Statistics of Tier 4 International Students During the COVID-19 Lockdown

The request was refused by University of Manchester.

Unis Resist Border Controls (URBC)

Dear University of Manchester,

We are requesting responses to the following questions.

1. How many Tier 4 international students are enrolled at the university in the 2019-2020 academic year?

2. How many Tier 4 international students have contacted the student funding services to report difficulties with paying their tuition fees on time?

3. What sort of assistance is in place for Tier 4 international students who are unable to pay their tuition fees?

3. What sort of COVID-19 provisions are in place for Tier 4 international students? Please answer for the following:
a. Health and wellbeing, including mental health
b. Immigration advice
c. Other, please elaborate

4. Is the university providing hardship funds for Tier 4 international students? If yes, please also answer the following:

a. How many Tier 4 international students applied for hardship funds?
b. How many Tier 4 international students were granted hardship funds?
c. If a Tier 4 international student was denied a hardship fund, what were the primary reasons for this?

5. Have any Tier 4 international students been reported to the Home Office during the COVID-19 lockdown? If yes, how many?

6. How many Tier 4 international students have contacted the university's immigration support office requiring advice and/or reporting immigration difficulties from March 2020 until August 2020?

Yours faithfully,
Sanaz
Unis Resist Border Controls (URBC)

MTRS FOIA, University of Manchester

1 Attachment

Dear Sanaz,

 

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.

 

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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you send your email.  For further guidance see:
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References

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MTRS FOIA, University of Manchester

1 Attachment

Dear Sanaz,

 

Thank you for your request for information received by The University of
Manchester on 17 September 2020 which was as follows:

 

1. How many Tier 4 international students are enrolled at the university
in the 2019-2020 academic year?

 

2. How many Tier 4 international students have contacted the student
funding services to report difficulties with paying their tuition fees on
time?

 

3. What sort of assistance is in place for Tier 4 international students
who are unable to pay their tuition fees?

 

3. What sort of COVID-19 provisions are in place for Tier 4 international
students? Please answer for the following:

a. Health and wellbeing, including mental health b. Immigration advice c.
Other, please elaborate

 

4. Is the university providing hardship funds for Tier 4 international
students? If yes, please also answer the following:

 

a. How many Tier 4 international students applied for hardship funds?

b. How many Tier 4 international students were granted hardship funds?

c. If a Tier 4 international student was denied a hardship fund, what were
the primary reasons for this?

 

5. Have any Tier 4 international students been reported to the Home Office
during the COVID-19 lockdown? If yes, how many?

 

6. How many Tier 4 international students have contacted the university's
immigration support office requiring advice and/or reporting immigration
difficulties from March 2020 until August 2020?

 

Please accept my apologies for the delay in our response. The University
has now considered your request and unfortunately the information you are
seeking cannot be provided at this time.

 

We have liaised with relevant staff within the Directorate for the Student
Experience who have advised that particularly in relation to question 2,
the data is not held in a way which is easy to query back to whether a
student has a Tier 4 visa or not. Therefore a manual assessment of our
records would be required to extract and collate the information
requested. Additionally similar issues would be experienced with regard to
question 4. As such, due to the number of records that would need manually
assessing, we have been advised that this task would take in excess of the
18 hour ‘Appropriate Limit’ (as defined in the Freedom of Information and
Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004). As a
result, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 applies and
regrettably this task cannot be undertaken at this stage. This email
serves to act as a refusal notice for this request, as per Section 17 (5)
of the Act.

 

In relation to Covid-19 provisions, there is a lot of information on our
website which is applicable to all students via
[1]https://www.manchester.ac.uk/coronavirus/.

 

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 [2][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 [3]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| [4]www.manchester.ac.uk

[5]data_matters_logo2-(3)

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:
[6]www.dataprotection.manchester.ac.uk

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.manchester.ac.uk/coronavirus/
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.ico.org.uk/
4. http://www.manchester.ac.uk/
6. http://www.dataprotection.manchester.ac....