Medicine A100 statistics for International Applicants for 2021 entry

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Dear Trinity College, Cambridge,

I would highly appreciate if you could provide me with the following information, all of which pertains to overseas applications to Medicine A100 specifically at the Trinity College for 2021 entry:

1. The total number of overseas applicants, and the total number of overseas applicants invited to interview
2. The average BMAT scores for all overseas applicants who applied to Trinity College, and the average BMAT scores for those invited to interview
3. The total number of overseas applicants who were invited and had Special Consideration form for the BMAT
4. The average score of the Special Consideration Form (ranging from 1 to 5) for those who applied, and the average score (ranging from 1 to 5) of those who were invited to interview
5. The lowest and highest BMAT scores for those who applied, for Section 1, 2, and 3.
6. The lowest and highest BMAT scores for those invited to interview, for Section 1, 2, and 3.
7. The average GCSE/IGCSE scores (or equivalent if possible) of those who applied to Trinity College
8. The GCSE/IGCSE scores (or equivalent if possible) of those who were invited to interview at Trinity College

Additionally, I would appreciate if you could provide me with further information regarding:

9. The total number of overseas applications received for each year for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 entry.
10. The total number of overseas applications invited to interview for each year for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 entry

To clarify, when I refer to overseas applicants, I am referring to those applicants who are classified as Overseas for fee status purposes. I appreciate that this can be a lot of information to collate, and due to the pandemic my FOI response may be delayed.

Yours faithfully,
Shivang Gupta

foi, Trinity College, Cambridge

Dear Shivang Gupta,

I am the Freedom of Information Officer for Trinity College Cambridge, responding (with apologies for lateness) to your request of 7 January for information about applications for undergraduate admission in October 2021 to read Medicine.

I am sorry to have to tell you that 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 August 2021.

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... 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.

Only your questions 1 to 8 are about the current round of admissions, to which the above decision applies. The answers to your questions 9 and 10, presuming that you are only interested in applications for medicine, are, for entry in the four years 2017 to 2020 in turn, applications 27, 28, 22 and 40, called for interview 9,6,8 and 8.

Should you have any queries or complaints about this reply you may write to the Junior Bursar, Mr E Knapp 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 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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Dear Trinity College,

Thank you so very much for your response, and providing me with the information for questions 9 to 10. I completely understand the delays in response due to the pandemic.

Your response mentions: "I am sorry to have to tell you that 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"

Please forgive me if I'm mistaken but I was under the impression that the current round of assessment and decision-making is complete for the Medicine A100 course, and all decisions have been made as of 25th January 2021. I would highly appreciate if you could clarify. If the current round of assessment is still not deemed complete, then I would hope to write to you again afterwards.

Once again, thank you very much for your help. Hope you have a pleasant day.

Yours sincerely,
S G