Dear Euanne Ng

This is to acknowledge receipt of your request below, made under the Freedom of Information Act. The College will respond to your request by 27 October 2022.

Kind regards,

Freedom of Information Team
Imperial College London

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Dear Euanne Ng

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request, below.

Imperial College has compiled an information sheet which addresses the most frequently asked questions we receive regarding admissions to Medicine (A100), please find this attached.

Kind regards

Freedom of Information Team
Imperial College London

Please note that if you are unhappy with the way that we have handled your request, you can ask us to conduct a review. Please make your representation in writing within 40 days of the date you received this response. If you remain dissatisfied with how Imperial College has handled your request, you may then approach the Information Commissioner’s Office.

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Dear Euanne Ng,

As you are aware, the College has compiled and made public a substantial amount of information of interest to potential applicants to study Medicine at Imperial. We have not included information on BMAT scores for any class of applicant other than home, overseas or widening participation because the thresholds we apply are the same for everyone within those categories. We have not included interview scores for any class of applicant.

It is not clear that there would be sufficient public interest in disclosing to the public figures specifically on Home fee paying Independent school applicants to justify the burden that collecting and compiling those figures would impose on the College. The Freedom of Information Act created a right to access information to enable scrutiny of public authorities in the public interest. Section 14(1) of the Act aims to protect public authorities by allowing them to refuse any requests which have the potential to cause a disproportionate or unjustified level of disruption and are therefore deemed vexatious. While we appreciate that your request was made in good faith and was not intended to cause disruption, we are entitled to consider whether a request has a value or serious purpose in terms of the objective public interest in the information sought and to weigh that against the burden that would be placed on the organisation by having to produce that information. The public interest being the public good, not what is of interest to groups of or individual members of the public. The College’s view is that any legitimate public interest in admissions figures to our undergraduate programmes is met by the information already in the public domain and already provided to you. We are therefore refusing this request in reliance on Section 14 of the Act. 

If you wish to explain to us why you think the public interest would require disclosure, please let us know and then we can conduct a review of our handling of your request.

Yours,

Freedom of Information Team
Imperial College London 

Please note that if you are unhappy with the way that we have handled your request, you can ask us to conduct a review. Please make your representation in writing within 40 days of the date you received this response. If you remain dissatisfied with how Imperial College has handled your request, you may then approach the Information Commissioner’s Office.   

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