
INFORMATION COMPLIANCE TEAM
University Offices, Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JD
Ref: 202312/1145
08 January 2024
Reply to request for information under the Freedom of Information Act
Your ref
Email of 5 December 2023
_
I am writing to request under the Freedom of Information act, information regarding
admissions for undergraduate Chemistry (F100), Medicine (A100) and PPE (L0V0) at Christ
Church, Oxford. Please let me know, where applicable for the courses, separated by year for
all years from 2019 entry:
1) the number of applicants, shortlisted and offers made for each course, with "offers" being
separated into offers at christ church, and offers from a different college
Request
2) the way that interviews are scored for each course
3) where applicable, the way that an overall interview score is formed (i.e. if there are 2
chemistry interviews, is the average of the 2 taken as an overall score?)
4) the average interview score(s) for each subject, for all shortlisted applicants and for all
applicants made an offer
Dear Jason Hall,
I write in reply to your email requesting the information detailed above.
Items 1 & 4
Please find the requested information in the attached workbook.
We consider that disclosure of this information in the exact form requested might enable those with access to
other information or knowledge to identify individuals and learn new information about those individuals e.g.
those on the same course or at the same college. For this reason, we have taken a number of measures to
reduce the risk of identification, including aggregating interview data.
In taking these measures, we are applying the exemption in section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA). Section 40(2) provides an exemption from disclosure for information that is the personal data of an
individual other than the requester, where disclosure would breach any of the data protection principles in Article
5 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We consider that disclosure of the information requested
in the exact form requested would breach the first data protection principle, which requires that personal data
is processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner. Disclosure would be unfair to the individuals concerned,
as it would be contrary to their reasonable and legitimate expectations. They would not reasonably expect that
information relating to their application to Oxford would be made public under the FOIA without their consent.

2
For the disclosure of personal data to be lawful, it must have a lawful basis under Article 6 of the GDPR. There
are six possible lawful bases in Article 6; we do not consider that any of them would be satisfied in respect of
the disclosure.
The exemption in section 40(2) is an absolute exemption and is not subject to the public interest test provided
for in section 2(2)(b) of the FOIA. To the extent that the public interest is relevant in this case, the University
considers it is satisfied by the information provided.
Please note that Medicine do not score their interviews.
Items 2 & 3
This information is not held centrally. You may wish to contact the college directly, as colleges are separate
legal entities for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act.
INTERNAL REVIEW
If you are dissatisfied with this reply, you may ask the University to review it by e-mailing
xxx@xxxxx.xx.xx.xx.
A request for internal review should be submitted no later than 40 working days from the date of this letter.
THE INFORMATION COMMISSIONER
If, after the internal review, you are still dissatisfied, you have the right under FOIA to apply to the Information
Commissioner for a decision as to whether your request has been dealt with in accordance with the FOIA. You
can do this online using the
Information Commissioner’s complaints portal.
Yours sincerely
FOI Oxford
Information Compliance Team