A106 statistics

Judy Macdonald made this Freedom of Information request to University of Manchester This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

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Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, University of Manchester should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear University of Manchester,
As of the May UCAS deadline for Institutions to make their decisions on applications (or end of cycle, if you do not still hold information for this date), can you please confirm how many places there were for your A100 course, how many applicants you had, how many were invited to interview and how many offers were made, please?

I would like this information for 2021 entry, 2020 entry and 2019 entry, please, and split into Home and International fee status, please.

Could you also please state the UCAT cut off required for an interview for each of these years for a standard, non-contextual applicant via your UCAT route, please?

Many thanks for your help,

Yours faithfully,

Judy Macdonald

Dear Judy,

I am writing to acknowledge your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 received by The University of Manchester today, our reference as per the subject line.

The University will respond to your request within 20 working days.

Kind regards

Sharon

We are all responsible for protecting personal data held by the University, including who we share that data with. Stop and think before you send your email. For further guidance see: www.dataprotection.manchester.ac.uk

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Dear Judy

I am writing in response to your request under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 whereby you requested -

As of the May UCAS deadline for Institutions to make their decisions on
applications (or end of cycle, if you do not still hold information for
this date), can you please confirm how many places there were for your
A100 course, how many applicants you had, how many were invited to
interview and how many offers were made, please?

I would like this information for 2021 entry, 2020 entry and 2019 entry,
please, and split into Home and International fee status, please.

Could you also please state the UCAT cut off required for an interview for
each of these years for a standard, non-contextual applicant via your UCAT
route, please?

The data you are requesting is already published on our website -
[1]https://www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/study/m...

The 2021 offer information is yet to be published; this is due to be
published on the 1 September 2021 and will be available on the above link.

In terms of places, it’s 397 (369 home and 28 overseas/EU).

I hope this information is useful.

Best wishes

Holly

data_matters_logo2-(3)

We are all responsible for protecting personal data held by the
University, including who we share that data with. Stop and think before
you send your email. For further guidance see:
[3]www.dataprotection.manchester.ac.uk

References

Visible links
1. https://www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/study/m...
2. http://www.manchester.ac.uk/
3. http://www.dataprotection.manchester.ac....

Dear MTRS FOIA,
Thank you for the information about the numner of places.

My specific question, for 2021 entry, was:
"As of the May UCAS deadline for Institutions to make their decisions on applications, can you please confirm how many places there were for your A100 course, how many applicants you had, how many were invited to
interview and how many offers were made, please?

I am assuming you hold this information, and this is different to what will be published in September, so I would be grateful if you could provide it for me, please?

Could you also confirm that none of your 397 places had been filled with applicants that had their entry deferred from the 2020-entry cycle, please, and that all 397 were available to applicants from this cycle.

Many thanks for your help

Yours sincerely,

Judy Macdonald

Dear Judy,

I write further to your email below. I have liaised further with relevant staff in the Medical School and can advise as follows:

NB we do not run the A100 course at The University of Manchester so all our responses relate to the A106 course.

In respect of your first query, this information is deemed to be exempt from disclosure by virtue of the listed exemption at Section 43 (2) – Commercial interests. This is because mid-cycle data is considered commercially sensitive and we believe to disclose prior to completion of the admissions cycle is likely to prejudice the University's commercial interests. Further details follow in the refusal notice below.

Section 43 (2) – Commercial Interests

Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it).

We are applying Section 43 (2) as a prejudice-based exemption. We may rely on this exemption if the disclosure would prejudice someone’s commercial interests (including the University’s own). Commercial interests may be prejudiced where a disclosure would be likely to:

· Damage its business reputation or the confidence that customers, suppliers or investors may have in it
· Have a detrimental impact on its commercial revenue or threaten its ability to obtain supplies or secure finance
· Weaken its position in a competitive environment by revealing market sensitive information or information of potential usefulness to its competitors.

It is the latter two of these points that we feel are relevant to your request.

The University operates in a highly competitive commercial environment that is becoming increasingly competitive as more applicants now receive multiple offers from medical schools across the world. Releasing this information would give competitors insight into decision making that is of vital strategic importance, this could alter the behaviour of competitor institutions and result in under- or over-recruitment of students to the University. As you may be aware, the UK government imposes financial penalties on medical schools that recruit in excess of their caps on student numbers and each medical school has to maintain a very delicate balancing act. Offer making behaviour, and the actions of other medical schools in accepting ‘near miss’ applicants has consequences for strategic numbers planning of the Manchester cohort, all of which is likely to have an impact on our commercial revenue and/or undermine our position within the medical school environment. Any disclosure under the FOIA is considered as a disclosure to the world, so whereas it may not be your intention to use the information in this way, it must be an important factor in our considerations.

Public Interest Test

As Section 43(2) is a qualified exemption we are required to carry out a public interest test to determine if the commercial interest is overridden by the public interest from a release of the information concerned.

Factors in Favour of Disclosure

There is public interest in disclosing applications and offer data and the timings of this. To do so would ensure that members of the public can be satisfied that the University of Manchester medical school admissions process is open and transparent. It may also assist public debate with regard to the issue of student recruitment and offer making.

Factors Against Disclosure

Universities, and medical schools themselves, operate in an ever and increasingly competitive environment and as such, the University would not wish to disclose information that would be likely to prejudice our commercial interests and our position within this environment. The University considers that the public interest is satisfied by publishing admissions data at the end of the cycle, when the above factors no longer apply.

Therefore, we believe that for the reasons outlined above, the balance lies in maintaining the exemption at this time.

In respect of your second point regarding the number of places, we can advise as follows:

For A106 there are normally 397 places available. 67 additional places have been created to accommodate students who were deferred from the 2019/20 cycle due to capacity limitations following the use of Centre Assessed Grades instead examinations for A-level subjects in 2020 (this led to a greater than expected number of students achieving AAA grades and therefore meeting the conditions of their offer) and those students who sat Autumn Examinations in 2020, subsequently meeting the conditions of their 2020 offer.

In addition, there are a further three deferred applicants who applied for deferred entry and who were made offers last year.

This brings the total (anticipated capped intake) to 464. Please note that final student numbers may be lower than this and will not be known until September/October.

If you feel that The University of Manchester has refused access to information to which you are entitled, or has not dealt with your request appropriately under the FOIA, you have a right of appeal.

An appeal in the first instance should be directed to the Information Governance Office at [email address]. You should include:
· details of your initial request
· any other relevant information

You must make this appeal within 40 working days from receipt of your response. We will not accept appeals received after this date, as per the Freedom of Information Code of Practice, Section 5.3.

The University will deal with your appeal within a reasonable time, and will inform you of the projected time scale on receipt of your complaint. You are also welcome to contact the Information Governance Office with informal questions about the handling of your request.

After The University’s internal appeals procedure has been exhausted, you have a further right of appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Details of this procedure can be found at www.ico.org.uk.

Kind regards

Sharon

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Dear University of Manchester,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of University of Manchester's handling of my FOI request 'A106 statistics'.
My request for numbers of applicants, interviews and offers as of the May UCAS deadline has been declined, as it would prejudice your commercial interests. I would be grateful if you could clarify how this is the case, please?
Other than via Clearing, there is no opportunity for further applicants this year, so the figures cannot affect their decision to apply. This is the same for all med schools in the UK, so competitors cannot gain insight into decision making that is of vital strategic importance, which could alter the behaviour of competitor institutions and result in under- or over-recruitment of students to the University, as they can have no impact on the number of students in this potential cohort. Unless I am mistaken, the only factor that will alter between now and the end of the cycle is the publication of student results, and as this is a factor that is outside the control of any medical school, I cannot see how any one institution can gain any benefit over any other?
You response states it is this current cycle you are concerned about, as you are planning to release the information anyway in September, so could you please explain how making these figures public now, rather than in 2.5 month's time, can affect the behaviour of applicants, or competitor institutions?
Your argument is also somewhat nullified by the fact that other med schools have happily disclosed this information, so it cannot universally be seen to be commercially sensitive.

Many thanks for your consideration,

Yours faithfully

Judy Macdonald

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/a...

Yours faithfully,

Judy Macdonald

Dear Judy,

As you have expressed dissatisfaction in The University of Manchester’s response to your FOI request, we will submit this for an Internal Review as per our procedures in accordance with the Act. This will give the University the opportunity to review the response and the data provided by a member of staff not party to the original process.

We will endeavour to provide a response to your Internal Review within 20 working days.

Kind regards

Sharon

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