A100 Medicine Personal Statements

The request was partially successful.

Dear University of Nottingham,

1) I would like to kindly request the list of criteria used to assess the personal statements of candidates for the A100 medicine course for 2016/17, 2017/18 entry and 2018/19 entry if this has been created.

2) How are personal statements scored? Is it a score out of 10 for each criteria or anything along these lines?

3) I would also like to request any scoring or grading system used to assess personal statements and if a form or such is provided to
admissions staff to score personal statements and record this score I would also like to kindly request this.

All above requests are specific to the medicine A100 course for 2016/17, 2017/18 entry and 2018/19 entry if this has been created yet.

Yours faithfully,

ismaeel

Br-Freedom-Of-Information, University of Nottingham

Dear Ismaeel

Thank you for your request for information regarding A100 Medicine personal statements.

Before we are able to proceed with your request, please could you confirm your full name. Under the Act, we are not obliged to respond to your request without this information, see guidance on page 7:
https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...

Unfortunately it will not be possible to comply with your request without this additional information.

We will respond to your request within twenty working days from the date of receiving the clarification requested.

I hope that this is of help. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any enquiries regarding this email.

Yours sincerely,
Karen Page

Information Compliance Officer – Freedom of Information
Registrar’s Department

Web: www.nottingham.ac.uk/freedom-of-informat...
Email: [University of Nottingham request email]

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Ismaeel Zia

Br-Freedom-Of-Information, University of Nottingham

Dear Ismaeel

Thank you for your request for clarifying your full name.

We will respond to your request within twenty working days. Please note this is calculated from the following working day from receipt of your clarification.

I hope that this is of help. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any enquiries regarding this email.

Yours sincerely,
Karen Page

Information Compliance Officer – Freedom of Information
Registrar’s Department

Web: www.nottingham.ac.uk/freedom-of-informat...
Email: [University of Nottingham request email]

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Br-Freedom-Of-Information, University of Nottingham

1 Attachment

Dear Ismaeel

I am writing further to your request for information regarding A100 Medicine personal statements. A search of our electronic and paper records has been completed and I can confirm that the information requested is held by the University.

In answer to your request:

All above requests are specific to the medicine A100 course for 2016/17, 2017/18 entry and 2018/19 entry if this has been created yet.

1) I would like to kindly request the list of criteria used to assess the personal statements of candidates for the A100 medicine course for 2016/17, 2017/18 entry and 2018/19 entry if this has been created.

2) How are personal statements scored? Is it a score out of 10 for each criteria or anything along these lines?

We consider that the current information you have requested for questions 1 and 2 is exempt under section 21(1) of the Freedom of Information Act as it is publicly available on our website: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/medicine/st...

As you can see from the link, personal statements are on longer scored but were scored out of a total of 16 in previous years.

The School of Medicine did not provide a list of criteria in previous years.

3) I would also like to request any scoring or grading system used to assess personal statements and if a form or such is provided to admissions staff to score personal statements and record this score I would also like to kindly request this.

Information regarding the scoring system cannot be provided as it would be deemed likely to prejudice the commercial interests of the University, under Section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and would allow some candidates an unfair advantage when attending interview. The interview questions are re-used and release would undermine confidence in the admissions process. In considering your request, we have applied the public interest test and have concluded that whilst there is some public interest in disclosure, it is outweighed by the strong public interest in applying the exemption. It is in the public’s interest that universities can ensure that candidates are given an equal opportunity when applying for their courses. The University very much acknowledges that there is a public interest in applicants being able to prepare for interviews and understand the interview process, however, we consider this interest to be met by the information already available on our website (see link above).

Therefore, in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this email acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of your request.

If you are unhappy with the way in which your request has been handled and wish to request a review of our response or to make a complaint, please see the attached information sheet and form.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any enquiries regarding this email.

Yours sincerely,
Karen Page

Information Compliance Officer – Freedom of Information
Registrar’s Department

Web: www.nottingham.ac.uk/freedom-of-informat...
Email: [University of Nottingham request email]

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