Institutional Access is a set of passes that let a school, department or university enter students into UNI competitions in bulk, with mentor seats and faculty tools alongside the entries.
It is a different product from the Institutional membership, which is an individual plan. If you are buying for one person, you want the membership. If you are buying for a class, a studio or a whole faculty, you want Institutional Access.
What it is for
Institutional Access exists so a studio or a course can run a UNI competition as coursework. Students work on a live international brief instead of a purely hypothetical one, and their work is judged alongside entries from other countries by the same jury.
For a teaching institution that means:
- A brief that runs to a fixed, published schedule the studio calendar can be planned around.
- Students measured against international peers rather than only against their own cohort.
- Mentor seats, so faculty can follow entries through to submission.
- Certificates and results the institution can point to afterwards.
How the passes are sold
There are four levels, each covering a fixed number of entries usable across a capped number of different competitions you choose:
| Plan | Price | Entries | Competitions | Term |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department | $499 | 12 | up to 3 | per semester |
| School | $1,499 | 50 | up to 6 | per year |
| University | $3,999 | 150 | unlimited | per year |
| Network | Custom | Custom | unlimited | annual partnership |
The higher levels also add mentor seats and reporting tools. Entering a competition your pass has already used never counts against the competition cap.
If your institution needs more entries than one pass allows, you can buy more than one pass and split the entries between groups as you like, within the team size the competition itself permits.
Getting verified
Institutional Access includes a check that you are who you say you are:
- Register, preferably from the mentor's account. Registering on a mentor's behalf is allowed.
- Use an official university email address if you have one, which verifies the institution automatically. Otherwise there is a short documentation step.
- Once your documents have been received, activation can take up to two working days.
Before you buy
- An Institutional Access pass is non-refundable and non-transferable. Read the competition details in full first.
- You cannot buy an Institutional Access category with membership entries. It has to be paid for directly, even if you hold a membership with entries remaining.
For anything about documentation or activation, contact the UNI team.
More on the plans is in Institutional Access plans, and the sign-up walkthrough is in Registering with Institutional Access.
Before you pay anything, get your entry allowance, term and start date confirmed in writing by the UNI team. The plan cards on the public pricing page are not a contract, and a plan bought without confirmation cannot be adjusted after checkout. Ask first, pay second.