Dear Amalia

I acknowledge receipt of your email received by this office on 20th May 2021..

Your request will now be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and has been allocated reference FOI21-215 which should be quoted in all correspondence. We will respond to your request within 20 working days starting the next working day after receipt, therefore you can expect to receive a response no later than 18th June 2021.

Please note that in order to fulfil your request we need to liaise with other teams across the University. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic most staff are now working remotely and have intermittent access to information held in hard copy. Staff may not be able to assist as they may need to prioritise other work, cover for colleagues who are ill or be away from work themselves due to illness. However, we will do our best to meet this deadline and keep you informed should we be unable to do so.

Where we consider that we will not be able to meet the deadline or if further time is required to consider the public interest test we will contact you as soon as possible and give you a revised date for response.

In some circumstances a fee may be payable and, if that is the case, we will let you know. A fees notice will be issued to you, and you will be required to pay before we will proceed to deal with your request.

Yours sincerely

Swyddfa Ysgrifenydd y Brifysgol
Prifysgol Caerdydd
Ebost : [email address]  

Mae'r Brifysgol yn croesawu gohebiaeth yn Gymraeg neu'n Saesneg.  Ni fydd gohebu yn Gymraeg yn creu unrhwy oedi.
University Secretary's Office
Cardiff University
Email: [email address] 

The University welcomes correspondence in Welsh or English.  Corresponding in Welsh will not lead to any delay.

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Dear Amalia,

I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request dated 20
May 2021.

For ease of reference, I have reproduced your questions below and set out
our corresponding responses.

I would like to request the following data under the Freedom of
Information Act about the single honours undergraduate law course at your
university for each of the following admissions cycles:

2018/2019

2019/2020

(please provide the data separately for each cycle)

The data I am requesting is:

(a) The total number of applications received for the course

LLB law 18/19 19/20
Total number of applications received 1699 2062
Total number of students who enrolled on the course in 279 348
Sept/Oct after the cycle ended

(b) The total number of offers made for the course

(c) The total number of students who accepted the course as their firm
choice on UCAS

The University holds this information however we consider this information
exempt from disclosure under S43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act
entitled “Commercial Interests”. In particular, section 43(2) states that
information is exempt 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). The recruitment of both students is a very
competitive environment where UK universities face competition. Students
are highly mobile and have wide choices over where they may decide to
study. The release of information on offers and firm choice acceptances
into the public domain would be highly likely to prejudice the
University’s commercial interests, by allowing competitor institutions to
undermine the University’s recruitment activity. Disclosure of this
information would reveal details of the outcome of the University’s
recruitment strategy and to release this information into the public
domain would enable our competitors to benefit by copying our strategy. In
so doing this will affect the University’s ability to distinguish itself
from its competitors in a highly competitive market.

Any loss of market share and reduction in enrolled student numbers would
have a significant impact on the University’s student fee income and would
further impact the University’s long term financial sustainability. As
public funding sources for higher education have declined, student fee
income has become an increasingly important source of income and is a key
factor in ensuring the University’s long term financial sustainability.
The ability for the universities in general, and Cardiff University in
particular as a major research intensive university in Wales, to compete
effectively in a global market is an important strategic objective as set
out by the Welsh Government in 'For Our Future: the higher education
strategy plan for Wales' and in the Welsh Government Policy Statement on
Higher Education which is available at:
[1]http://wales.gov.uk/docs/dcells/publicat....
It is also important that Cardiff University is able to continue competing
on an equal footing with similar large, research intensive institutions in
the UK and overseas.

Based on the above it is considered that the commercial interest of the
University would be likely to be prejudiced by release and as such the
Section 43(2) exemption is engaged.

(d) The total number of students who enrolled on the course in
September/October after the cycle ended

Please see the information provided in (a)

(e) The average number of A* grades, A grades, B grades, C grades and D
grades at A-level held by applicants studying A-levels (whether these were
predicted or achieved)

(f) The average number of A* grades, A grades, B grades, C grades and D
grades at A-level held by offer holders studying A-levels (whether these
were predicted or achieved)

We do not publish internal grades data relating to applicants or offer
holders. However, there is grade transparency across the sector, as
Discover Uni (which is an official source of information about higher
education), publishes course level statistics on UCAS tariff points.We
have included Discover Uni data on UCAS tariff points for LLB (Hons) Law
at Cardiff University. This relates to students rather than applicants or
offer holders.

(g) The average LNAT multiple choice grade achieved by applicants

(h) The average LNAT multiple choice grade achieved by offer holders

There is no requirement for applicants to sit this test and we, therefore,
do not hold this information.

I trust this information satisfies your enquiry. Should you feel
dissatisfied with this response or the way in which your request was
handled you can request an Internal Review. This should be made in writing
within 40 working days of the date of this email. Please provide your
unique reference number of your request, information on why you are
dissatisfied and any detail you would like us to consider as part of the
Internal Review process. Email your request to
[2][email address] where it will be forwarded to the Head of
Compliance and Risk who will be responsible for overseeing the review.

If you remain dissatisfied following the outcome of your complaint, you
have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for
consideration. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at the
following address: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in
Cardiff University. If you require further assistance please feel free to
contact me.

Kind regards

Swyddfa Ysgrifenydd y Brifysgol University Secretary’s Office

Prifysgol Caerdydd Cardiff University

Ebost : [3][email address] Email: [4][email address] 
 
 
 
The University welcomes
Mae'r Brifysgol yn croesawu correspondence in Welsh or English. 
gohebiaeth yn Gymraeg neu'n Saesneg.  Corresponding in Welsh will not lead
Ni fydd gohebu yn Gymraeg yn creu to any delay.
unrhwy oedi.

References

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