2017 Natural Sciences offers and NSAA results

The request was partially successful.

Michael Rawsthorne

Dear University of Cambridge,

Please provide (in Excel and PDF format) the following information for each Natural Sciences applicant for 2017 entry. This does not include applicants to mature colleges who applied after the 15 October deadline.

- College of application (or allocated college if an Open application)
- Predicted grades
- Achieved A-level results (for post A-level candidates)
- Result for each part/section of the NSAA, insofar as this is held by the University - preferably, the parts chosen and score in each for Section 1, and the question numbers chosen and mark in each for Section 2, although I appreciate that some of this information may not be held.
- Whether a direct offer was made (yes/no)
- Whether the applicant was pooled (yes/no)
- Whether the applicant received a pool offer (yes/no)
- If the applicant received a offer, the college which made the offer

Yours faithfully,

Michael Rawsthorne

FOI, University of Cambridge

This is to acknowledge receipt of your request for information. Your reference number is given in the subject line of this email. We will respond on or before 3 April 2017.

Regards,

Freedom of Information Office
University of Cambridge
Registrary's Office, The Old Schools
Trinity Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1TN
T: (01223 7)64142
F: (01223 3)32332
E: [email address]

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FOI, University of Cambridge

2 Attachments

Further to your request for information, please find attached the University’s response.

Regards,

Freedom of Information Office
University of Cambridge
Registrary's Office, The Old Schools
Trinity Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1TN
T: (01223 7)64142
F: (01223 3)32332
E: [email address]

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Michael Rawsthorne

Dear Dr Knapton,

Thank you for the data. I appreciate the reason why it has not been possible to provide the information in exactly the format asked for. It is not my intention to allow any individual student to be identified.

Would it be possible to provide the data in the originally requested form (with all the data on one row for each applicant) but omitting the names of the Colleges? I note that the University has provided similar information several times before, e.g. in response to requests FOI-2016-119, FOI-2017-19 and FOI-2017-29, all of which are available to view on the WhatDoTheyKnow website.

Only if this is still not possible, could you please instead add the columns 'Placed in Winter Pool' (Y/N) and 'Offer' (Y/N) to the tables which do not currently have this information (Predicted Grades, Post Qual AL Results, Pre-Interview Assessments).

Yours sincerely,

Michael Rawsthorne

FOI, University of Cambridge

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Rawsthorne,

Thank you for your email of 2 April 2017, which we have treated as an extension of your original request FOI-2017-128. Your right to request a review remains as set out in our response letter dated 31 March 2017.

As some data has already been placed into the public domain which includes College names, we consider that we cannot now supply the data in the format you have requested without the risk of the datasets being compared and (at least for some applicants) the College being derived from the other fields and some individuals consequently being identified. We are nonetheless prepared to add the columns entitled "Pooled (Winter Pool)", "Winter Pool Offer" and "Offer from First College" into the three tables you list below and the relevant revised sheets of the Excel workbook are attached. The previous explanatory notes refer.

Regards,

Freedom of Information Office
University of Cambridge
Registrary's Office, The Old Schools
Trinity Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1TN
T: (01223 7)64142
F: (01223 3)32332
E: [email address]

show quoted sections