Dr James Knapton
Information Compliance Officer
Miss Alexander
By email
Reference: FOI-2013-88
16 April 2013
Dear Miss Alexander,
Your request was received on 18 March 2013 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 (‘the Act’).
You asked:
“My enquiry relates to the Cambridge A101 Graduate Medicine course. I would like to know,
year by year, covering the period 2007-2013 (or 2007-2012 if 2013 figures are not yet
available).
1) The number of applications to this course from individuals who undertook undergraduate
study at ‘Oxbridge’ (The University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge)
2) The number of acceptances to this course from individuals who who undertook
undergraduate study at Oxbridge
3) The number of applications to this course from individuals who undertook undergraduate
study at Russell Group universities (as detailed here: http://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/our-
universities.aspx)
4) The number of acceptances to this course from individuals who undertook undergraduate
study at Russell Group universities
5) The number of applications to this course from individuals who undertook undergraduate
study at all other UK Higher Education institutions
6) The number of acceptances to this course from individuals who undertook undergraduate
study at all other UK Higher Education institutions
7) The total number of applications to this course for these years
8) The total number of acceptances to this course for these years”.
The information you have requested in questions 7 and 8 is published on our website at:
http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/apply/statistics/
The Old Schools
Trinity Lane
Cambridge, CB2 1TN
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 764142
Fax: +44 (0) 1223 332332
Email: xxx@xxxxx.xxx.xx.xx
www.cam.ac.uk
The information you have requested in questions 1 to 6, while held by the University, is refused under
section 12(1) of the Act. Applicants are able to enter the name of their previous educational
establishment in one of two free text boxes; this is particularly common with those applying for the
Cambridge Graduate Course in Medicine where applicants are not normally applying from a registered
UCAS ‘Apply Centre’ (i.e. a school or college). The information entered in these boxes accordingly is
highly inconsistent. In order to ascertain the information you seek, the University would need to
manually review each individual application to definitively ascertain and confirm the previous higher
education institution of the applicant and to match it to your various categories. We have estimated that
this process would take approximately 10 minutes per application. As you can see from the statistics
published at the above webpage, in each of the years you ask about there has been in excess of 150
applications and for many there has been in excess of 200. Therefore, at a conservative estimate, it
would take 25 hours to generate accurate data for one year. The University accordingly has estimated
that the time required to locate, retrieve and extract the information you have requested would
considerably surpass 18 hours of staff time charged at £25 per hour, and therefore that your request
exceeds the appropriate limit of £450 as set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection
(Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a
complaint or request an internal review of this decision, you should write to Dr Kirsty Allen, Head of the
Registrary’s Office, quoting the reference above, at The Old Schools, Trinity Lane, Cambridge, CB2
1TN or send an email marked for her attention to xxx@xxxxx.xxx.xx.xx. The University would normally
expect to receive your request for an internal review within 40 working days of the date of this letter and
reserves the right not to review a decision where there has been undue delay in raising a complaint. If
you are not content with the outcome of your review, you may apply directly to the Information
Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless
you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the University. The Information
Commissioner may be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water
Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF (http://www.ico.gov.uk/).
Yours sincerely,
James Knapton
