Medical School Learning Outcomes

The request was successful.

Dear University of Warwick,

I would like to request all 'Learning Outcomes' or structured learning objectives given to medical students in Years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and or 6 where applicable.

This may be limited to a handbook or may be structured pdf documents that are given for each module, where applicable both are requested.

Yours faithfully,

Ben Evans

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Thank you for your email which has been received by the University's Legal
Team. 

The University undertakes to respond to Freedom of Information requests
within 20 working days and to Subject Access Requests within 40 calendar
days.

Thank you

Legal Compliance Team

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Dear Mr Evans,

Thank you for submitting an FOI request, asking for information from the
University of Warwick. In order to comply with your request, please could
you clarify the following:

·         For what academic year are you seeking the 'Learning Outcomes'
for the University's Medical Students?

·         Can you confirm that you are looking for every learning
objective across all years? The department responsible for sourcing this
data has informed me that this will be a very large data set and we wanted
to ensure we would be providing you with the right information. If not,
could you please specify in more detail what you are seeking?

We look forward to hearing from you. The University will be unable to
proceed with your request until you have provided the requested
information. Please note that the 20 working day statutory time limit does
not begin until clarification has been received and we will close your
request in 20 working days if we receive no reply.

Kind Regards

 

Legal Compliance Team

 

 

show quoted sections

Dear infocompliance, Resource,

Thank you for your quick reply.

I am looking specifically at anatomical learning outcomes but realise that would be difficult for your department to divide from other learning outcomes. Unless you already hold them separately if so that would be great.

If not then all learning outcomes given to all non-clinical years.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Evans

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Dear Mr Evans,

Thank you for your clarification. I will see what the department in question can provide. Could you let us know:

· For what academic year are you seeking the 'Learning Outcomes'
for the University's Medical Students? Such as 2015/16 or 2016/17 etc

Kind Regards,

Legal Compliance Team

show quoted sections

Dear infocompliance, Resource,

I am looking for the current academic year. Or the most recent learning outcomes published.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Evans

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Dear Mr Evans,

Thank you for your email dated 15^th of May 2017 requesting information
about the University of Warwick. Your request is being considered under
the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please find below your original
request and our response.

I would like to request all 'Learning Outcomes' or structured learning
objectives given to medical students in Years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and or 6
where applicable.

This may be limited to a handbook or may be structured pdf documents that
are given for each module, where applicable both are requested.

After seeking clarification you provided the further following
information:

I am looking specifically at anatomical learning outcomes but realise that
would be difficult for your department to divide from other learning
outcomes. Unless you already hold them separately if so that would be
great.

If not then all learning outcomes given to all non-clinical years.

I am looking for the current academic year. Or the most recent learning
outcomes published.

The University declines to provide the information requested as it
considers that the exemption under section 43(2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 applies. Section 43(2) states that “information is
exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be
likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the
public authority holding it)”. The University considers that the release
of the requested information would prejudice its commercial interests
since disclosing this information would reveal the Medical School’s
learning outcomes which could be used by other institutions to their own
commercial advantage.

Course materials:

The University competes in a global higher education market and to be
successful it must attract the brightest and the best students from a
variety of countries. The originality of its programmes coupled with the
intellectual property used to develop course modules and materials are key
to the University’s recruitment process. The University is in constant
competition with other Higher Education Institutions to ‘sell’ its
undergraduate and postgraduate courses to potential students and therefore
to disclose the structured learning objective for medical students would
provide its competitors with an inappropriate advantage, especially as the
learning objectives that the University creates are bespoke for its
course, and are intrinsically linked to the degree qualification that the
University offers. The objectives that are created tie in with the
University’s CBL, clinical skills, clinical phase training and importantly
the examinations across the 4 year programme.

Public interest:

The exemption at section 43(2) is a qualified exemption which means that
the University must consider whether the public interest in maintaining
the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure. The University
recognises that there is legitimate public interest in providing
information about the University’s decision making processes and providing
transparency to students in relation to its learning outcomes and
providing information about courses that it offers. There is however no
overriding public interest in the circumstances that would warrant
prejudicing the University’s commercial interests. It is important to note
that disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act is effectively
disclosure to the general public, not solely the person who has made the
request and therefore substantial consideration has been given to the
potential effect of releasing the structured learning objectives for the
University’s medical students to the public at large. Whilst disclosure
might ensure that all students were aware of the types of material being
taught on a course releasing them could enable a third party such as
another medical school or University who offer medical courses to
potentially plagiarise what the University has to offer on the MBChB.
Additionally, it is a great benefit to the public that Universities are
able to complete fairly and disclosure of the requested information would
harm the University’s ability to recruit the best and brightest students
on a fair basis with its competitors.

Therefore, the University is of the opinion that the public interest lies
in favour of withholding the requested information as the public interest
is best served by ensuring that Universities operate in a fair and
competitive environment and that students have bespoke learning objectives
from the University that have not been compromised by disclosure and the
University is able to provide excellent quality teaching in its MBChB
course.

If you are unhappy with the way in which your request has been handled by
the University of Warwick, you can request an internal review 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 the handling of your request or complaint,
you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Phone: 0303 123 1113

Website: [2]https://ico.org.uk/

There is no charge for making an appeal.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Pennack

Helen Pennack | Director of University Marketing| External Affairs
University House | University of Warwick | Coventry | CV4 8UW

References

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

Dear University of Warwick,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of University of Warwick's handling of my FOI request 'Medical School Learning Outcomes'.

As a number of similar requests have been submitted and have been actioned and the information published. I do not believe the University has correctly handled my request. I will be passing this on to the information commissioner, but as is correct procedure I wish to request an internal review.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

Yours faithfully,

Ben Evans

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Thank you for your email which has been received by the University's Legal
Team. 

The University undertakes to respond to Freedom of Information requests
within 20 working days and to Subject Access Requests within 40 calendar
days.

Thank you

Legal Compliance Team

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Dear Mr Evans,

Thank you for your email requesting an Internal Review of our response to FOI request F254.16-17 regarding Medical School Learning Outcomes.

It would be quite useful for the internal responder to your review to have an insight into the similar requests that have been submitted and actioned and the information published so that they can assess these in line with our original response to your request. Please could you outline if these requests were posed to the University of Warwick and if so what request numbers these were - such as the above reference number "F254.16-17", or if they were external to the University of Warwick if you could provide links to the responses or publicly available information from other Universities so we can pass them onto the internal reviewer.

We look forward to hearing from you soon and will endeavour to respond to your request within 20 working days as per the guidance set out via the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Kind Regards
 
Legal Compliance Team

show quoted sections

Dear Legal Compliance Team,

Thank you for your email.

I have made the same request to every UK medical school. Here are a number of positive responses for your internal review team to assess;

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

Thank you for taking the time to undertake this internal review.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Evans

Dear infocompliance, Resource,

Liverpool have undertaken an internal review and have published the exact information I requested.
They originally rejected the request under Section 43 or trade secret rules. However their internal reviewer agrees that this information does not fall under that category and instead should be published.

You may wish to view a link to the documents released as it shows the information exactly that I wish to access.

If you are currently undertaking an internal review of this matter, please pass this information to the reviewer as I am sure it will be helpful to their process.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

I look forward to receiving the published outcomes from your University.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Evans

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Thank you for your email which has been received by the University's Legal
Team. 

The University undertakes to respond to Freedom of Information requests
within 20 working days and to Subject Access Requests within 40 calendar
days.

Please note that the University's Legal Team is currently undergoing an
Office Move and as of Monday 17th July we will temporarily be based on
another part of the University Campus with limited access to telephones.

If you have any queries do please email us and we will endeavour to reply
to you as soon as possible.

Thank you

Legal Compliance Team

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

Dear Mr Evans,

Thank you kindly for passing on this information, it is most useful, we will provide this to our Internal Reviewer to peruse.

Kind Regards,

Legal Compliance Team.

show quoted sections

infocompliance, Resource, University of Warwick

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Evans,

Thank you for your emails, dated 3^rd, 12^th and 20^th July 2017,
requesting an Internal Review into the way in which the University
responded to your earlier Freedom of Information request (Our Ref:
F254.16-17). I write to confirm that in accordance with our procedures, a
review has been carried out.

Your original requests (in italics) and our original response (in bold):

I would like to request all 'Learning Outcomes' or structured learning
objectives given to medical students in Years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and or 6
where applicable.

This may be limited to a handbook or may be structured pdf documents that
are given for each module, where applicable both are requested.

After seeking clarification you provided the further following
information:

I am looking specifically at anatomical learning outcomes but realise that
would be difficult for your department to divide from other learning
outcomes. Unless you already hold them separately if so that would be
great.

If not then all learning outcomes given to all non-clinical years.

I am looking for the current academic year. Or the most recent learning
outcomes published.

The University declines to provide the information requested as it
considers that the exemption under section 43(2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 applies. Section 43(2) states that “information is
exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be
likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the
public authority holding it)”. The University considers that the release
of the requested information would prejudice its commercial interests
since disclosing this information would reveal the Medical School’s
learning outcomes which could be used by other institutions to their own
commercial advantage.

Course materials:

The University competes in a global higher education market and to be
successful it must attract the brightest and the best students from a
variety of countries. The originality of its programmes coupled with the
intellectual property used to develop course modules and materials are key
to the University’s recruitment process. The University is in constant
competition with other Higher Education Institutions to ‘sell’ its
undergraduate and postgraduate courses to potential students and therefore
to disclose the structured learning objective for medical students would
provide its competitors with an inappropriate advantage, especially as the
learning objectives that the University creates are bespoke for its
course, and are intrinsically linked to the degree qualification that the
University offers. The objectives that are created tie in with the
University’s CBL, clinical skills, clinical phase training and importantly
the examinations across the 4 year programme.

Public interest:

The exemption at section 43(2) is a qualified exemption which means that
the University must consider whether the public interest in maintaining
the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure. The University
recognises that there is legitimate public interest in providing
information about the University’s decision making processes and providing
transparency to students in relation to its learning outcomes and
providing information about courses that it offers. There is however no
overriding public interest in the circumstances that would warrant
prejudicing the University’s commercial interests. It is important to note
that disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act is effectively
disclosure to the general public, not solely the person who has made the
request and therefore substantial consideration has been given to the
potential effect of releasing the structured learning objectives for the
University’s medical students to the public at large. Whilst disclosure
might ensure that all students were aware of the types of material being
taught on a course releasing them could enable a third party such as
another medical school or University who offer medical courses to
potentially plagiarise what the University has to offer on the MBChB.
Additionally, it is a great benefit to the public that Universities are
able to complete fairly and disclosure of the requested information would
harm the University’s ability to recruit the best and brightest students
on a fair basis with its competitors.

Therefore, the University is of the opinion that the public interest lies
in favour of withholding the requested information as the public interest
is best served by ensuring that Universities operate in a fair and
competitive environment and that students have bespoke learning objectives
from the University that have not been compromised by disclosure and the
University is able to provide excellent quality teaching in its MBChB
course.

Your comments regarding the University’s response:

I am writing to request an internal review of University of Warwick's
handling of my FOI request 'Medical School Learning Outcomes'.

 

As a number of similar requests have been submitted and have been actioned
and the information published. I do not believe the University has
correctly handled my request. I will be passing this on to the information
commissioner, but as is correct procedure I wish to request an internal
review.

 

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on
the Internet at this address:
[1]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

 

 

I have made the same request to every UK medical school. Here are a number
of positive responses for your internal review team to assess;

 

[2]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

[3]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

[4]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

[5]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

[6]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

[7]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

[8]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

[9]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

[10]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

 

Liverpool have undertaken an internal review and have published the exact
information I requested.

They originally rejected the request under Section 43 or trade secret
rules. However their internal reviewer agrees that this information does
not fall under that category and instead should be published.

 

You may wish to view a link to the documents released as it shows the
information exactly that I wish to access.

 

If you are currently undertaking an internal review of this matter, please
pass this information to the reviewer as I am sure it will be helpful to
their process.

 

[11]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

 

I look forward to receiving the published outcomes from your University.

 

The University’s response to your comments:

1.   Handling of your original request:

The University handled your request in a timely manner and met the
statutory timescale for responding as set out in Section 10(1) and Section
17 of the Act.

2.   Internal review response:

Upon review, the University is satisfied it can provide the requested
information without prejudicing its commercial interests.

Conclusion:

In summary the University’s internal review process finds:

·         That The University’s response to your original FOI request
incorrectly withheld the information requested under Section 43(2) FOIA
and as such please find the requested information in the attached PDF
document, titled: FOI Request F254 - Medical Student Learning Outcomes.
Please note that some information, in the attached document is redacted
where the release of this would allow the identification of individuals,
as this may place the University in breach of the Data Protection Act
1998. The University is relying in section 40(2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 in this regard.

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint,
you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Phone: 0303 123 1113

Website: [12]www.ico.gov.uk

There is no charge for making an appeal.

Yours sincerely,

Chris Ennew

Professor Christine Ennew OBE | Provost | University Executive Office
University House | University of Warwick | Coventry | CV4 8UW

References

Visible links
1. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
2. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
3. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
4. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
5. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
6. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
7. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
8. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
9. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
10. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
11. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...
12. http://www.ico.gov.uk/