verification of degree qualifications

Dear Mr Fawcett,

Thank you for you FOI request concerning verification of degree
qualifications. This has now been passed to the relevant department for
consideration.

The University of Sheffield always endeavours to respond to requests as
soon as is practicable, but as you are probably aware, twenty working
days are allowed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for reply. In
this case that will be by Wednesday 27 May.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Forrester,
FOI Compliance Manager.

Neil Fawcett said the following on 27/04/2009 13:51:

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--
Richard Forrester,
FOI Compliance Manager,
Dept of Corporate Information & Computing Services,
University of Sheffield,
285 Glossop Road,
Sheffield. S10 2HB.

Dear Mr Fawcett,

I am writing further to my acknowledgement of your FOI request of 27
April 2009 to the University of Sheffield regarding verification of
degree qualifications.

Qs 1-3.

Full details of the award of all degrees, diplomas and certificates can
be found for each of these years (and back to 2001) at the following web
site:

http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/sheffield/cus...

The default year is currently 2008, but if you click on the down arrow
beside '2008' immediately under the heading 'Examination Performance'
and select the year in which you are interested, then click on 'Go', the
full figures for the relevant year will appear.

Since this information is readily available to the public, the
University is not obliged to provide actual figures for this part of
your request under the provisions of S21 of the Act (Information
accessible to applicant by other means).

Qs 4-6

Figures for such enquiries have only recently begun to be collected by
our Student Services department on a formal basis with the result that
only the figures for 2008 are actually held. We have therefore provided
estimated figures for the earlier years which we hope will be of assistance:

2006: 1,200 (estimate)
2007: 1,400 (estimate)
2008: 2,071

These figures are based on requests we have received to our Student
Services Information Desk by fax from outside agencies and individuals
such as employment agencies, prospective employers, other universities,
embassies, local authorities, etc. They do not include requests from the
former students themselves. I have also been asked to point out that it
is possible that additional enquiries have been made directly to
individual academic departments who have answered an enquiry themselves
and not referred the enquiry to the Information Desk, but no formal
records are held regarding such enquiries and total numbers for the
University as a whole may therefore be a little higher than we are able
to represent here.

I trust this answers your request as satisfactorily as we are able, but
I am required under the Freedom of Information Act to inform you that if
you have cause for genuine complaint regarding the way your request for
information has been handled under the provisions of the Act, you should
write to the FOI Unit, University of Sheffield, 285 Glossop Road,
Sheffield S10 2HB or email [University of Sheffield request email] explaining why you are
not satisfied with the result.

Your complaint will then be the subject of a full Administrative Review
by the FOI Unit followed, if appropriate, by referral to the Complaints
Panel of the University FOI Group for further consideration. If you
still remain unsatisfied with the University's decision, you will be
entitled to complain to The Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Forrester,
FOI Compliance Manager.

Neil Fawcett said the following on 27/04/2009 13:51:

show quoted sections

--
Richard Forrester,
FOI Compliance Manager,
Dept of Corporate Information & Computing Services,
University of Sheffield,
285 Glossop Road,
Sheffield. S10 2HB.