prospective students website at www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/international-students.
Bella Malins
Head of Admissions
Appendix 1
ATAS EXAMPLE RESEARCH PROPOSALS PROVIDED BY THE FCO
Good examples – all of these would be acceptable and are designed to show you the level of detail the FCO would be keen to see. It is emphasised that the FCO are able to assess complex technical details – there is no need to dumb these proposals down.
1. Composite tubes are used in many engineering applications including pneumatics, robotics, aeronautics and manufacturing engineering. This research aims to investigate the failure characteristics of glass-epoxy composite tubes subjected to compression loading under changing thermal gradients. Experimental tests will be conducted to better understand how biaxial compressive strength varies with temperature and material characteristics. Testing will include strain measurements, indentation testing and crack analysis. Results from experimental measurements will be used to develop an improved analytical model for the mechanical performance of composite tubes.
2. Sonic booms from supersonic aircraft create numerous difficulties, including environmental disruption and aero-elastic stressing of an aircraft superstructure. This research will explore the use of automatic differentiation using the reverse mode, together with adjoint-based optimal design, as a means to minimise the sonic boom around an aircraft. The project will involve mathematical analysis and computer programming using the NAG library, together with experimental verification using a Mach 3 capable supersonic wind tunnel. Experimental instrumentation will include Laser Doppler Anemometry for flow field measurement and Schlieren photography for shock wave visualisation.
3. This research project will investigate the regulation of expression and function of the inducible L-arginine-nitric oxide pathway in cultured vascular cells. The aim is to define the signalling mechanism(s) that regulate the induction of both nitric oxide synthase and the cationic amino acid transport proteins associated with uptake of L-arginine into cells. The project will involve cells in culture and basic molecular techniques including qPCR analysis, protein biochemistry, western blotting, qPCR analysis, mRNA isolation quantification and analysis.
4. Satellite imagery offers a number of potential benefits for the analysis of environmental phenomena. This project proposes to use SPOT2 multi-spectral data to analyse sediment concentrations in the Mississippi River delta. Reflectance measurements will be calibrated against in-situ field measurements of sediment load. These sediment data will then be integrated into a three dimensional hydrodynamic model of the Mississippi River delta with the aim of developing improved sediment transport models for complex stratified estuarine flows.
Bad examples
1. The student will work in the area of material science on a PhD programme. They will carry out experimental tests, analysis and report writing. Testing will include strain measurements, indentation testing and crack analysis.
Reason for being poor: insufficient information on the scope and application / use of the research. Little context provided and terms such as material science are too broad. It would be helpful to give a little more detail on which experimental tests and what methods / techniques they might be exposed to. However it is useful to know the sorts of measurements and testing they might undertake.
2. This project will involve the mathematical analysis of sonic booms from aircraft. The work will involve automatic differentiation. It is possible that some verification with experimental measurements will be conducted. The project will involve mathematical analysis and computer programming using the NAG library.
Reason for being poor: again, insufficient information on the application / use of the research. The summary does provide some useful methods and techniques, such as automatic differentiation, computer programming, the NAG library and experimental measurements, but it would be helpful to know a little more about the type testing that might be carried out and whether this was being applied to civilian aircraft at relatively low speeds or military aircraft at considerably higher speeds.
3. Satellite imagery offers a number of potential benefits for the analysis of environmental phenomena. The applications of this are as diverse as disaster management, analysis of agricultural products, flooding and sediment deposition in river basins and remote mapping. This project proposes to use SPOT2 multi-spectral data to analyse sediment concentrations in the Mississippi River delta. Satellite images will be acquired from a number of international sources and scanned into a computer using a high-resolution scanner. After image processing reflectance information at specific frequencies will be extracted. Field measurements of sediment load will be carried out using eight boats during March and April when the sediment load is at its lightest in the delta. Samples will be taken simultaneously on a 10m grid, across the delta, then stored in sealed tubes and returned to the University for analysis. At the same time as physical sampling, measurements will be made with acoustic and laser devices to determine in-situ suspended sediment load at depths of 0.2m, 0.5m, 1m, 1.5m and 2m from the surface. The satellite reflectance measurements will be calibrated against the in-situ field measurements of sediment load. These sediment data will then be integrated into a three dimensional hydrodynamic model of the Mississippi River delta with the aim of developing improved sediment transport models for complex stratified estuarine flows.
Reason for being poor: A little too much information. It provides the application / use of the research, some information on the type of satellite and measurements being made, which is helpful. However too much information is provided on how the research will be carried out and when. It may be useful to know the type of satellite data, that field sediment measurements are being taken and compared against reflectance, but information on 10m grids, scanning data, depth measurements, etc, may be unnecessary.
[1] EEA Countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, UK