Despite the large collection of thesis classes available, there are
always features that an institution needs which can better be met by
writing Yet Another Thesis Class. There are also variations in the
quality and availability of documentation, assumptions about preloaded
packages, and the ease (or otherwise) with which the author can modify
the layout.
In the case of UCC, the official requirements were very simple,
avoiding the tendency to overspecify details found in some university
formats. The class was also required to be generally applicable to any
discipline, so only a minimum of packages was needed (although this
turned out to be more than anticipated).
The major component was an attempt to automate as much of the front
matter as possible, based on options to tokenize the discipline and
class of degree. This was done to avoid accidental omissions,
variations, and misspellings in the titling (or even deliberate
rewording); and to ensure that the relevant compulsory components
appeared in the right place without the author having to do anything.
The result has been piloted with 20--30 PhD candidates for a year, and
needs only a few final changes before release. Two other institutions
in the state have already expressed an interest in basing their own
thesis classes on this one.