Computer Science Admission Statistics

[Name Removed] made this Freedom of Information request to University of Warwick This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was refused by University of Warwick.

Dear University of Warwick,

I am making a request regarding the statistics for Computer Science (G400) undergraduate applicants in the past four admission cycles.

Could you provide the following information for the past four admission cycles (2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019):
1) The average amount of A*s at GCSE successful applicants have.
2) The average amount of A*s at A-level successful applicants with 3 A-levels have.
3) The average amount of A*s at A-level successful applicants with 4 A-levels have.
4) The percentage of successful applicants with 3 A-levels out of the number of successful applicants.
5) The percentage of successful applicants with 4 A-levels out of the number of successful applicants.
6) The percentage of successful applicants who studied Further Mathematics at A-level out of the total number of applicants.
7) The percentage of successful applicants who studied Physics at A-level out of the total number of applicants.

Yours faithfully,
Mr [Name removed] [Name removed]

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Thank you for your email which has been received by the University's
Information and Data Compliance Team. 
The University undertakes to respond to Freedom of Information Requests
within 20 working days and to Data Subject Rights Requests within one
month.*

If your query is not related to a Freedom of Information Request or Data
Subject Rights Request, but is related to a data protection
matter, please redirect it to [1][email address].

Kind regards

Information and Data Compliance Team.

 

*Please note that due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, the University of
Warwick is following the advice of the UK Government and where possible
staff are working from home. New working arrangements coupled with the
prioritisation of university resources may impact upon the University’s
ability to respond to your request within the statutory timescales and you
may experience delays when making information rights requests during the
pandemic. Thank you for your patience during these unprecedented times.

References

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infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Dear [Name removed],

Thank you for submitting an FOI request, asking for information from the University of Warwick.

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.

Please note, the University cannot provide the GCSE grades as it is not recorded in a (fixed data field) in the application form therefore the University and its departments would need to review each individual student application which would exceed the costs limit under S.12 and would take in excess of the 18 hours allowed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, as indicated above– therefore please could you submit a refined request, and remove the question regarding 'GCSE data' and provide further clarification below.

The University is obliged to offer guidance as to what would be manageable under the costs limit in relation to (statistical undergraduate student applicants) other than GCSE grades so with that in mind, please could you clarify the below. If you do submit a refined request, we would be grateful if you could also please clarify the following:

Please could you clarify and confirm as to what you mean by ‘successful applicant’? Do you mean students who actually took up their place at the University on the Computer Science course for each year?

Once we have received further information on this we can then proceed and investigate your request further.

If you do submit a refined request, the University will treat it as a substitute request to your original request below. In the absence of a refined request, the University will send an official response to your original request, engaging the costs limit exemption under section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 within the 20 working day limit.

Kind Regards

Information and Data Compliance Team

This message is sent in confidence for the addressee only.  It may contain privileged information.  The contents are not to be disclosed to anyone other than the addressee.  Unauthorised recipients must preserve this confidentiality and should please advise the sender immediately of the error in transmission.

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Dear University of Warwick,

Thank you for your quick response.

To clarify, a successful applicant is one that receives an offer, not necessarily one that accepts the offer. If someone does not accept the offer for any reason, they are still to be counted.

Yours sincerely,

[Name removed] E.

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Dear [Name removed],

Thank you for your email.

Firstly, please could you confirm and clarify on the email where we specifically asked whether you are happy to submit a 'refined request' and secondly if you could remove the question regarding GSCES? Please could you re-clarify on your answers and see where we have outlined this within the email below.

Once we have received an answer, we can then proceed with your request.

Kind Regards,

This message is sent in confidence for the addressee only.  It may contain privileged information.  The contents are not to be disclosed to anyone other than the addressee.  Unauthorised recipients must preserve this confidentiality and should please advise the sender immediately of the error in transmission.

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Dear University of Warwick,

I am satisfied with the decision and I intend to submit a refined request as set out below, removing the request regarding GCSE data.

I am making a request regarding the statistics for Computer Science (G400) undergraduate applicants in the past four admission cycles.

Could you provide the following information for the past four admission cycles (2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019):
1) The average (mean) amount of A*s at A-level successful applicants* with 3 A-levels have.
2) The average (mean) amount of A*s at A-level successful applicants* with 4 A-levels have.
3) The percentage of successful applicants* with 3 A-levels out of the number of successful applicants*.
4) The percentage of successful applicants* with 4 A-levels out of the number of successful applicants*.
5) The percentage of successful applicants* who studied Further Mathematics at A-level out of the total number of applicants.
6) The percentage of successful applicants* who studied Physics at A-level out of the total number of applicants.

* A 'successful applicant' is an applicant who received an offer for the G400 Computer Science course. This includes applicants who received an offer but were not accepted or rescinded their offer.

Yours faithfully,
Mr [Name removed] [Name removed]

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Dear [Name removed],

Thanks for the below.

Please can you confirm whether you are only interested in A-levels? Have you said ‘a-levels’ because you want your request to cover UK students and their qualifications only or if you want every type of applicant included – i.e. international students with their A-Level equivalent grades?

Please note that some applicants will have a mix of qualifications – e.g. 1 A level and several BTECs…. Therefore averages are not entirely reliable/accurate and also hard to produce and even harder to produce when including international a-levels. If you are only really interested in A-Levels then limiting it to Home applicants with A-Level qualifications might make the request easier to respond to and provide more accurate figures.

Please be advised that the University will be unable to proceed with your request until you have provided the requested clarifications and the 20 working day statutory time limit does not begin until clarification has been received. Should we not receive a reply to this email, your request will be closed in 20 working days.

Kind Regards,

Information and Data Compliance Team

This message is sent in confidence for the addressee only.  It may contain privileged information.  The contents are not to be disclosed to anyone other than the addressee.  Unauthorised recipients must preserve this confidentiality and should please advise the sender immediately of the error in transmission.

show quoted sections

[Name Removed]

Dear University of Warwick,

I understand the implications of not filtering UK students. However, I intend to request the information in regards to the whole of the applicants for consistency and simplicity. I am only interested in A-Levels, however I intend to request this information without filtering out international applicants and other applicants with different qualifications.

I await the information and I thank you for the timely response.

Yours sincerely,
[Name removed] [Name removed]

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Mr [Name removed] [Name removed]

 

Thank you for your email dated 17 April 2020 requesting information from
the University of Warwick under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please find below your request and our response.

I am making a request regarding the statistics for Computer Science (G400)
undergraduate applicants in the past four admission cycles.

 

Could you provide the following information for the past four admission
cycles (2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019)?

1) The average amount of A*s at GCSE successful applicants have.

2) The average amount of A*s at A-level successful applicants with 3
A-levels have.

3) The average amount of A*s at A-level successful applicants with 4
A-levels have.

4) The percentage of successful applicants with 3 A-levels out of the
number of successful applicants.

5) The percentage of successful applicants with 4 A-levels out of the
number of successful applicants.

6) The percentage of successful applicants who studied Further Mathematics
at A-level out of the total number of applicants.

7) the percentage of successful applicants who studied Physics at A-level
out of the total number of applicants]

 

The University communicated with you regarding your request (email dated
17 ^ April 2020, 21 ^ April 2020, and 01 June 2020), advising that from
its preliminary assessment, in its current format, your FOI request would
be likely to exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12(1) of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is due to the way in the information
requested is held; the University’s Admissions Team would need to extract
and anonymise over 10,000 lines of data, and filter out information of
individuals who have not done A-Levels. The University made over 3000
offers for this course; therefore, it does not have the capacity to search
for this information within 18 hours costs limit.

The University estimated that this would take in excess of the 18 hours
allowed under the Freedom of Information Act therefore the cost of
complying with the request would exceed the appropriate 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.

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which your request has been
handled you can request an 9internal review within one month of our
response and, in the first instance, you are advised to follow the
procedure outlined here:
[1]http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/legal...

If you remain dissatisfied with how your request has been handled, you
have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at: The Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Walter Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire,
SK9 5AF (0303 123 1113) ([2]https://ico.org.uk/) There is no charge for
making an appeal.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Rowley
Ian Rowley | Director of Development, Comms & External Affairs| External
Affairs
University House | University of Warwick | Coventry | CV4 8UW

 

 

References

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