PSYCAS program participation agreement

• Eligible programs together with the institutions or entities in which they are housed must enter and agree to be bound by this Agreement (hereafter this Agreement refers to both eligible programs and the institutions in which they are housed as “Participants”).
• Participants may access and use PSYCAS solely for the purpose of receiving, processing, and considering applications for admission and related materials.
• Applications, including personal information and data, are specific to the Participant and are nontransferable.
• PSYCAS Participants may have access to personal data of applicants, and as a condition of accessing PSYCAS agree:
  (a) to comply with all applicable laws, including without limitation European Union General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), applicable state data privacy laws and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and its implementing regulations;
  (b) to restrict access to personnel who have duties related to application processing and review;
  (c) to ensure that none of the Participant’s personnel shall obtain and/or use any information from PSCYAS for any reasons outside of the purposes of processing applications submitted through PSYCAS;
  (d) to keep all user information and security measures confidential;
  (e) to deactivate immediately the credentials of any personnel who no longer have a business need or authority to access PSYCAS; and
  (f) take reasonable measures to prevent unauthorized access to, or use of, PSYCAS or information.
• Participants acknowledge and agree that APA and Liaison’s role with respect to the applications and other documents (collectively the “Application Materials”) being made available by Participant to its applicants and potential applicants through the application services is to provide the software and hosting services by which such Application Materials are made available to Participant and its applicants and potential applicants. APA and Liaison shall not be responsible for the content of any Application Materials, including without limitation any questions asked of applicants or other requests for information (collectively “Content”). Inclusion of Content in any Application Materials shall be Participant’s sole responsibility and shall not be deemed in any way to indicate APA or Liaison’s acceptance or approval of such Content. Participant shall be solely liable for, and APA and Liaison disclaim all liability with respect to, all Content.
• Without limiting the generality of the foregoing bullet regarding Content generally, Participants acknowledge and agree that Program Materials of the PSYCAS application provides an opportunity for Participants to ask program-specific questions and to request program-specific information of applicants. APA and Liaison do not vet, approve, or exercise any editorial control over any Content or Program Materials. Participants bear sole responsibility for Program Materials, including, without limitation, the lawfulness of any Content related to an applicant’s background, disciplinary history, or criminal history. Participant represents and warrants that every Content item that it requests to include in Program Materials is lawful under applicable law (including, without limitation, federal and state law), and Participant further acknowledges and agrees that Participant shall be solely liable for, and APA and Liaison disclaim all liability with respect to, Program Materials.
• Participants warrant, represent, and agree that they will not use PSYCAS in a manner that (i) infringes, violates or misappropriates another's intellectual property rights, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, rights of publicity or privacy, or other rights; (ii) violates any international, federal, state or local law, statute, ordinance or regulation or that would cause APA to violate any applicable laws or regulations; (iii) is harmful, fraudulent, threatening, abusive, discriminatory, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, or otherwise objectionable; or (iv) jeopardizes the security of Participant’s account or the Liaison platform in any way, such as allowing someone else access to a Participant’s account or password. Additionally, Participants represent, warrant, and agree that (i) they possess all rights necessary to enter into this Agreement on their behalf; and (ii) they will continue to comply with applicable law in connection with their use of PSYCAS.
• Participant agrees to send at least one staff member with management responsibilities for the program or for maintaining the program’s listing in PSYCAS to the ‘live’ yearly “PSYCAS Essentials” webinar(s) at the start of the cycle year in order to learn about any changes related to the current cycle and to ask questions on behalf of the team. Participant also agrees to encourage all individuals who will utilize PSYCAS in their program to attend the “PSYCAS Essentials” webinar(s) or to view the recording after-the-fact so that the whole team is up-to- date on changes in the new cycle.

PSYCAS is provided “as is,” and no representation or warranty is made by the APA and the APA will not be responsible for any losses or damages incurred through or related to use of PSYCAS. Participants waive all rights to assert or support claims against the APA or any service providers related to PSYCAS. An applicants’ use of PSYCAS does not create or imply endorsement by APA.

For graduate psychology programs participants

• Doctoral programs Participants agree to abide by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) April 15 Resolutionopens in new window.
• Doctoral program Programs will process only those applicants who have been “verified” to the school (this does not include delivered applicants).
• Participant agrees to process and render a final decision on all graduate-level applications received through PSYCAS. Participant is required to report at least one final status for each verified application it receives by September 30th following each cycle’s closure.
• Participant will use PSYCAS as its sole application for enrollment and cloud-based admissions processing solution for its respective graduate program(s) which opt to participate in PSYCAS.
• Programs will report any known violations of the Applicant Code of Conduct and Cooperation to PSYCAS.

For PSYCAS 

PSYCAS facilitates the admissions process for applicants and institutions/schools/departments/ programs of psychology by providing:

• A secure, web-based application and applicant portal;
• Access to a secure, web-based admissions portal for program-specific applicant data and electronic applicant files;
• Accurate, timely, and comprehensive applicant data;
• Dedicated customer support for applicants, advisors, and programs; and
• A mechanism for admissions management.