Thank you for your e-mail. The University will endeavour to respond to
your request under the Freedom of Information Act within 20 working days.

However, please note that due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, there may
be unavoidable delays in responding to your request. We would be grateful
if you could bear with us if we are unable to respond within the statutory
time-frame, and we apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause.

We may need to ask you certain questions to clarify your request to ensure
we fully understand what information is being requested. If so, the 20
working day deadline will be calculated once we have received such
clarification. 

The University's A-Z index can help in locating information that is
publicly available on the University's
website: [1]http://www.bristol.ac.uk/index/

Our Publication Scheme is available
at: [2]http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/s...

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) annually publish certain
data about students and higher education: [3]https://www.hesa.ac.uk/.
Bespoke datasets can be requested from
Jisc: [4]https://www.jisc.ac.uk/tailored-datasets.

For further information about the University's FOI procedure, please
see: [5]http://www.bristol.ac.uk/secretary/foi/

References

Visible links
1. http://www.bristol.ac.uk/index/
2. http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/s...
3. https://www.hesa.ac.uk/
4. https://www.jisc.ac.uk/tailored-datasets
5. http://www.bristol.ac.uk/secretary/foi/

Dear J Singh,

Freedom of Information Request (our reference FOI20-233)

We refer to your Freedom of Information request dated 17^th May. We
apologise for the delay in responding. In line with government advice, the
University has put in place measures to protect staff and students during
the current Covid-19 pandemic, including staff working from home. We hope
you will appreciate that this has led to some unavoidable disruption and
we regret that we have not been able to respond to requests as quickly as
we would wish. You requested the following information:

“I am writing to you regarding your BDS Dentistry (A206) course.
Could you please provide myself with an Excel spreadsheet with the
following data/information from the last 2 admission cycles:
1) A Level grades (predicted)
2) A Level grades (achieved)
3) UCAT score
4) Whether an offer was made
5) Whether they were interviewed

6) Could you also provide me with the average GCSE grade for Biology,
Chemistry and Mathematics for those who were given an offer?
7) Also, what was the lowest GCSE grade combination for those who were
given an interview and given an offer and what was the lowest GCSE grade
in Biology for offer holders?”

University’s Response

Further to Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the “Act”) we
confirm that the information requested is held by the University of
Bristol (the “University”).

However, some of the information is exempt from disclosure. In relation to
questions 1,2 and 4, the University relies on s.21 of the Act to refuse
disclosure, namely that the information is already reasonable accessible
to you. The information requested is available from UCAS through
their [1]UCAS EXACT service. UCAS will be able to provide you with a
profile of A Level grades and offers made.

Please find attached the information relating to questions 3, 5, and 7
(for 2018). Please note that we are unable to provide a line by line
analysis for each applicant as it could be possible to identify the
individuals concerned. The information is exempt from disclosure under
Section 40 (2) of the Act - third party personal information. Any
information is exempt from disclosure under the Act if it relates to or is
supplied by another individual and disclosure of that information would
contravene any of the principles of the Data Protection Act (2018). For
this reason, the University does not release exact counts of less than
five because these are personal data of third parties or, if linked with
other personal identifiers in the public domain, would be likely to become
personal data.

Currently our GCSE data is not recorded in a reportable format. To
locate, retrieve and extract this information as requested is estimated to
exceed the Freedom of Information appropriate limit (£450/18hrs) as set
out at section 12 of the Act. We have however been able to obtain some of
this information for 2018. Please see attached document.

It may be of interest to know that there are no fixed restrictions on GCSE
requirements except when explicitly stated grades are needed for
individual subjects. GCSEs and/or equivalent level 2 qualifications
contribute to an overall application score. Details of how applications
are scored can be found on the course admissions statement which is
available on our website.

Internal Review Procedure

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, then you have a
right under Section 50 of the Act to request an internal review.  All such
requests must be sent to us within 40 days, and must clearly state our
reference number (at the top of this email) and your reason for requesting
an internal review.  We will aim to respond to your request for an
internal review within 20 working days of receipt.

Your request for an internal review should be sent to
[2][University of Bristol request email], quoting your FOI reference number.
Alternatively, you could post it to:

Director of Legal Services

Secretary’s Office

University of Bristol

Beacon House

Queens Road

Bristol

BS8 1QU

Information Commissioners Office

Should you remain dissatisfied with the final outcome of the internal
review then you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner (the
“ICO”) for an independent review.  The ICO is the Government’s Independent
Body responsible for overseeing the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the
Data Protection Act 2018 and The Environmental Information Regulations
2004.

Please note the ICO will only review cases that have exhausted the
University’s internal review procedure. All correspondence to the ICO must
quote the University’s reference number and your reasons for your appeal. 
The ICO’s contact details are as follows:

The Information Commissioners Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

More information can be found at the ICO’s website
at [3]http://www.ico.org.uk

Kind Regards

Freedom of Information Team

University of Bristol

References

Visible links
1. https://www.ucas.com/data-and-analysis/d...
2. mailto:[University of Bristol request email]
3. http://www.ico.org.uk/