Admissions data for Maths and Statistics, MORSE and MMORSE

The request was partially successful.

Dear University of Warwick,

I would kindly like to request some raw data from you regarding undergraduate applications to GLN0, MMORSE and GG13 for the latest available admissions cycle and the three cycles preceding that.

The data I would like is as follows:

1) The percentage of students studying A levels
2) The average number of predicted A*s at A level from successful applicants (taking into account best 3 grades)
3) The average number of A*s for successful applicants at GCSE
4) The number of applicants and the number of offers given
5)For GLN0, the AS-level grades of the applicants who received offers in the most recent admissions cycle
6) Any scoring or grading system used to assess applicants based on references, personal statement, current grades and predicted grades
7) Drop out rates (including moving to another degree inside the university)
8) The average number of A grades at AS-level for successful applicants
9) The percentage of successful applicants studying an AS/A-level in Further Maths
10) The average A-level Maths UMS for successful applicants and the lowest.

I define successful applicants as offers made.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Al-Safi

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Thank you for your email which has been received by the University Legal
Compliance Officer. 

The University undertakes to respond to Freedom of Information requests
within 20 working days and to Data Protection requests within 40 calendar
days. 

Thank you

Legal Compliance Team

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Dear Mr Al-Safi,
Thank you for submitting an FOI request, asking for information from the University of Warwick. In order to comply with your request, please could you clarify the following:
• For your question 7) in your request can you confirm your meaning when referring to "Drop out rates"? Is this to mean numbers of students who left the University after enrolment on the mentioned courses? Do you want this information in a numerical format or as a percentage?
We look forward to hearing from you. The University will be unable to proceed with your request until you have provided the requested information. Please note that the 20 working day statutory time limit does not begin until clarification has been received and we will close your request in 20 working days if we receive no reply.
Kind Regards
 
Legal Compliance Team

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Dear Legal Compliance Team,

By drop out rates, I mean the number of people who did not graduate from the university after leaving the courses mentioned. I would like this in a numerical format please.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Al-Safi

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Dear Mr Al-Safi,

 

Thank you for your patience in reference to your Freedom of Information
Request from the University of Warwick. During the location and extraction
process for this request  a number of queries have been raised in relation
to the information required and therefore in order to comply with your
request, please could you clarify the following:

 

·         For your question 1) Can you provide us with a clear definition
of what an A-level student is? Some students may be studying a mixed
portfolio of qualifications; are you seeking people who are only doing
A-levels or people who are doing at least one A-level?

 

Please note many overseas (and some home) students taking a-levels do not
always provide predicted grades, this makes calculating averages difficult
 and dependent upon the information you require for your questions we may
struggle to provide the information you are seeking within the cost limits

This information is not held centrally and to collate this would require
would need to go through each individual record for each qualification
obtained, to determine the characteristics of each individual applicant,
which the University estimates could take in excess of the 18 hours
allowed under the Freedom of Information Act. Section 12(1) of the Freedom
of Information Act states that a public authority is not obliged to comply
with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of
complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.  This is
currently £450, which equates to 18 hours of staff time calculated at £25
an hour as set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection
(Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

 

Also, please note, that a number of students will have taken the
Mathematics A-level the previous year - so it would be an achieved grade,
not a predicted grade.

 

We look forward to hearing from you. The University will be unable to
proceed with your request until you have provided the requested
information, once we have this information we will be able to advise you
if we can fulfil your request within the cost limit or if we would need to
seek a refinement from yourself.

 

Kind Regards

 

Legal Compliance Team

 

 

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Dear Legal Compliance Team,

For reference, an A-level student is someone who studies A-levels as their prime pre-uni qualification. Studying A-level Maths alongside a BTEC for example wouldn't be an A-level student. For data purposes I am seeking people who studied at least three A-levels.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Al-Safi

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Dear Mr Al-Safi,

 

Thank you for your continued patience in reference to your Freedom of
Information  Request from the University of Warwick. During the location
and extraction  process for this request some additional queries have been
raised in relation to the information required and therefore in order to
comply with your request, please could you read the bullet points below
and either provide additional clarification or confirm that you are happy
to proceed with our alternative suggest for dropout rates.

 

 

·         Your request refers to the “latest available admissions cycle”,
together with the three preceding cycles. You then refer to a mixture of 3
and 4 year courses; so the “latest available admissions cycle” for a 3
year programme would be those admitted in 13/14 academic year, and for a 4
year programme would be those admitted in 12/13. However, your request
also states that drop-out includes those moving to another course at the
University; but if a student moves from a 3 year to a 4 year programme,
then the implication is that they are then no longer included in their
original cohort, so it all gets a bit messy. If you could be a bit clearer
on precisely what is required, the University can probably do some
processing and provide a response.

·         Alternatively, we could provide drop-out rates per academic year
for the courses listed which is more in line with our internal definition
of drop-out i.e. for the courses listed, the number of students in a given
year that drop-out from any year of study of the named programme. We would
normally exclude course transfers from the drop-out calculations, since
students often transfer between courses within a department and this can
skew the numbers.

 

We look forward to hearing from you. The University will be unable to 
proceed with your request until you have provided the requested 
information, once we have this information we will be able to advise you 
if we can fulfil your request within the cost limit or if we would need
to  seek a refinement from yourself.

 

Kind Regards

 

Legal Compliance Team

 

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Dear Legal Compliance Team,

Can you provide your alternative please.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Al-Safi

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Dear Mr Al-Safi,

Thank you for your confirmation, we are looking into the information we are able to obtain for your request.

Please note, as we have had to contact you a number of times to clarify certain matters the 20 working day timeline for this request will have adjusted accordingly.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind Regards
 
Legal Compliance Team

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infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Dear Mr Al-Safi,

 

Thank you for your patience in reference to your Freedom of Information
Request from the University of Warwick.

 

During the location and extraction process for this request we have
discovered that we are unable to answer a number of your queries.

 

The University cannot answer questions 1), 2)  or 10) – this is due to the
way in which the information you are seeking is stored and presented, and
the definition of an A-level student you have provided us with :

 

“For data purposes I am seeking people who studied at least three
A-levels.”

 

Each qualification for an applicant is presented as a single entry.
Therefore, to determine who took three or more A-levels would require an
individual checking each line for each applicant to see if the A-levels
totalled three or more and, we feel this process would exceed the cost
limit.

 

Public authorities are not obliged to work past the appropriate costs
limit under section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is
currently £450, which equates to 18 hours of staff time calculated at £25
an hour as set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection
(Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Therefore, we are unable to
answer this part of your request.

 

Additionally, for question 6)

 

“Any scoring or grading system used to assess applicants based on
references, personal statement, current grades and predicted grades.”

 

The University does not use a scoring or grading system, therefore we do
not have any information we you can provide you with this for this
question.

 

However, we believe we may be able to answer questions 3), 4), 7), 8) and
9) if you still wish to proceed? Please let us know by replying to this
email.

 

Finally, for your question 5)

 

“For GLN0, the AS-level grades of the applicants who received offers in
the most recent admissions cycle”

 

Can you clarify to us your meaning in this question as we are a little
unsure? Do you mean average grades of the applicants?

We look forward to hearing from you. The University will be unable to
proceed with your request until you have provided the requested
information and confirmed you still wish to proceed with this request in
light of the questions we cannot answer.

Please note that the 20 working day statutory time limit does not begin
until clarification has been received and we will close your request in 20
working days if we receive no reply.

Kind Regards

 

Legal Compliance Team

 

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Dear Legal Compliance Team,

Can you please answer questions 3), 4), 7), 8) , 9) and 5) if possible.

5) "For GLN0, the AS-level grades of the applicants who received offers in
the most recent admissions cycle"

I would like to see the AS grades, where available, of those who received offers for MORSE/MMORSE. For example:

Applicant - Grades
Z - AAAAA
X - AAAC
Y - ABBC
V - AABC

Any admissions cycle would be fine.

If this isn't possible, provide average grades.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Al-Safi

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Thank you for your reply Mr Al-Safi, we will endeavour to source this information for you within the next 20 working days.

Kind Regards
 
Legal Compliance Team

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infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Al-Safi,

Thank you for your email dated 23^rd July 2016 requesting information
about the University of Warwick. Your request is being considered under
the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please find below your original
request and our response.

I would kindly like to request some raw data from you regarding
undergraduate applications to GLN0, MMORSE and GG13 for the latest
available admissions cycle and the three cycles preceding that.

The data I would like is as follows:

1) The percentage of students studying A levels

The University is unable to provide an answer to this questions due to the
way in which the information is stored and the definition of an A-level
student you have provided us with: “For data purposes I am seeking people
who studied at least three A-levels.”

Each qualification for an applicant is presented as a single entry,
therefore, to determine which students took three or more A-levels it
would be necessary to conduct a manual search of each line for each
applicant to ascertain whether the A-levels totalled three or more and,
which the University estimates would exceed the cost limit. Public
authorities are not obliged to work past the appropriate costs limit under
section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is currently
£450, which equates to 18 hours of staff time calculated at £25 an hour as
set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate
Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Therefore, we are unable to answer this
part of your request.

2) The average number of predicted A*s at A level from successful
applicants (taking into account best 3 grades)

The University is unable to provide an answer to this questions due to the
way in which the information is stored and the definition of an A-level
student you have provided us with: “For data purposes I am seeking people
who studied at least three A-levels.”

Each qualification for an applicant is presented as a single entry,
therefore, to determine which students took three or more A-levels it
would be necessary to conduct a manual search of each line for each
applicant to ascertain whether the A-levels totalled three or more and,
which the University estimates would exceed the cost limit. Public
authorities are not obliged to work past the appropriate costs limit under
section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is currently
£450, which equates to 18 hours of staff time calculated at £25 an hour as
set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate
Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Therefore, we are unable to answer this
part of your request.

3) The average number of A*s for successful applicants at GCSE

Please find the requested information in the attached PDF document,
titled: FOI Request - F292.15-16 – Figures.

4) The number of applicants and the number of offers given

Please find the requested information in the attached PDF document,
titled: FOI Request - F292.15-16 – Figures.

5) For GLN0, the AS-level grades of the applicants who received offers in
the most recent admissions cycle

I would like to see the AS grades, where available, of those who received
offers for MORSE/MMORSE. For example:

Applicant              -                             Grades
Z                               -                            AAAAA
X                               -                            AAAC
Y                               -                            ABBC
V                               -                            AABC

Any admissions cycle would be fine. If this isn't possible, provide
average grades

The University is unable to provide an answer to this questions due to the
way in which the information is stored and the definition of an A-level
student you have provided us with: “For data purposes I am seeking people
who studied at least three A-levels.”

Each qualification for an applicant is presented as a single entry,
therefore, to determine which students took three or more A-levels it
would be necessary to conduct a manual search of each line for each
applicant to ascertain whether the A-levels totalled three or more and,
which the University estimates would exceed the cost limit. Public
authorities are not obliged to work past the appropriate costs limit under
section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is currently
£450, which equates to 18 hours of staff time calculated at £25 an hour as
set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate
Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Therefore, we are unable to answer this
part of your request.

6) Any scoring or grading system used to assess applicants based on
references, personal statement, current grades and predicted grades

The University does not use a scoring or grading system to assess
applicants; it uses internal procedure documents but the University
considers that the exemption under section 43(2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 applies. Section 43(2) states that “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 consider that the release of the
requested information would prejudice the University’s commercial
interests since disclosing this information would reveal the University’s
selection process which could be used by other institutions to their own
commercial advantage. In addition, disclosure would undermine the
selection process and would prejudice the ability of the University to
select the best applicants in an objective manner.

Programmes at the University are rigorous and challenging, and it is
important that the selection procedure is capable of identifying those who
are best equipped to study here therefore the importance of the section
process cannot be underestimated. 

The exemption at section 43(2) is a qualified exemption which means that
the University must consider whether the public interest in maintaining
the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure. The University
recognises that there is legitimate public interest in providing
information about the University’s decision making processes and providing
transparency to applicants in relation to its selection process. There is
however no overriding public interest in the circumstances that would
warrant prejudicing the University’s commercial interests. It is important
to note that disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act is
effectively disclosure to the general public, not solely the person who
has made the request and therefore substantial consideration has been
given to the potential effect of disclosing internal procedure documents
to the public at large. Whilst disclosure might ensure that all potential
applicants were aware of the selection process, the risk that the
University will be admitting unsuitable students, which would have serious
implications, is too great to jeopardise our selection process.

Therefore, the University is of the opinion that the public interest lies
in favour of withholding the requested information as the public interest
is best served by ensuring that the most suitable students are identified
using a selection process that has not been compromised by disclosure and
is able to assess the qualities for which it was designed.

7) Drop out rates (including moving to another degree inside the
university). By drop out rates, I mean the number of people who did not
graduate from the university after leaving the courses mentioned. I would
like this in a numerical format please.

Please find the requested information in the table below:

Table 1 – Number of students who did not continue with their course from
listed UG programmes in Statistics, by academic year:

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |2011/12|2012/13|2013/14|2014/15| |
|--------------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+---------|
|Mathematics & Statistic (BSc | <5 | <5 | 0 | 0 |
|MMathStat) | | | | |
|(USTA-G1G3) | | | | |
|--------------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+---------|
|Master of Maths, Operational Research,| 7 | 11 | 5 | 5 |
|Stats, Economics | | | | |
|(USTA-G300) | | | | |
|--------------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+---------|
|Mathematics & Statistics (BSc) | <5 | <5 | <5 | <5 |
|(USTA-GG14) | | | | |
|--------------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+---------|
|Mathematics, Operational Research, | 7 | 6 | <5 | 9 |
|Stats, Economics | | | | |
|(USTA-Y602) | | | | |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Data Notes

·         This data has been taken from our Educational Analytics
dashboard, with underlying data taken from our student records system, on
09.08.2016. The data is therefore correct as of this date.

·         The data shows the number of students who did not continue with
their course from any year of study of the listed course, for any reason
excluding course transfer.

·         Please note that within the table where we have stated the value
as ‘< 5’ we decline to provide the actual figure on the grounds that the
numbers are very small and could potentially lead to the identification of
individuals, which may place the University in breach of the Data
Protection Act 1998. We are relying on the exemption under section 40(2)
of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in this regard.

8) The average number of A grades at AS-level for successful applicants

Please find the requested information in the attached PDF document,
titled: FOI Request - F292.15-16 – Figures.

9) The percentage of successful applicants studying an AS/A-level in
Further Maths

Please find the requested information in the attached PDF document,
titled: FOI Request - F292.15-16 – Figures.

10) The average A-level Maths UMS for successful applicants and the
lowest.

The University does not use UMS and therefore does not hold this
information.

If you are unhappy with the way in which your request has been handled by
the University of Warwick, you can request an internal review and in the
first instance you are advised to follow the procedure outlined here:
[1]http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/gov/l...

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint,
you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Phone: 0303 123 1113

Website: [2]https://ico.org.uk/

There is no charge for making an appeal.

Yours sincerely,

Jo Horsburgh
For the Registrar

Jo Horsburgh | Strategy Director | University Executive Office
University House | University of Warwick | Coventry | CV4 8UW

 

 

References

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1. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/gov/l...
2. https://ico.org.uk/