INFORMATION COMPLIANCE TEAM
University Offices, Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JD
Ref. FOI/20200605/2
02 July 2020
Reply to request for information under the Freedom of Information Act
Your ref
Email of 5 June 2020
Please could you give me the following information for both 2019 and 2020 (if applicable at
this stage).
_
- Number of applicants to each individual college for undergraduate maths (G100) degree.
- Number of offers given out by each college for undergraduate maths (G100) degree.
Request
Please could you also tell me:
- An estimate of the total number of students that will be admitted each year into each
college.
It would be greatly appreciated if you give me this information for 2019, and if you can, 2020
also.
Dear Ryan
I write in reply to your email of 5 June requesting the above information. Data on admissions to each college
by course is available online at the link below:
https://public.tableau.com/views/UniversityofOxford-
CollegeSuccessRates2018/CollegeSuccessRates?:embed=y&:display_count=yes&:showTabs=y&:showVizHom
e=no
Other statistics on undergraduate admissions can also be found at
https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-
figures/admissions-statistics/undergraduate-students/current.
The website has data for the 2019 UCAS admissions cycle and will be updated to include data for the 2020
UCAS cycle next year. We are therefore withholding the equivalent information for 2020 under section 22 of
the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Section 22 provides that information is exempt from disclosure where
there is an intention on the part of the public authority or another body to publish it at a future date, and where
it is reasonable in all the circumstances to maintain the publication schedule. The data for 2020 will be available
in early 2021. In our view, this is not an excessive delay, and we consider it to be reasonable therefore to
withhold the information until its publication.
The exemption in section 22 is a qualified exemption that would require the University to weigh the public
interest in disclosing the information requested, which is presumed from FOIA, against the public interest in
maintaining the exemption.
We recognise that there is a public interest in the disclosure of information relating to undergraduate
admissions. Immediate disclosure of the information would contribute to that interest. However, the question
to be decided is whether the public interest will be better served by disclosing the information now, or later, in
accordance with the publication schedule. Our view is that the public interest would be better served by adhering
to the publication schedule. Disclosing the information prematurely, and in isolation from other information
relating to the 2020 cycle that would be published at the same time, would undermine the purpose of the
University’s publication scheme. This scheme provides for the publication of a wide range of information relating
2
to each admissions cycle, which presents a more complete and accurate picture than the piecemeal disclosure
of separate items of admissions data.
INTERNAL REVIEW
If you are dissatisfied with this reply, you may ask the University to review it, by writing to the Head of
Information Compliance at
xxx@xxxxx.xx.xx.xx. A request for internal review should be submitted no later than
40 working days from the date of this letter.
THE INFORMATION COMMISSIONER
If, after the internal review, you are still dissatisfied, you have the right under FOIA to apply to the Information
Commissioner for a decision as to whether your request has been dealt with in accordance with the FOIA. You
can do this online using the
Information Commissioner’s complaints portal.
Yours sincerely
Information Compliance Team
