Research for Staff & Students
PG Skills Courses - Using the Booking system
In guide explains how to:
- find a course
- book on to a course
- manage your booking
- cancel a place on a course or waiting list
- view or print a record of courses you have attended
and provides guidance on:
You can also print a pdf guide to the course booking system. 
Finding a course
To find a PGSkills course, go to the courses homepage. From there, you can browse or search for courses in five different ways:
- A-Z. If you know the name of the course, use the A-Z option to go to an alphabetised list of course names. Click on the course name for further details and to book a place.
- What's On. This is a list of courses prganised by date, just scroll down to the week you are interested in to see what's happening.
- Search. If you know part of the course name or want to search for a keyword, us the search option on the courses homepage. Enter a word or phrase to search through the list of courses.
- Browse by category. If you are looking for a course in a particular skills category e.g. Communication Skills, then use list of courses ordered by skills category. The courses are ordered under the appropriate JSS skills category.
- Browse by target audience. The final search is courses that are specifically recommended for students with a particular mode of study e.g. part time, or perhaps from a particular discipline e.g. social sciences.
Booking a course
To book a place on a course, view the course description by clicking on the course title. At the bottom of the course description you will see dates and times for all occurrences of the course. Next to the date, you can click to register for that particular occurrence. This will take you to a booking screen where you will need to enter your BUCS username and password. The following screen will confirm your personal details and then you will go on to confirm your place on the course if there is availability. If there are no places available you will be asked if you wish to join the waiting list.
Following your booking you will receive an email confirmation which will remind you of the course name, date, time location and details of any pre-course preparation (if applicable). It will also tell you about the cancellation policy and procedure.
You will also be sent a pre-course reminder one week and again two days before the course starts.
Managing your booking
You can view and manage your course bookings via SAMIS. Once you have logged in to SAMIS you will see an area for PGSkills courses. If you have not used your BUCS username to register for a course, please note that it will not appear on your SAMIS record and you should email us at pgskills@bath.ac.uk to arrange to have your bookings transferred to your BUCS account.
In SAMIS you will be able to view:
- a list of courses for which you have booked a place, along with the date and time, and an option to cancel the booking
- a printable record of your attendance at courses
- a list of courses for which you are on the waiting list, with the option to remove yourself from the waiting list
Cancelling your place on a course or waiting list
Up to 24 hours before the course:
You will be able to cancel your place on a course up to 24 hours before the course starts via SAMIS.
Once you have logged in to SAMIS, go to the PGSkills course area and view the list of courses that you are booked on to. If you have not used your BUCS username to register for a course, please note that it will not appear on your SAMIS record and you should email us at pgskills@bath.ac.uk to arrange to have your bookings transferred to your BUCS account.
Within the list on SAMIS, against each course, there will be an option to cancel your booking. Click the link and confirm your cancellation. You will then be sent an email to confirm the cancellation.
Less than 24 hours before the course:
If there are less than 24 hours before the course starts, you will not be able to cancel your booking online and your department may have to pay for you place if it can not be filled.
If you find that you can not attend less than 24 hours before the course starts, please inform us immediately by phoning x4753 or emailing pgskills@bath.ac.uk.
View or print a record of courses that you have attended
Once you have attended one or more courses, you will be able to view a record of these courses online and, if you wish, print off a certificate to confirm your attendance.
Please note that the course may take up to a week (possibly longer for elearning modules) to appear on your record.
To do this, you will need to log in to SAMIS and go to the PGSkills section and click on the link to the certificate of attendance. The form can then be printed from the browser. Please note that it will take a few days for courses that you have attended to appear on the list and elearning courses may take a few weeks to appear.
If you do not use your BUCS username and password to book courses, they will not show on your SAMIS account. If this happens, please email pgskills@bath.ac.uk to arrange for your bookings to be transferred to your BUCS account.
Failure to attend courses
Failure to attend a course without prior notice prevents others from attending and incurs a cost to the university for the trainer, materials and, where applicable, room hire and catering. It may also affect the activities that can take place on the course and affect the learning for other participants.
A record will be kept of all students who book a place but then fail to attend a course without more than 24 hours notice. If a student repeatedly fails to attend a course without giving notice, their name will be placed on a list which will be sent to their Head of Department or Director of Studies.
Cancellation Policy
If you are unable to attend the course, you must give more than 24 hours notice by cancelling the booking. Instructions for cancelling bookings are given above.
If there are less than 24 hours before the course starts, you will be unable to cancel your booking through the website and will have to notify the PGSkills team directly on pgskills@bath.ac.uk or x4753.
Failure to give notice more than 24 hours before the course starts will prevent the place being offered to people on the waiting list and wastes valuable resources.Waiting Lists
If you try to book a place on a course that is fully booked, you will be offered a place on the waiting list for that course.
Once you are on the waiting list, you will receive an email if a place(s) becomes available on the course. You will then be asked to book yourself on to the course again. Places will be offered to everyone on the waiting list on a first-come, first-served basis.
If you no longer need or wish to be on the waiting list, please cancel your place as soon as possible. Instructions for cancelling can be found above.