Ethnic Origins of University College London's undergraduate students

The request was successful.

Dear University College London,

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 I seek access to the
following information about undergraduate students at UCL, from the
academic year 2008/2009 to the academic year 2013/14.

1. The ethnic origin of students enrolled in undergraduate
programmes at UCL listed by academic year - either
as raw numbers for each category of ethnicity (e.g. White British),
or as a percentage of total applicants.

2. The ethnic origin of applicants to undergraduate programmes at
UCL listed by academic year - either as raw numbers for each
category of ethnicity (e.g. White British), or as a percentage of
total applicants.

If the decision is made to withhold some of this data using
exemptions in the Data Protection Act, please inform me of that
fact and cite the exemptions used. If some parts of this request
are easier to answer than others, I would ask that you release the
available data as soon as possible. I would like to receive the
data as a spreadsheet, not as a PDF file.

If you need any clarification then please do not hesitate to
contact me. Under Section 16 it is your duty to provide advice and
assistance and so I would expect you to contact me if you find this
request unmanageable in any way.

I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have
received this request, and I look forward to hearing from you
within the 20-working day statutory time period.

Yours faithfully,

Sophie Pelican

Finance.FOI Requests, University College London

If you have submitted a Freedom of Information request please accept this
email as acknowledgement that your request has been received. You should
expect a response from us within 20 working days.
Data Protection & FOI
Legal Services
UCL

Finance.FOI Requests, University College London

Dear Sophie,

I am writing further to your recent request for information.

You may wish to note that the answer to the first part of your request is available online form the UCL website:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/srs/statistics/

Tables T and T2 provide this information.

Please be aware that for part of your request we do not hold the ethnicity data for non-UK applicants as it is against UCAS policy to collect this data. We do collect the data for non-UK students once they enrol at UCL, which is how we are able to prepare table T2 of the above.

We would therefore only be able to provide data on the ethnicity of UK-domiciled UG students. Please could you confirm whether or not you still require this more limited information?

Regards,

Alex Daybank
Data Protection & FOI
Legal Services
University College London

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Dear Alex,

Yes please, the data on UK-domiciled UG students would be great. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Sophie Pelican

Daybank, Alex, University College London

2 Attachments

Dear Sophie,

 

I am writing in response to your request for information received on 2
April and clarified on 20 April. Please accept my apologies for the fact
that we were unable to respond within 20 working days.

 

Please find attached information relating to the ethnicity of UK-domiciled
UG students. Please note that this information begins with the 2009
academic year, we are unable to provide the information you requested for
the 2008 year. This is because this the data to fulfil this aspect of your
request is held on a legacy system and not readily accessible and we have
estimated that it would cost UCL more than £450 to comply with your
complete request. This figure, known as the ‘appropriate limit’, is
specified by regulation, representing the cost of one person spending 18
hours determining whether we hold the information, and locating,
retrieving and / or extracting it.

 

In estimating whether complying with the request would exceed the
appropriate limit, and in accordance with Regulation 4 (3) of the Freedom
of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees)
Regulations 2004, we have taken into account the costs we would reasonably
expect to incur in:

 

·         determining whether the University holds the information;

 

·         locating the information, or a document/s containing it;

 

·         retrieving the information, or a document/s containing it;

 

·         extracting the information from a document/s containing it; and

 

·         Collating the information.

 

 

We have calculated that the cost of complying with your request would be
in excess of the appropriate limit. Consequently, we are not obliged by
the Freedom of Information Act to comply with this aspect of your request
and will not be processing it further. This response acts as a refusal
notice under section 17(1) of the Act for this element of your request.

 

This is based on an estimation of the amount of time it would take us to
retrieve and collate the information relating to 2008 and is in addition
to the 6 hours already spent obtaining the data for 2009-2014.

 

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 Provost
Operations, alternatively you should write to:

 

Vice Provost Operations

University College London

1-19 Torrington Place

London WC1E 7HB

 

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

 

Telephone 01625 545700

[2]www.ico.gov.uk

 

 

Regards,

 

 

Alex Daybank

Data Protection & FOI

Legal Services

University College London

 

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