If you have submitted a Freedom of Information request please accept this
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expect a response from us within 20 working days. 
For details on how we use your personal information, please see UCL's
general privacy
notice: [1]www.ucl.ac.uk/legal-services/privacy/general-privacy-notice
Data Protection Office
Office of General Counsel 

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Dear Pranav,

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request of 23 July 2022.
Apologies for the delay in responding to your request.

We have completed the compilation of information in response to your
request which read as follows:

Please could you provide the following information:

1) The (anonymised) year means of all first-year students on the BSc/MEng
Computer Science courses in the 2021-22 academic year. Note that by "year
mean" I mean the credit-weighted average mark of the modules that students
take in their first year of these courses.

2) Alternatively, if the information in (1) cannot be provided, could you
instead provide: the 50th, 75th, 90th, 95th, 97th, and 99th percentile
year means for first-year BSc/MEng Computer Science students in the
2021-22 academic year. Please provide a single set of percentiles for the
combined BSc/MEng cohort, rather than separate figures for each course.

We can confirm that we do hold information of the description specified in
your request and this information is provided in the attached spreadsheet.

Whilst UCL is committed to openness and transparency, we are also mindful
of our obligations under the Data Protection regime, and therefore take
steps to anonymise data before it is released. We adopt the following
approach when releasing statistics that relate to people, to prevent
unauthorised disclosure of information that relates to individuals:

•               Percentages that are based on a group of 22 individuals or
less are not provided, and this includes requests for percentile
information about marks.

•               Averages based on 7 or fewer individuals are not provided.

We have identified that there is a risk of the identification of
underlying individuals in the information that you have requested. The
information has been withheld because, with such low numbers, even
providing this information on an anonymised basis it is possible that the
underlying individuals could be identified, which means that this is
personal data of third parties or, if linked with other personal
identifiers in the public domain, would be likely to become personal data.
This relates to the whole of question one, and the 97^th and 99^th
percentiles in question two. This information has been withheld under
Section 40(2) of the FOIA by virtue of Section 40(3A)(i).

Section 40(2) of the FOIA allows a public authority to withhold
information under the FOIA where (i) the requested information is personal
data relating to someone other than the requester and (ii) its disclosure
would breach any of the Data Protection principles. In this case, we
believe that the requested information could relate to and identify
individuals and therefore would be personal data. The disclosure of these
personal data would not be within the reasonable expectations of the
individuals concerned and it would be unfair to do so; this therefore
breaches the first Data Protection principle.

As the Section 40(2) exemption is an absolute one, there is no need to
conduct a public interest test.

You are free to use any information supplied for your own use, including
for non-commercial research purposes. The information may also be used for
the purposes of news reporting. However, any other type of re-use, for
example by publishing or issuing copies to the public, will require the
permission of the copyright owner.

If you are unhappy with our response to your request and wish to make a
complaint or request a review of our decision, please email
[1][email address]. Emails should include the words ‘Internal
Review’ in the subject and be marked For the Attention of the
Vice-President (Operations), alternatively you should write to:

Vice-President (Operations)

University College London

Gower Street

London

WC1E 6BT

Please note, complaints and requests for internal review received more
than two months after the initial decision will not be handled.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner at the address given below.
You should do this within two months of our final decision.

If you have any queries or concerns, please contact me using the details
provided in this letter and including the request reference number.

Further information on the Freedom of Information Act is available from
the Information Commissioner’s Office:

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

SK9 5AF

01625 545700

[2]www.ico.org.uk

[3][email address]

Kind regards,

Josh Keyte

Data Protection and Freedom of Information Adviser

University College London

Legal Services

Data Protection: [4][email address] FOI: [5][UCL request email]

References

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3. mailto:[email address]
4. mailto:[email address]
5. mailto:[UCL request email]

Dear Sirs,

Please find attached the response to your request.

Best wishes,

Andy Smith | Interim Vice-President (Operations)

UCL | Gower Street | London | WC1E 6BT |

t: +44 (0)20 3108 3801 | e: [1][email address] | w:
[2]www.ucl.ac.uk  

University College London | London’s Global University

Executive Assistant: Louise Moore | e: [3][email address] |   

Diary Manager: Maria Lewis | e: [4][email address] |   

References

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2. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. mailto:[email address]