The guided pass

If you have an account but have not enrolled in anything yet, the portal offers a short guided pass at /start. A banner on the page you are already looking at points you to it; you can wave it away, and it disappears by itself once you hold an enrolment.

Step 1 — pick a field. The same list of academic fields the application form offers.

Step 2 — read the recommendation, then apply. One page carrying:

• the programme to start with. It is chosen by the same eligibility rule the application itself enforces, so the wizard can never suggest something the next click would refuse. Where a field offers both a master's and a doctoral track, it recommends the deepest one you may actually enter.
• the degree. You may still choose the other depth. A depth that is not open to you is shown with the reason it is not, rather than offered and then refused.
• your pace, if pacing is switched on — see Your study pace in the student handbook. It is optional, private to you, and locks nothing.
• the consent boxes and the submit.

It is a front door, not a side door

The wizard's final button submits the ordinary application. Everything that happens next is exactly what happens when you apply from /apply or from a catalogue card: your email and phone must be verified, both policy boxes must be ticked, the eligibility rule is re-checked on the server, and a professor of the programme reviews the application. Nothing is waived or shortened because you came in this way.

If nothing in the field you picked is open to you yet, the wizard says so and links you to the exception request rather than showing you a button that would be refused.

If it is not there

The wizard is a switched feature (onboarding.enabled) and ships off. While it is off there is no banner and /start is not found — you apply from the catalogue or from /apply, exactly as before. Nothing about how you enrol depends on the wizard existing.