Engineering Admissions Statistics

The request was partially successful.

Dear University of Leeds,

For the following undergraduate courses between the years 2016 and 2019,

H410
H300
H204
H610

1. What percentage of applicants do you give offers to who's predicted grades do not meet your grade offers?
2. What percentage of applicants who have work experience are given offers?
3. What percentage of applicants do you give offers to who's predicted grades did meet your grade offers?

Yours faithfully,

P Chu

Freedom of Information, University of Leeds

Dear Mr/Ms Chu

I can confirm receipt of the request below, dated 6 January 2020. 

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and will be answered within twenty working days.  As such, you should expect to hear from the University in response by 3 February 2020, if, in the meantime, you have any queries about the request, please don’t hesitate to contact me.   

Kind regards

Tracey Crombie
PA to the Legal Adviser
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT
Tel:  0113 343 4078 (NB 8am-4pm)
Fax:  0113 343 3925

This communication is intended solely for the addressee, is strictly confidential and may also be legally privileged.  If you are not the addressee please do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any attachments.  Instead, please contact Tracey Crombie on the above telephone number.

Any liability (in negligence or otherwise) arising from any third party acting, or refraining from acting, on any information contained in this email is excluded.

It is the responsibility of the receiver of this email to ensure that any onward transmission or use of this email (including attachments) will not adversely affect their systems or data contained on their systems.  Receivers are advised to carry out virus checks.  The University of Leeds accepts no responsibility with regard to the communication or other use of this email.

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Freedom of Information, University of Leeds

Dear P Chu, 

 

Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FOI) request dated 6 January
2020, reference K/20/010

 

Your request read:

 

            “Subject: Engineering Admission Statistics

 

For the following undergraduate courses between the years 2016 and 2019,

 

H410

H300

H204

H610

 

1. What percentage of applicants do you give offers to who's predicted
grades do not meet your grade offers?

2. What percentage of applicants who have work experience are given
offers?

3. What percentage of applicants do you give offers to who's predicted
grades did meet your grade offers?”

 

However, we are unable to proceed with your request without further
clarification.

 

Section 1(3) of the FOI Act states that where a public authority
reasonably requires further information in order to identify and locate
the information requested, and has informed the applicant of that
requirement, the authority is not obliged to comply with subsection (1)
unless it is supplied with that further information.

 

We would therefore be grateful if you could clarify whether your request
relates to academic or calendar years. Should your request relate to
academic years, please clarify whether you intended the date range to
commence with the 2015/16 or the 2016/17 academic year, and whether the
date range ends with the 2018/19 or 2019/2020 academic year.

 

Please send your clarified request to [1][University of Leeds request email]. Please note that
as per the Information Commissioner’s Office guidance, the 20-working day
timeframe will begin from the working day following receipt of your
clarified request.

 

Sincerely

Chloe Wilkins

Freedom of Information Officer

 

University of Leeds

 

References

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1. mailto:[University of Leeds request email]

Dear Chloe,

Thank you very much for your email. I would like to clarify that my request relates to the academic year. And the date range would commence from 2016/2017 to 2019/2020.

Yours sincerely,

P Chu

Freedom of Information, University of Leeds

Dear P Chu,

Freedom of Information request reference K/20/010

Thank you for your clarified Freedom of Information (FOI) request dated 27 January 2020.

The University of Leeds aims to respond to all FOI requests within 20-working days of receipt. Should this timeframe change, we will write to provide you with an update as soon as possible.

If you have any questions about your request, please contact us at [University of Leeds request email]

Kind regards

Chloe Wilkins
Freedom of Information Officer

Secretariat
University of Leeds

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Freedom of Information, University of Leeds

Dear P Chu, 

 

Freedom of Information request reference K/20/010

 

Thank you for your clarified Freedom of Information (FOI) request dated 27
January 2020, reference K/20/010.

 

Your clarified request read:

 

“For the following undergraduate courses between the years 2016 and 2019,
H410 H300 H204 H610

1.    What percentage of applicants do you give offers to who's predicted
grades doe not meet your grade offers?

2.    What percentage of applicants who have work experience are given
offers?

3.    What percentage of applicants do you give offers to who's predicted
grades did meet your grade offers?

I would like to clarify that my request relates to the academic year. And
the date range would commence from 2016/2017 to 2019/2020.”

 

The University of Leeds may hold some of this information.

 

However, we consider that to respond to your request as it is currently
framed would exceed the cost limit as set out in Section 12(1) of the FOI
Act. Section 12(1) states that a public authority can refuse a request if
complying with it would exceed the appropriate limit of £450. For the
purposes of FOI, time spent on the permitted activities is calculated at
the flat rate of £25 per person, per hour. The appropriate limit therefore
represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours to determine
whether the information is held, and to locate, retrieve and extract the
information.

 

We have outlined the reasons for invoking Section 12(1) below.

 

Typically, applications for undergraduate degree programmes are made to
the University via the UCAS system, which is then exported as a PDF for
review by the relevant School. Schools use this information to make a
decision and an offer, which is based on a set of equivalencies for the
wide range of qualifications we accept from across the world. However,
predicted grade information via UCAS can be incomplete, or may not fall
into a simple grade boundary. Furthermore, the University of Leeds
operates contextual admissions schemes such as [1]Access to Leeds, which
can impact on whether an offer will be made. Some schools may also make
aspirational offers; offers given to applicants with predicted grades
below the published requirements to encourage achievement or in
recognition of situations where predicted grades may not accurately
reflect the potential of an applicant (the offer itself still asks for the
published requirement to be met). It is also important to note that entry
requirements may vary from year to year. There is, therefore, no single
mechanism via which this information can be extracted.

 

Student information, including in relation to applications, is recorded on
the University’s ‘Banner’ system. While Banner records details of
predicted and actual A-Level results, it does not fully store details of
equivalent qualifications. Nor does the system record either what the
advertised entry requirements for each programme were for the relevant
entry year. As such, the only means of establishing the information
requested at parts one and three of your request would be to review the
Banner record for each application made across each programme you have
listed, and for each year relevant to your request.

 

The University of Leeds receives an average of 1400 applications across
the degree programmes set out in your request per academic year. We would
then need to compare each record with the advertised entry requirements
for each programme, also taking into consideration any contextualised
offers. This means that there are over 5500 applications which would
require review. Even at a very conservative estimate of one minute per
application, this would greatly exceed the appropriate limit of 18-hours.

 

However, if you were to refine your request, for example by limiting your
enquiry to one academic year and a single degree programme, we may be able
to comply with your request. 

 

We can also provide the following context which may be helpful in
understanding how the University of Leeds makes offers.

 

Over the past four years, the University has made aspirational offers to
applicants predicted up to two grades below the published entry
requirements for degree programmes H204 and H610. For the past two years,
we have set out on our website that due to demand for places on the H410
and H300 degree programmes, aspirational offers will not be made.

 

All applications received before the 15 January deadline years are treated
equally – i.e. the predicted grade threshold would be applied consistently
to all applicants for that programme. This does not include Access to
Leeds applications, whereby students would be given an offer up to two
grades below the published offer, provided they successfully complete the
scheme.

 

We do not hold any information in relation to question two. Whether an
applicant has work experience does not form part of the application
process and as such we do not hold any information in relation to whether
those receiving offers do or do not have work experience.

 

We hope this information is helpful. If you have any questions about this
email, however, please do not hesitate to contact us on [2][University of Leeds request email]

 

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision,
you can request an Internal Review. Requests for Internal Review should be
made in writing using the following contact information:

 

Post:               Mr D Wardle

Deputy Secretary

The University of Leeds

Leeds

LS2 9JT

 

Email:             [3][University of Leeds request email]

 

Requests for Internal Review should be submitted within 40 working days of
receiving the University’s response to your request. Further information
about how the University manages Freedom of Information requests and about
our complaints procedure is also available on our website
(www.leeds.ac.uk).

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision.  Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have
exhausted the review/complaints procedure provided by the University.  The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at:  Information Commissioner’s
Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

 

Kind regards

 

Chloe Wilkins

Freedom of Information Officer

 

Secretariat

University of Leeds

 

 

  

References

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1. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/homepage/82/acces...
2. mailto:[University of Leeds request email]
3. mailto:[University of Leeds request email]