Diversity statistics for 2016-2018 [undergraduate law]

Waiting for an internal review by University of Bolton of their handling of this request.

Jasonara Stathamara

Dear Sir/Madam,

The following request refers to students who enrolled in a law-related (i.e. Group M) course at the university in the following three years: 2016, 2017, 2018.

By ‘law-related course’, I refer to both single honours law and any law with a language, law with a year abroad, or joint honours law programmes which admitted students during this period.

My request:

Please provide the following information about the relevant students’ background for each of the three years (2016, 2017, 2018):

a. The % of students who are Black or Minority Ethnic (‘BME’);

b. The % of UK-domiciled students who have come from a postcode that falls within POLAR4 young participation quintiles 1 or 2;

c. The % of all students (UK and EU and non-EU) who attended a private/fee-paying/independent school;

d. The 10 most commonly-occurring secondary schools among all students who enrolled, whether these are located in the UK or abroad. Please provide this as a list in descending order of enrolment.

Best Regards,
Jason Markoutsis

SDM Enquiries, University of Bolton

1 Attachment

SECTION 17 : REFUSAL NOTICE

 

Dear Jason,

 

Further to your request dated 6 August 2019 requesting information under
Section 1(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) the
University has considered your request and hereby issues this refusal
notice under section 17 of the Act with the application of section 21 of
the Act, which provides an exemption where the information is reasonably
accessible to the applicant by other means. 

 

The University believes that your enquiry would be best fulfilled by the
HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) Team at:
[1]https://www.hesa.ac.uk/ .  It is the University’s understanding that
HESA are happy to deal with such requests.

 

If you are unhappy with the way that the University has handled your
request, you may ask for an internal review.  You can do this by return
email requesting an internal review.

 

If we are unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you have
the right under Section 50 of the Act to apply directly to the Information
Commissioner for a decision.  The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at:

 

First Contact Team
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF
[2]www.ico.org.uk

Full details of the complaints procedure can be found
at:   [3]https://ico.org.uk/concerns

 

Yours sincerely,

The University of Bolton

 

 

The University of Bolton

Deane Road

Bolton

BL3 5AB

 

Tel: +44 1204 900600

Fax: +44 1204 903088 

Email: [4][University of Bolton request email]

Internet: [5]http://www.bolton.ac.uk

[6]University of Bolton

 

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References

Visible links
1. https://www.hesa.ac.uk/
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/
3. https://ico.org.uk/concerns
4. mailto:[University of Bolton request email]
5. http://www.bolton.ac.uk/
6. http://www.bolton.ac.uk/

Jasonara Stathamara

Dear SDM Enquiries,

I am issuing a request for an internal review of the university's recent decision.

I am requesting an internal review on the grounds that the s.21 exemption (information reasonably available to the applicant by other means) has not been applied correctly.

I have gone through the HESA website, and the information I am looking for has not been provided. Specifically:

1) Data on the % of law students who are BME is not available. The only relevant data (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis...) is still very far off, as it is produced at sector, not university course, level.

2) Data on POLAR is, again, not provided at institution and course level. This link summarises the data release of the relevant POLAR data: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/01-02-2018/w....

3) Data on the secondary or further education a student went through, and whether it belongs to the private or state sector, is seemingly not available at all. I have linked two search results (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/search/site/priva... and https://www.hesa.ac.uk/search/site/fee-p...) as proof.

4) Data on the names of frequently-occurring schools is not available anywhere on the site, and I’m unsure as to whether it is even held by HESA.

For questions 1 and 2, I could submit a custom request for the data. However, this would be costly. As explained here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/services/custom/d..., the minimum charge for a longer enquiry, such as the one I have submitted to your university, is a minimum of £150.00 + VAT. I am unfortunately not in a position where I am eligible for one of the discounts to this sum, as I am a recent graduate who is not collecting the data for academic research.

To conclude: even if I were to collect the entirety of the data through a HESA custom request, the cost would be prohibitive, meaning that the information is not ‘reasonably’ accessible for me in particular. Moreover, the data for questions 3 and 4 is likely not held by HESA in the first place.

Yours sincerely,

Jason