Marketing spend on undergraduate courses
Dear Loughborough University,
Please could you provide me with the following information under the Freedom of Information Act:
In each of the financial years from 1998-99 to 2018-19 how much has your institution spent on advertising and marketing of undergraduate degrees? This should exclude open days and publication costs if possible.
If possible please break down this spending by different types of advertising and marketing:
- Print
- Traditional media
- Social media
- Search engine
- Direct advertising
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully,
W Tanner
Catherine Smethurst
Freedom of Information Officer
Rutland Building, Loughborough University, Leics., LE11 3TU
Web: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/data-privacy/foi/
27 September 2020
Name: W Tanner
Address: By email
Ref: FOI2051
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request. Please accept my apologies for the delay in replying. Responsibility for FOI requests sit within the Student Records team at the University and unfortunately the Covid-19 pandemic has brought us a huge amount of additional work this summer in order to ensure the normal functioning of the University so that our students were able to undertake assessments and obtain their degrees and so that our new intake is able to commence study.
Please find below the information requested.
I can advise that the information requested is not accessible within an 18 hour limit, given the way that financial transactions have historically been recorded and changes to the methodology over the 20 year period of time requested. We have therefore taken the decision to largely refuse your request in accordance with Section 12(1) of the Act because it would take in excess of the time limit set out in the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 (18 hours for a public body) to locate and extract what information may still be held.
However, from the 2015/16 financial year, we have had a dedicated finance code for use by the Undergraduate Marketing Team. This includes a range of undergraduate marketing costs including the design and print of the Undergraduate Prospectus each year. The total spend against this code below for the last four years is as follows:
2015/16 153,944
2016/17 160,236
2017/18 176,000
2018/19 162,000
I hope this information is useful. If, for any reason, you are dissatisfied with the way in which your request for information has been handled, you may invoke the following complaints procedure: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/ar/policy/f....
Yours faithfully,
Catherine Smethurst
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