Use of contextual offer grades in law admissions - 2015 to 2019

The request was successful.

John Dimitroulopoulos

Dear Durham University,

Please provide the following data in relation to all of your undergraduate law courses (i.e. any course with course code M1**) for the following admissions cycles:

2015/16
2016/17
2017/18
2018/19

1. Whether the university currently operates a ‘contextual offers’ policy where law applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds are, subject to meeting certain criteria, eligible to be made a lower grade offer than applicants who do not meet such criteria;

2. If such a policy is in place, the A-level or IB grades that typically make up this lower ‘contextual offer’ (for example, AAA instead of A*AA);

3. The number of ‘contextual offers’ made to applicants to all law-related courses throughout these four admissions cycles (for example, 4 in 2015/16, 2 in 2016/17, etc).

Yours faithfully,

John Dimitroulopoulos

ACCESS I., University of Durham

Dear Mr Dimitroulopoulos,

 

Freedom of Information Request

 

I acknowledge receipt of your email below requesting information from
Durham University.

 

Please be advised that the University will respond as soon as possible and
in any event within 20 working days.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Information Governance Unit

Durham University

 

 

Information Governance Unit, University Secretary’s Office

t: +44 (0) 191 334 6103/46246  e: [Durham University request email]

 

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ACCESS I., University of Durham

Dear Mr Dimitroulopoulos

 

Colleagues have asked me to get in touch with you to request clarification
in relation to your request below.  Specifically, they would be grateful
if you could confirm how you are defining ‘admissions cycle’?  For
example, by 2018/19 cycle, do you refer to the cycle that is currently
underway, to admit students in October 2019? If this is the case, it is
not possible to provide data on this cycle until after it closes on 31^st
October.

 

Therefore, it would be possible to provide data for the previous three
cycles as a response now, or you could resubmit in November to include the
current cycle.

 

Please could you confirm which option you would prefer?

 

Your request will be placed on hold until we receive the requested
clarification from you.  If however we do not receive clarification within
30 days of this email we will consider the request closed.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Information Governance Unit

Durham University

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Information Governance Unit, University Secretary’s Office

t: +44 (0) 191 33 46103/46246  e: [1][Durham University request email]

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John Dimitroulopoulos

Dear Sir/Madam,

Would it be possible to provide data on the past three admissions cycles? I will submit a new FOI request for the 2018/19 cyle (i.e. the one where students will begin the course in October 2019) when it becomes available.

Thank you so much for your kind attention.

Yours sincerely,

John Dimitroulopoulos

ACCESS I., University of Durham

Dear Mr Dimitroulopoulos

 

Thank you for your request for information from Durham University. 
Colleagues have provided the information below in response to your
questions.

 

Please provide the following data in relation to all of your undergraduate
law courses (i.e. any course with course code M1**) for the following
admissions cycles:

 

2015/16

2016/17

2017/18

2018/19

 

1. Whether the university currently operates a ‘contextual offers’ policy
where law applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds are, subject to
meeting certain criteria, eligible to be made a lower grade offer than
applicants who do not meet such criteria;

Yes. Further information is available on the website here
[1]https://www.dur.ac.uk/study/ug/apply/con...

 

2. If such a policy is in place, the A-level or IB grades that typically
make up this lower ‘contextual offer’ (for example, AAA instead of A*AA);

The contextual offer is AAA compared with the standard offer of A*AA. If
applicants selected Durham as their firm choice, the offer was further
reduced to AAB.

 

3. The number of ‘contextual offers’ made to applicants to all law-related
courses throughout these four admissions cycles (for example, 4 in
2015/16, 2 in 2016/17, etc).

There were 125 contextual offers in Law in the 2017/18 admissions cycle
(rounded to the nearest 5). This was the first cycle that Durham
University made offers under a 'contextual offer' scheme, so there is no
data available for the previous cycles. Alongside the contextual offer
scheme, we also consider a range of contextual information for each
application as described in our admissions FAQ
[2]https://studyatdurham.microsoftcrmportal....
This means that applicants’ context may have informed the decision on
their application, but we do not hold data to report on this. This would
be the case for all cycles in the request.

 

Alternative offers are also made to participants that successfully
complete the University’s Supported Progression programme or a Sutton
Trust Summer School at Durham University; this happened in for all the
years included in the request. We have not included these figures in the
response as the schemes are not open to all applicants and need to be
undertaken prior to application

 

Please see the eligibility criteria for Supported Progression
[3]https://www.dur.ac.uk/supported.progress... and the Sutton Trust
Summer School [4]https://summerschools.suttontrust.com/el... for
more information.

 

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your request, including the application of any exemptions applied.  To do
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Information Governance Unit

The Palatine Centre

Stockton Road

Durham

DH1 3LE          

 

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apply to the Information Commissioner's Office for an independent review.

 

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

[6]www.ico.org.uk

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Governance Unit

Durham University

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Information Governance Unit, University Secretary’s Office

t: +44 (0) 191 33 46103/46246  e: [7][Durham University request email]

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John Dimitroulopoulos

Dear ACCESS I.,

Thank you for your response. I appreciate you taking the time to compile this data.

Yours sincerely,

John Dimitroulopoulos