Built For Colleges
Applicants ask the same questions every year — entry requirements, fees, open days, finance, accommodation. FastBots learns your prospectus and website once, then answers those questions day or night. When a question needs a real adviser, it captures the enquiry and passes it to your admissions team.
Providing AI Chatbots to Trusted Brands Around The World
Quick Answers
A college chatbot is a chat assistant on your website that answers prospective students' questions about courses, entry requirements, open days, finance and student support. FastBots trains the assistant on your own prospectus and website pages, so the answers reflect what your college actually offers — not generic advice.
It answers the everyday questions admissions teams field on repeat — entry requirements for specific courses, T-level and apprenticeship options, application deadlines, term dates, fees, student finance, accommodation and access courses. Anything that lives on your website or in a document you upload can become an answer.
No. It handles the repetitive front-line questions so your admissions advisers can focus on applicants who need real support — pathway choices, complex finance situations, international applications. When the bot can't answer or the question needs judgement, it collects contact details or hands the chat to a person.
Yes, for general course and English-requirement questions, and it speaks around 95 languages. For visa and immigration questions it should signpost applicants to your official international office or registered immigration adviser — FastBots is an information tool, not a substitute for regulated advice.
Why FastBots
Most prospective students browse course pages in the evening or at weekends. The chatbot handles their questions when admissions is closed, so they don't drift off to another college.
Crawl your course pages, upload the prospectus PDF and add term-time FAQs. Answers reflect your courses, entry grades and pathways — not a generic AI guess.
The lead form asks for name, email, intended course and start year. Those details land in your inbox so admissions can follow up with the right prospectus and open-day invite.
FastBots works as an AI agent for routine questions — and when an applicant asks about something complex like care-leaver bursaries or a specific apprenticeship vacancy, it gathers their details and routes them to your team.
International prospects can ask about English requirements or course fees in their own language. Helpful for outreach to families and agents overseas.
On the Business plan and above, an admissions adviser can take over the chat in real time during deadline weeks, results day or open days — without the applicant having to start a new enquiry.
On Business plan and above, the bot revisits your selected course and policy pages daily, weekly or monthly, so updated entry requirements or fee changes flow through automatically.
Set guardrails so the bot won't promise specific grade offers, course places or visa outcomes. It signposts to admissions or the international office instead of guessing.
Real Scenarios
Applicants ask what GCSEs or A-levels they need for a specific course. The bot pulls the answer from your published course pages and explains alternative pathways if they're short.
Many 16-year-olds are confused about the options. The chatbot explains the differences in plain English using your own pathway content, then captures details so a careers adviser can follow up.
Share dates, times and what to expect, then collect name, email and intended subject area so the events team can send the booking link and a reminder.
Answer general questions about tuition loans, 16–19 bursaries and free meals from your finance page. For individual eligibility decisions, the bot hands the applicant to your finance team.
Cover whether you offer student accommodation, partner halls or travel passes, and link to the relevant pages. Capture details from applicants who want a callback from housing.
Tell applicants where to apply, the upcoming deadlines and what documents to have ready. Capture leads for anyone who hasn't applied yet so admissions can chase them gently.
Returning learners ask different questions — evening classes, Access to HE diplomas, childcare. The bot can serve them the right information without sending them through a teen-focused funnel.
Answer general questions about international fees, English-language requirements and entry equivalents. Direct visa and immigration questions to your official international office.
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Sound Like It Would Save Admissions Some Time?
Free plan, no credit card. Build your first chatbot in minutes.
Setup
Give FastBots your domain and it crawls your course pages, prospectus, fees, open days and student support sections. Pick which pages to include and which to leave out.
House voice
Friendly and practical. Speak to 16–18 year olds and adult learners in plain English. Never promise a course place or specific grade offer. For visa, finance eligibility or safeguarding questions, hand the applicant to the right team.
Add custom instructions — don't promise grade offers, don't give visa advice, always signpost finance questions to the bursary team. Set what to do when the bot doesn't know something.
Add the embed snippet to your site or drop it in through your CMS. The chat widget appears on every page, ready for applicants and parents.
Honest Comparison
When applicant enquiries pile up, most colleges weigh up three options: hiring more admissions staff, a generic web form, or a chatbot trained on the college's own content. Here's how FastBots compares.
FastBots From $39 / month | Extra Admissions Staff Salary cost | Generic Web Form Free with website | |
|---|---|---|---|
Available Outside Office Hours Evenings, weekends, results day | Yes, 24/7 | Office hours only | Form sits unanswered |
Answers Course Questions Instantly Entry requirements, fees, deadlines | Yes, from your site | Yes, when available | No — applicant waits |
Trained On Your Prospectus Course pages, fees, open days | Yes | Through training | N/A |
Captures Applicant Details Name, course, start year | Built-in lead form | Manually logged | Basic form fields |
Human Handover For Complex Cases Pathway, finance, international | Live Chat on Business plan | Yes | No conversation |
Speaks Around 95 Languages Useful for international outreach | Yes | Depends on staff | Single language |
Comparison reflects typical alternatives. Other tools may differ — always check current pricing and features before deciding.
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Try It Free On Your Own Course Pages
Free plan, no credit card. Build your first chatbot in minutes.
As an automation school, the best way I’ve found to impress visitors is with FastBots. It turns our site into a live demo of what smart, AI-powered automation should feel like. Visitors ask: “Who built this?!” We did—with FastBots.
Got Questions?
The ones we hear most before teams sign up. If yours isn’t here, our support team replies within hours during business days.
No, and it shouldn't. It handles the repetitive questions — entry requirements, open day dates, how to apply, fees — so your admissions advisers spend their time on applicants who need real guidance. Complex pathway, finance or safeguarding conversations should always reach a person.
Not natively. The chatbot lives on your website and answers questions from your content. It can capture an applicant's name, email and intended course, then send that to admissions through email or a Zapier/Make workflow into your admissions CRM. The applicant still completes their formal application through your existing UCAS or direct route.
You configure a fallback. Most colleges set the bot to say it's not sure, offer to take the applicant's details, and signpost the right team. Unanswered questions show up in your dashboard so you can add the correct answer for next time.
It can share general information from your finance and international pages — fee bands, what student finance covers, English-language requirements. It shouldn't give individual eligibility decisions or visa advice. Set guardrails so it signposts to your finance team or registered immigration adviser for anything specific.
Most colleges have a working version in around an hour. The crawl picks up your course pages and prospectus quickly. The time you spend is on writing the house rules — what the bot should and shouldn't say — and reviewing test conversations before going live.
FastBots stores chat history and any lead form details so your team can review them. Treat captured applicant data the same as any other enquiry under your existing privacy policy — make sure your chatbot's lead form copy reflects that. FastBots states its data handling is GDPR compliant.
On the Business plan and above, you can switch on auto-retrain so selected pages are revisited daily, weekly or monthly. Useful when entry requirements, fee bands or open day dates change between cycles.
Yes, on the Business plan ($89/month) and above. Live Chat lets an admissions adviser claim a conversation, see what's been asked already, and reply in real time. Handy during clearing, results day and the run-up to deadlines.
There's a free plan with 1 chatbot and 50 messages a month — enough to build and test a version on your course pages. Paid plans start at $39/month for two chatbots and 2,000 messages. Live Chat, auto-retrain and email replies are on the Business plan at $89/month.
Yes, FastBots supports around 95 languages. Helpful for international applicants and parents who'd rather ask in their own language. The bot will answer from your trained content; for visa or immigration specifics it should always signpost to your international office.
Train it on your prospectus and course pages, test it on real applicant questions, and only upgrade when you're ready to put it live.
