Dear Mr Chester

I can confirm receipt of the request below, dated 9 June 2018. 

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and will be answered within twenty working days.  As such, you should expect to hear from the University in response by 9 July 2018, if, in the meantime, you have any queries about the request, please don’t hesitate to contact Jenny Foggin ([email address]).   

Kind regards

Tracey Crombie
PA to the Legal Adviser
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT
Tel:  0113 343 4078 (NB 8am-4pm)
Fax:  0113 343 3925

This communication is intended solely for the addressee, is strictly confidential and may also be legally privileged.  If you are not the addressee please do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any attachments.  Instead, please contact Tracey Crombie on the above telephone number.

Any liability (in negligence or otherwise) arising from any third party acting, or refraining from acting, on any information contained in this email is excluded.

It is the responsibility of the receiver of this email to ensure that any onward transmission or use of this email (including attachments) will not adversely affect their systems or data contained on their systems.  Receivers are advised to carry out virus checks.  The University of Leeds accepts no responsibility with regard to the communication or other use of this email.

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Dear Mr Chester

Further to your request below, would it be possible to have your full name so I can complete my database.

Many thanks

Tracey Crombie
PA to the Legal Adviser
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT
Tel:  0113 343 4078 (NB 8am-4pm)
Fax:  0113 343 3925

This communication is intended solely for the addressee, is strictly confidential and may also be legally privileged.  If you are not the addressee please do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any attachments.  Instead, please contact Tracey Crombie on the above telephone number.

Any liability (in negligence or otherwise) arising from any third party acting, or refraining from acting, on any information contained in this email is excluded.

It is the responsibility of the receiver of this email to ensure that any onward transmission or use of this email (including attachments) will not adversely affect their systems or data contained on their systems.  Receivers are advised to carry out virus checks.  The University of Leeds accepts no responsibility with regard to the communication or other use of this email.

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Dear Mr Chester,

I have discussed this with my colleagues in the School of Medicine. You have asked for a substantial amount of information, which is not all stored together, or on the same systems. I am advised that as the request stands, it would require in excess of 18 hours for the School to attempt to locate all the information necessary to a full response (18 hours being the maximum time, as set out in Section 12 of the FoI Act, that a public authority must spend upon the location and retrieval of information in response to a request. If, however, there is any way that you are able to reduce the scope of the request, I would, of course, be happy to go back and ask them to look again. I can confirm that the A100 programme has not entered the Clearing process in the years that you have selected.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision, you should write to or email directly Mr D Wardle, Deputy Secretary, The University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT ([email address]). You should do so within three months of receiving the University’s response to your request. Further information about how the University manages Freedom of Information requests and about our complaints procedure is also available on our website (www.leeds.ac.uk).

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the review/complaints procedure provided by the University. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Best wishes,

Jenny

Jenny Foggin
Senior Governance and Freedom of Information Officer
Legal Adviser’s Office
The University of Leeds
0113 3431155

Best wishes,

Jenny

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Dear Mr Chester,

Of course; I will go back to my colleagues on that basis. I can confirm now, though, that we do not use a cut-off or a threshold score, as our system is based on ranking candidates, so we will look at the average score and see if there is a reasonable proxy we can provide for the cut-off or threshold.

Best wishes,

Jenny

*********************************************************************
Jenny Foggin
Senior Governance and Freedom of Information Officer
Secretariat
University of Leeds

(0113) 343 1155
*********************************************************************

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Dear Mr Chester,

As requested, I have spoken to my colleagues again about the request. Some of the historical data would be extremely time-consuming to produce, which is just a function of the way in which we store and access our data.

They have, instead, worked on providing as much information as possible in relation to the whole request for the most recent academic year, in the hope that this will, at least, provide you with as broad a picture as possible.

I have set out below their response.

The admissions process for medicine for 2017 was as follows:

First stage; Applicants GCSE scored on basis of 9 subjects including English Language, Maths and either Double Science or Chemistry and Biology, with a maximum of 27 points available with 3 points for an A*, 2 points for an A, and 1 point for a B. A levels actual grades or predicted were scored out of 8 with 8 points being awarded for AAA, 4 points for AAB and 2 points for ABB. Finally BMAT results were all ranked based on total points awarded with 5 points being available for the top 20% down to 1 point available for the bottom 20%.

The maximum points available were 40 points and those scoring 36 and above were put forward to the next stage. Some applicants had contextual evidence also taken into account by the Admissions Group to allow them to proceed to the next stage.

1,309 were put into stage two where the Personal Statements were then scored by 2 assessors independent of each other. Eight points were available from each assessor giving a maximum score of 16. Two points were awarded for Motivation and Insight, two points for Social Awareness, two points for Responsibility, and two points for Achievements and Interests.

This score was then added to the previous score for academic and BMAT. The total maximum points available from both stages was 56, and those scoring 42 and above were called for interview, the third stage of the process.

A total of 595 were called for interview, and 346 offers were made.

The scores at interview covered 8 MMI stations and the overall marks for each candidate ranged from 9.69 - 4.31. Those scoring 6.44 and above received an offer.

The BMAT scores for those interviewed and rejected ranged from 6.85 - 16.35, and for those made an offer ranged from 6.35 - 17.15.

We are not able to provide the scoring sheets as these have guidance as to how the interviewers should score and would compromise the process. These are being withheld, therefore, under the exemption set out in Section 36 of the FoI Act, which provides for information to be withheld if its release into the public domain would compromise the effective conduct of public affairs. In this case, if future applicants were to see this information, it would give them an unfair advantage over those who had not seen it, compromising the fairness of our admissions system. It would also make it more likely that candidates could be 'coached to the test'. This could easily result in candidates gaining a place to which they are not actually suited, which would not be in their interests, the interests of the University, the interests of the public who fund HE, or the interests of other, more suitable, applicants who would lose out on a place as a result. I have consulted the Vice-Chancellor upon this issue many times, as I am required to as the 'qualified individual' for the purposes of the Section 36 environment and he has reiterated his belief that the public interests lies in protecting the integrity of our admissions system so that we can continue to recruit the best possible candidates to serve the public as health professionals.

With regard to those offering 3 or 4 A levels, there is no difference in the marking and applicants are not given any extra marks for taking a 4th subject and we don't record this in the scoring process.

We did not go through general Clearing in 2017 or in the previous years cited.

We are not able to provide the UCAS points for applicants as we do not record these.

I hope this is helpful in resolving your query. If you have any questions about this email, however, please don't hesitate to contact me.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision, you should write to or email directly Mr D Wardle, Deputy Secretary, The University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT ([email address]). You should do so within three months of receiving the University’s response to your request. Further information about how the University manages Freedom of Information requests and about our complaints procedure is also available on our website (www.leeds.ac.uk).

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the review/complaints procedure provided by the University. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Best wishes,

Jenny

Jenny Foggin
Senior Governance and Freedom of Information Officer
Legal Adviser’s Office
The University of Leeds
0113 3431155

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