INFORMATION COMPLIANCE TEAM
University Offices, Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JD
Ref. FOI/20200814/1
14 September 2020
Reply to request for information under the Freedom of Information Act
Your ref
Your email of 14 August 2020
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000,I kindly request you to release the statistics of
Chemistry applicants for the 2019-2020 UCAS cycles, for the fol owing col eges: Worcester,
_
Keble, Pembroke, Corpus Christi, and Christ Church. Please clearly separate each col ege's
data.
Request
*Number of A*s predicted (if taking A levels) *Number of total applicants *Whether the
applicant was invited to interview *Individual score for each interview *Admission assessment
scores (TSA) *Number of GCSEs at A*and A *Whether they were offered a place or pooled
*Number of international applicants *Number of international applicants offered a place
Dear Mr Smith,
I write in reply to your email of 14 August requesting the above information.
The information you have requested is in the attached spreadsheet.
Your request is for detailed individual level data. We consider that disclosure of this information in the form
requested might enable those with access to other information or knowledge to identify individuals and learn
new information about those individuals. For this reason, we have taken the fol owing measures to reduce the
risk of identification:
We have provided information for the two year period as a whole, rather than separately for each
year.
The information has been divided into separate worksheets.
Each worksheet has been sorted independently, so that information from different worksheets
cannot be cross-referenced.
In taking these measures, we are applying the exemption in section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA). Section 40(2) provides an exemption from disclosure for information that is the personal data of an
individual other than the requester, where disclosure would breach any of the data protection principles in
Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We consider that disclosure of the information
requested in the exact form requested would breach the first data protection principle, which requires that
personal data is processed lawful y, fairly and in a transparent manner. Disclosure would be unfair to the
individuals concerned, as it would be contrary to their reasonable and legitimate expectations. They would not
reasonably expect that information about their performance at GCSE, admissions test, interview or other
information relating to their application to Oxford would be made public under the FOIA without their consent.
For the disclosure of personal data to be lawful, it must have a lawful basis under Article 6 of the GDPR. There
are six possible lawful bases in Article 6; we do not consider that any of them would be satisfied in respect of
the disclosure.
2
The exemption in section 40(2) is an absolute exemption and is not subject to the public interest test provided
for in section 2(2)(b) of the FOIA. To the extent that the public interest is relevant in this case, the University
considers it is satisfied by the information provided.
INTERNAL REVIEW
If you are dissatisfied with this reply, you may ask the University to review it, by e-mailing the Head of
Information Compliance
at xxx@xxxxx.xx.xx.xx. A request for internal review should be submitted no later than
40 working days from the date of this letter.
THE INFORMATION COMMISSIONER
If, after the internal review, you are stil dissatisfied, you have the right under FOIA to apply to the Information
Commissioner for a decision as to whether your request has been dealt with in accordance with the FOIA. You
can do this online using th
e Information Commissioner’s complaints portal.
Yours sincerely
Information Compliance Team