Admissions Statistics for Postgraduate degrees in Physics

The request was refused by University of Manchester.

Robert Slattery

Dear University of Manchester,

1. For the 2019/20 academic years – please detail a list of postgraduate degrees (degree title/award) that are being run at the School of Physics and Astronomy.

2. Please detail the number of applicants to each course listed in part one, the number of offers made per course and the number of students who ended up enrolling on each course.

Yours faithfully,
Robert Slattery

MTRS FOIA, University of Manchester

1 Attachment

Dear Robert,

 

I am writing to acknowledge your request under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 received by The University of Manchester, our reference as per
the subject line.

 

The University will respond to your request within 20 working days.

 

NB Due to the current situation with the Covid-19 virus and the
University’s response to it, there may be a delay in receiving your
response at this time.

 

With best regards

Lisa

 

 

Dr Lisa Crawley l  Information Officer  l Information Governance Office
l Directorate of Compliance and Risk l  Professional Support Services |
Room G7 Christie Building  l Compliance & Risk Management Office l  The
University of Manchester  l  Oxford Road  l  Manchester  l  M13 9PL  l 
Tel +44 (0)161 275 8400  

[1]www.manchester.ac.uk

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We are all responsible for protecting person identifying data held by the
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References

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MTRS FOIA, University of Manchester

1 Attachment

Dear Robert,

 

Thank you for your request for information received by The University of
Manchester on 29 May 2020 which was as follows:

 

1. For the 2019/20 academic years – please detail a list of postgraduate
degrees (degree title/award) that are being run at the School of Physics
and Astronomy.

 

2. Please detail the number of applicants to each course listed in part
one, the number of offers made per course and the number of students who
ended up enrolling on each course.

 

The University has now considered your request and our response can be
found below.

 

1.       Please see the website
[1]https://www.physics.manchester.ac.uk/stu... which lists
postgraduate taught programmes. The info is the same for 2019/20 & 2020/21
apart from the fees.

Please also see the website
[2]https://www.physics.manchester.ac.uk/stu...
which lists postgraduate research programmes. Please note that this year
we have advertised all the MScR programmes, these were not listed in
2019/20 but were nonetheless available.

 

2.       This information is deemed to be exempt from disclosure by virtue
of the listed exemption at Section 43 (2) – Commercial Interests. Please
see the formal refusal notice below for further details.

 

Refusal Notice

 

This Refusal Notice has been issued under Section 17 (1) of the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA). Under Section 1 (1) of the FOIA The University of
Manchester confirms that the information requested is held but we are
refusing to provide it in response to your request for the reasons set out
below.

 

Section 43 (2) – Commercial Interests

 

Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would,
or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person
(including the public authority holding it).

 

We are applying Section 43 (2) as a prejudice-based exemption.  We may
rely on this exemption if the disclosure would prejudice someone’s
commercial interests (including the University’s own).  Commercial
interests may be prejudiced where a disclosure would be likely to:

 

·         Damage its business reputation or the confidence that customers,
suppliers or investors may have in it

·         Have a detrimental impact on its commercial revenue or threaten
its ability to obtain supplies or secure finance

·         Weaken its position in a competitive environment by revealing
market sensitive information or information of potential usefulness to its
competitors.

 

It is the latter of these three points that The University of Manchester
feels is relevant to this request. To determine where the public interest
lies with regard to this exemption, we have previously liaised extensively
with relevant staff in the University regarding requests of this nature,
including the Director of Student Recruitment & International Development
(who is also Chair of the University’s Intake Management Group), the Heads
of Teaching, Learning and the Student Experience in Faculties (notably FSE
and Humanities as the largest recruiters both in terms of numbers of
programmes and numbers of students) as well as the University’s Head of
Student Data, Analysis and Records.

 

All felt that releasing the information requested at course level would
impact on the University’s competitive advantage and would therefore
prejudice our commercial interests. Providing information on the level of
applications, offers and acceptances at course level would give a new or
existing competitor key information about our programmes. This could
enable them to either start a new course themselves (by identifying a
perceived gap in the market which could then impact on our numbers of
applications, offers and/or acceptances thus meaning less students/income
for us) or to more aggressively compete with us/poach from us (as they
identify they could be able to gain a bigger share of the market which
could then impact on our numbers of applications, offers and/or
acceptances thus meaning less students/income for us). Any disclosure
under the FOIA is considered as a disclosure to the world, so whereas it
may not be your intention to use the information in this way, it must be
an important factor in our considerations. It has been highly publicised
recently that the current situation with the Coronavirus is impacting
greatly on the competitive environment in which universities operate and
therefore it is arguably even more important at this time that we do not
take any action that may further impact on our position in a competitive
market.

 

Public Interest Test

 

As Section 43(2) is a qualified exemption we are required to carry out a
public interest test to determine if the commercial interest is overridden
by the public interest from a release of the information concerned.

 

Factors in Favour of Disclosure

There is public interest in disclosing applications and offer data. To do
so would ensure that members of the public can be satisfied that the
University of Manchester is open and transparent.  It may also assist
public debate with regard to the issue of student recruitment and offer
making.

 

Factors Against Disclosure

Universities operate in an ever and increasingly competitive environment
which has been greatly impacted by the coronavirus crisis and as such, the
University would not wish to disclose information that would be likely to
prejudice our commercial interests and our position within this
environment.

 

Therefore, we believe that for the reasons outlined above, the balance
lies in maintaining the exemption at this time.

 

If you feel that The University of Manchester has refused access to
information to which you are entitled, or has not dealt with your request
appropriately under the FOIA, you have a right of appeal.

 

An appeal in the first instance should be directed to the Information
Governance Office at [3][email address]. You should include: 

·         details of your initial request

·         any other relevant information

 

You must make this appeal within 40 working days from receipt of your
response. We will not accept appeals received after this date, as per the
Freedom of Information Code of Practice, Section 5.3.

 

The University will deal with your appeal within a reasonable time, and
will inform you of the projected time scale on receipt of your complaint.
You are also welcome to contact the Information Governance Office with
informal questions about the handling of your request. 

 

After The University’s internal appeals procedure has been exhausted, you
have a further right of appeal to the Information Commissioner’s
Office. Details of this procedure can be found at [4]www.ico.org.uk.

 

Kind regards

 

Sharon

 

 

Sharon Glen | Information Officer | Information Governance Office |
Directorate of Compliance and Risk |Professional Services | G7 Christie
Building | The University of Manchester | Oxford Road | Manchester | M13
9PL | Tel +44(0) 161 306 7549| [5]www.manchester.ac.uk

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We are all responsible for protecting personal data held by the
University, including who we share that data with. Stop and think before
you send your email.  For further guidance see:
[7]www.dataprotection.manchester.ac.uk

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.physics.manchester.ac.uk/stu...
2. https://www.physics.manchester.ac.uk/stu...
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.ico.org.uk/
5. http://www.manchester.ac.uk/
7. http://www.dataprotection.manchester.ac....