Computer science mature applicants stats

The request was successful.

Dear Trinity College, Cambridge,

I am writing to request stats for mature applicants for computer science, for the past 6 years (you may reduce this to an acceptable amount if 6 is for some reason too many).
Please include TMUA/CSAT scores and whether they were accepted or not. Also include if they were placed in the winter pool (and if possible if their acceptance was from winter pool). Finally, please provide data on the qualifications applied with (this can be in a separate section, or however you find it easiest to include) and also a table with a breakdown on the ages of the applicants (in brackets of eg. 21, 22, 23, 24-27, 28-32, 32-35, 35+ or similar) to preserve anonymity.

Yours faithfully,

Lucy Bamford

Chris Morley,

Dear Lucy Bamford,

I am the Freedom of Information Officer for Trinity College Cambridge,
replying - with apologies for lateness - to your request of 20 July for
information about mature applicants for undergraduate entry to study
Computer Science.

I fear that there are two problems, as described (and repeated below) in
the response that I have just sent to your previous request about all
applicants (mature or otherwise) for Computer Science, and a third
problem specific to mature applicants.

Firstly, under the College's data retention and protection policy for
Admissions (revised April 2021), all information about rejected
applicants has now been deleted. This is in line with Article 5 of the
General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), which sets out the principle
that personal information should be "kept in a form which permits
identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the
purposes for which the personal information are processed". As
information on rejected applicants is no longer needed for admissions
purposes, it has therefore been deleted. This now applies to both the
2019 and 2020 entry cycles about which you enquire. So for those cycles
information could be provided about only those applicants who were in
fact admitted - and that may not suit your purposes in enquiring.
Please let me know if that is not the case.

Secondly, on the 2021 entry cycle, for which we shall retain information
about all applicants, whether or not admitted, until March 2022, it has
recently been decided, following the example and encouragement of the
University, not to release any data, statistical or otherwise, about any
aspect of application for undergraduate admission in October 2021, while
the current round of assessment and decision-making is under way. This
covers overall data, or data for any individual subject, from enquiries,
through applications, interviews and offers, to eventual outcomes. With
consideration of examination results required, and arrangements for
possible late offers, the 'current round' is not expected to end until
later this month when final decisions are taken.

The reason for this decision is that piecemeal disclosure of information
part-way through the current round is thought likely (here we refer to
section 36(2)(c) of the FoI Act), to prejudice the effective conduct of
public affairs, namely the applications and admissions process for the
Colleges of Cambridge University, which forms a fundamental part of
their mission as educational institutions. Disclosure of detailed
statistics within the current round is thought likely to prejudice the
fairness and confidentiality of the admissions process, which is still
ongoing and under which each applicant should have the same information
and each application be treated by the same process. The public
interest in our maintaining the exemption under section 36(2)(c), so as
to avoid this prejudice, is thought in all the circumstances to outweigh
the public interest in disclosure.

We note that every year detailed information about the completed
admissions cycle is published, supplementing information about previous
cycles, at https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.u...,
and so is available equally to all potential applicants. This
publication includes interactive provision of requested histograms about
individual colleges and subjects, extensive tables of data, and a full
report.

If you would like to have information next month, of the kind you
request, about the current round for entry this October, please let me
know.

The third problem is that mature applicants to the College are normally
so few each year that the danger arises that information provided may
allow individuals to be identified. So I fear that if you do request
information about mature applicants, for the earlier cycles on only
those admitted, and/or next month on all applicants for 2021 entry, this
problem of low numbers may be encountered.

Should you have any queries or complaints about this reply you may write
to the Junior Bursar at Trinity College, Cambridge. Any complaint
should be in writing and should set out clearly the grounds for such
complaint. Should you not be satisfied with the outcome, you have the
right of appeal to the Information Commissioner.

Yours faithfully

Chris Morley

Dr C.T. Morley, Secretary of the Council,
Trinity College Cambridge CB2 1TQ
Direct: 01223 338469
Email: [Trinity College, Cambridge request email]
Web: http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/

Registered charity number 1137604

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Dear Chris Morley,

I am writing to request the information as you have suggested, on only accepted applicants (and from the current round when possible). To avoid anonymity issues with mature applicants, you may feel free to provide separate tables of the scores/grades requested, and then whether the applicant with that score was accepted or not. Please group the scores to the largest extent that it is possible, and if necessary include only (aligning these 2 scores) the TMUA and CSAT scores along with whether accepted or not for each mature applicant.

Yours sincerely,

Lucy Bamford

foi, Trinity College, Cambridge

1 Attachment

Dear Lucy Bamford,

Here attached, on a spreadsheet, is the reduced information about mature applicants requested in your email of 26 August. I am told that we do not record the age of applicants, only the fact that they are 'mature' as defined by the University.

Yours sincerely

Chris Morley

Chris Morley, Secretary of the College Council
Trinity College Cambridge CB2 1TQ
Direct: 01223 338469
Email: [Trinity College, Cambridge request email]
Web: http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/

Registered charity number 1137604

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