Dr James Knapton
Information Compliance Officer
Mr Scott
By email
Reference: FOI-2013-215
16 July 2013
Dear Mr Scott,
Your request was received on 8 July 2013 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (‘the Act’).
You asked for:
“A list of complaints made my [sic] members of the public about University of Cambridge
students during the academic year 2012/13.”
The information you have requested, while likely to be held by the University, is refused under section
12(1) of the Act. Such ‘complaints’ may have been made to any member of academic or administrative
staff (there are in excess of 9,000 such individuals) and may exist in a variety of hard copy and
electronic formats. Depending on the nature of the complaint, it may have been handled by any of the
numerous individual Schools, Faculties and Departments as listed at http://map.cam.ac.uk/directory/
and no central register or log of information meeting your description is held. The University has
estimated that the time required to determine whether the information is held and thereafter to locate,
retrieve and extract it would considerably surpass 18 hours of staff time charged at £25 per hour, and
therefore that your request exceeds the appropriate limit of £450 as set out in the Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Please note that to
determine whether or not all of the information is held would itself exceed the appropriate limit.
Students are formally disciplined at the University of Cambridge under the General Regulations for
Discipline and through a Tribunal, a Court of Discipline or a Summary Court. Information on the
workings of these processes is set out at:
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/so/2012/statute_b-section6.html
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/so/2012/chapter02-section17.html
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/so/2012/chapter02-section18.html
The Old Schools
Trinity Lane
Cambridge, CB2 1TN
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 764142
Fax: +44 (0) 1223 332332
Email: xxx@xxxxx.xxx.xx.xx
www.cam.ac.uk
I can confirm that no complaints from members of the public about students have led to proceedings
before any of these bodies during the academic year 2012-13.
I should also draw your attention to the fact that each of the 31 Cambridge Colleges is a separate
public authority under the Act and each individual College may also handle complaints about students
from members of the public. A full list is published at:
http://map.cam.ac.uk/colleges/
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a
complaint or request an internal review of this decision, you should write to Dr Kirsty Allen, Head of the
Registrary’s Office, quoting the reference above, at The Old Schools, Trinity Lane, Cambridge, CB2
1TN or send an email marked for her attention to xxx@xxxxx.xxx.xx.xx. The University would normally
expect to receive your request for an internal review within 40 working days of the date of this letter and
reserves the right not to review a decision where there has been undue delay in raising a complaint. If
you are not content with the outcome of your review, you may apply directly to the Information
Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless
you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the University. The Information
Commissioner may be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water
Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF (http://www.ico.org.uk/).
Yours sincerely,
James Knapton
