The university teamed up with SR Communications, which used its HP Indigo 3050 press and variable data publishing technology to draw information on applicants and their preferred courses, and generate prospectuses customised to individuals' needs.

As well as the cut in page count, postage costs are also reduced and an exact number of prospectuses are produced, which eliminates waste. In total, each personalised prospectus saved the university 30 per cent on the standard cost.

There are 168 universities and colleges in the UK and last academic year, 390,890 students applied for places, according to the association Universities UK. Each of these applied for places in a number of institutions.

However, Anglia Ruskin University e-marketing executive Rebecca Bowerman told printweek.com that the university won't be working with other institutions to share the idea. "It's very competitive out there," she said. "It's given us an edge. To tell our rivals would be shooting ourselves in the foot."

Currently, the university is unique in personalised prospectuses. UCAS communications executive Byron Price said he hadn't heard of anyone else using the same idea.

A spokesman for Universities UK said other institutions "are being very innovative, giving people USB sticks, putting stuff online and using social networking sites".

Anglia Ruskin also offers prospectuses in PDF format, but print is not likely to be replaced. "It's their shop window," added the spokesman. Bowerman said that despite the option to receive prospectuses in digital format, only 27 per cent of applicants chose to do so; the remainder preferred print.

 In such a hard-fought environment, institutions are looking for ways to attract applicants. Printers that offer these personalisation services will prove attractive. A spokesperson for HP said personalised mail and marketing push response rates to around 20% compared to standards forms that generate a 1-2% response.

"Someone came to us about this saying this is what we can do," said Bowerman, describing how the partnership with SR Communications first germinated.

She added: "We print 80,000 undergraduate prospectuses a year and will still have to produce some full versions. However, with just 60 pages instead of 196, we estimate that we will save 80p for every new-style prospectus we create and this is only a start.

"Now the technology is available, we hope to further tailor-make the information we provide to out prospective students."