Dear J.D. Thomas,

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.

NB Due to the current situation with the Covid-19 virus and the University’s response to it, there may be a delay in receiving your response at this time.

Kind regards

Sharon

Sharon Glen | Information Officer | Information Governance Office | Directorate of Compliance and Risk |Professional Services | G7 Christie Building | The University of Manchester | Oxford Road | Manchester | M13 9PL | Tel +44(0) 161 306 7549| www.manchester.ac.uk

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 J D Thomas,

Thank you for your request for information received by The University of
Manchester on 18 May 2020 which was as follows:

I would like to request for information regarding the undergraduate BDS
Dentistry admissions for GRADUATES.

1) Please could you provide me an excel sheet containing all of the
following information for the past 3 BDS Dentistry admission cycles:
2017/2018, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 (if available). If you do not have
information for the years requested, I kindly ask for you to provide the
statistics for the next most recent 3 years of admissions.

* UCAT/UKCAT score cut-off

* Mean UCAT/UKCAT for offer holders

* Number of Applicants – Graduate and Non-Graduate

* Number Interviewed – Graduate and Non-Graduate

* Number of offers made – Graduate and Non-Graduate

2) To what extent is the UCAT used in the selection process, when compared
to academic qualifications (e.g. degree prediction, A-levels, GCSEs) and
the personal statement?

3) Are graduates applying for the program given equal consideration to
those applying without any higher education of such? Are graduates
compared exclusively between graduates or between all applicants?

4) Is there a limit of the number of graduates to be given offers?

5i) To what extent will the A-Level grades of applying graduates be
considered once over the threshold?

5ii) If the A-Level grades are to be more heavily considered, is there a
point system, and how are the points awarded?

The University has now considered your request and unfortunately the
information you are seeking cannot be provided at this time. This is
because admissions staff within the School of Medical Sciences have
advised that in relation to question 1, we are not an accelerate graduate
entry dental course, and we do not separate applications via graduates or
non-graduates. To be able to respond to this question we’d therefore need
to go through each application received to manually check whether it was a
graduate application or non-graduate application. In the past two years
alone we have received over 1876 applications for the BDS Dentistry
course. Even at a conservative estimate of 5 minutes per record, this
manual process would take in excess of 150 hours to complete, and this is
still not accounting for the third year you have requested so the true
time would be even longer than this. This task would therefore clearly
take in excess of the 18 hour ‘Appropriate Limit’ (as defined in the
Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees)
Regulations 2004). As a result, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 applies and regrettably this task cannot be undertaken at this
stage. This email serves to act as a refusal notice for this request, as
per Section 17 (5) of the Act.

I can however advise as follows in relation to the remainder of your
request. We are providing this information as it was more readily
available however it does not affect the University’s legal right to rely
on the Fees Regulations for the remainder of your request.

1.       We don’t have a cut off based approach for the UCAT. The UCAT
doesn’t form the entire assessment – as applications for Dentistry are
assessed holistically, we look at the entirety of the application
(qualifications, UCAT score, work experience etc.) in order to make an
assessment.

2.       This information is available here:
[1]https://www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/study/d.... The UCAT
is looked at as a part of the application. It does not form the entire
selection for the BDS programme.

3.       Yes, they’re given equal consideration. All applicants have to
meet the published academic entry criteria and not score a band 4 in the
SJT element of the UCAT to be considered and are assessed as one group.

4.       No. as we’re not an accelerated graduate entry course, we do not
earmark a certain number of places for graduates.

5.       i) They have to meet the minimum BBB requirement to be considered

ii) We do not grade the qualifications or rank them.

I trust this information is of use to you however 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 [2][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 [3]www.ico.org.uk.

Kind regards

Sharon

Sharon Glen | Information Officer | Information Governance Office |
Directorate of Compliance and Risk |Professional Services | G7 Christie
Building | The University of Manchester | Oxford Road | Manchester | M13
9PL | Tel +44(0) 161 306 7549| [4]www.manchester.ac.uk

[5]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:
[6]www.dataprotection.manchester.ac.uk

References

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1. https://www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/study/d...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.ico.org.uk/
4. http://www.manchester.ac.uk/
6. http://www.dataprotection.manchester.ac....