By e-mail: P. Camayah
Freedom of Information Office
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
4 West
University of Bath
Claverton Down
Bath
BA2 7AY
6 September 2021
Dear Mr/Ms Camayah
Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 2000 – 2021/237
Your request was received on 8 August 2021 and was handled under the provisions of the
Freedom of Information Act, 2000. It is copied below for your reference.
‘Under the Freedom of Information act, I would like to know for every undergraduate
programme for the 2020/21, 2019/20 and 2018/19 admission cycles:
- the programme name,
- the programme code,
- the number of applications,
- the number of offers made,
- the number of acceptances’
Section 1(1) usual y entitles you to be told whether the requested information is held and have
that information provided to you unless it is judged to be exempt from disclosure. We can confirm
the information in the attached pdf.
Please note the following:
•
Programme name - programme titles are not consistently used throughout internal and
external sources. The titles included are as they appear in the University’s course
listings online, as the most "official" public source.
For University course information see: https://www.bath.ac.uk/courses/
•
Programme code - there are dif erent coding structures for courses, depending on the
purpose. The codes provided in the attached pdf are the UCAS course codes, which we
publish and match with the codes UCAS use for our courses.
•
The current admissions cycle (2020/21 for 2021 entry) is not complete and is exempted
for the reasons given below under exempted information.
We have therefore provided data for from 2018 up to 2020 entry (in which students
applied during 2019/20) as standard for the HE admissions sector.
The University reports to the Higher Education Statistics Agency data which may be useful to
your research: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students
Exempted Information
Small numbers (fewer than five) have been withheld in accordance with section 40(2) of the
FOIA, which relates to personal information. These numbers are therefore shown as <5 (less
than five). The University considers that where smal numbers are involved, there is suf icient risk
that individuals could be identified, by triangulation of requested data with other information held
or otherwise known. In reaching this conclusion the University has considered the conditions
outlined under Schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act (DPA), which describe when disclosure of
personal information would be fair and lawful.
Information concerning undergraduate applications and offers 2020/21 has been withheld under
section 43(2) of the FOIA, which applies when disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice
the commercial interests of any organisation, including the university itself. Section 43 is a
qualified exemption, which means that once the likely commercial prejudice has been identified,
public interest factors for and against disclosure must be considered.
Following the execution of a public interest test we concluded that public interest is better served
by maintaining the section 43(2) exemption: the public interest factors in favour of disclosure are
outweighed by the harm to the university’s commercial interests that would be likely to result from
disclosure of this information.
The University operates in an increasingly competitive environment, facing international and
national competition from long-established and well-known universities. Releasing this
information would put into the public domain details that would benefit our competition in the
United Kingdom and beyond, and potential y harm the University’s interests. The information
would be strategical y useful to the University’s competitors and provide them with very current
inside knowledge and market data.
The University notes that disclosure under the FOIA must be considered as disclosure to the
public at large and considers that releasing the information would be likely to prejudice its
commercial interests by providing commercial intelligence that would give unfair advantage to its
competitors, which would be likely to affect the University’s position in the market. For the
reasons above and in the context of an organisation that conducts teaching and research for the
public benefit, it is concluded that the public interest in disclosure does not outweigh the likely
harm to the commercial interests of the university. The public interest weighs in favour of
maintaining the exemption in this instance.
If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of how your request was handled you may ask the
University to conduct an internal review. A request for an internal review must be submit ed
within 40 working days of receipt by you of this response. Requests received outside this period
wil only be considered at the University's discretion and where there is a valid reason to do so.
Applications for internal review should be emailed to: The Freedom of Information Team,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xx.xx or addressed in writing to University of Bath, Claverton
Down, Bath, BA2 7AY.
If you remain dissatisfied you may appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Of ice at Wycliffe
House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. Further details of this process are available
via the following link: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/official-information-concerns-
report/official-information-concern/ Please note that the Information Commissioner will only
consider appeals once the internal review process has been completed.
Yours sincerely
D Bean
Freedom of Information Of icer
