Miss Zoe Allwood
FOI Manager
Harry Lewis
By email
Reference: FOI-2021-162
12 March 2021
Dear Mr Lewis,
Your request was received on 17 February 2021 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the Act’).
You asked:
Please may I request data on the current A100 Medicine offer holders. I would like, for each
individual, their Section 1 and Section 2 BMAT scores, as well as their average interview score.
I would like this data in one single table on Excel.
By offer holders, I mean applicants who have received either a conditional or an unconditional
offer for 2021 entry.
If you are unable to provide this information because the 'application cycle is still ongoing' kindly
inform me when the application cycle will no longer be ongoing, so I can make my request then.
The information requested, insofar as it is held (noting that the current undergraduate applications
cycle is ongoing, and we do not hold interview scores in any event), is exempt under section 36(2)(c) of
the Act because its disclosure would be likely to prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs, in this
case the integrity of the University’s applications and admissions process which form a fundamental
part of its mission as an educational institution. (As the information requested is statistical in nature, the
opinion of the qualified person did not need to be sought for this application of section 36.) The current
undergraduate applications cycle is ongoing and applications are still being submitted and assessed.
The University considers that the disclosure of detailed statistics about applications made within the
current cycle would be likely to prejudice the notion of a fair and confidential admissions process
whereby each applicant has the same information at their disposal and partial granular data is not
disclosed to specific members of the public while the process is ongoing. As this is a qualified
exemption, the University has considered whether, in all the circumstances of the case, the public
interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. The
University considers that, while some people might have an understandable private interest in these
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statistics, there is no genuine public interest in them when set against the extensive statistical
information available about previous admissions cycles published at
https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics, coupled with the prevailing public interest
in maintaining a level playing field in terms of the information available to all applicants.
With regard to your final sentence cited above, the University would no longer engage this exemption
from June 2021.
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
