Miss Zoe Allwood
FOI Manager
Chloé Meley
By email
Reference: FOI-2021-XXX
8 February 2021
Dear Ms Meley,
Your request was received on 12 January 2021 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the Act’).
You asked:
Could you tell me the number of undergraduate students who have dropped out this academic
year (2020-2021, up until this December), compared to the two previous academic years (2018-
2019 and 2019-2020, for the whole year)?
Could you also break down this information into monthly categories (x number of students
dropped out in September); UK/EU/international students; and into different faculties?
This information is attached. Note the following:
1. Data for years 2018-19 and 2019-20 are from the submitted HESA Student return
(https://www.hesa.ac.uk/collection/c19051). The academic year referred to is the HESA
reporting year, which runs 1 August to 31 July.
2. Data for 2020-21 are from the University of Cambridge’s student record system, CamSIS, for
the dates 1 August 2020 to 31 December 2020. These data were extracted from CamSIS on
05/02/2021.
3. Data are for full-time undergraduate level students on courses for which they have to have
matriculated, and are a member of a Cambridge college.
4. Data exclude incoming exchange or other incoming visiting students.
5. The data are broken down by course because of the broad nature of some of our
undergraduate courses (e.g., Natural Sciences Tripos) where teaching provision is across
multiple Schools/Faculties/Departments.
6. The breakdown by Home/EU/International is based on a student’s fee status.
The Old Schools
Trinity Lane
Cambridge, CB2 1TN
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 764142
Fax: +44 (0) 1223 332332
Email: xxx@xxxxx.xxx.xx.xx
www.cam.ac.uk
7. Data for withdrawals/drop outs are based on the following HESA reason for ending codes
(https://www.hesa.ac.uk/collection/c20051/a/rsnend): 03 Transferred to another provider
04 Health reasons
05 Death
06 Financial reasons
07 Other personal reasons & dropped out
08 Written off after lapse of time
09 Exclusion
10 Gone into employment
11 Other
99 Unknown
Please note that the attached document should not be copied, reproduced or used except in
accordance with the law of copyright.
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a
complaint or request an internal review of this decision, you should contact us quoting the reference
number above. The University would normally expect to receive your request for an internal review
within 40 working days of the date of this letter and reserves the right not to review a decision where
there has been undue delay in raising a complaint. If you are not content with the outcome of your
review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the
Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints
procedure provided by the University. The Information Commissioner may be contacted at: The
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
(https://ico.org.uk/).
Yours sincerely,
Zoe Allwood