Registration of BIMM - Manchester First Degree Courses

The request was partially successful.

Dear Student Loans Company Limited,

Please can you provide all information relating to the accreditation of first degree courses at BIMM - Manchester (UCAS B39 Campus R).

Please provide copies of any correspondence or electronic tasks between yourselves and the Department for Skills and Innovation relating to the acceptability of the institute in general (all campuses) and the Manchester campus in particular for student finance. Where there is any discrepancy between courses being accepted for student finance at one campus and the same course not being accepted at another then please provide any associated information that could justify this decision.

Yours faithfully,

Tim Wright

FOI Publication Scheme, Student Loans Company Limited

Dear Mr Wright

Thank you for your email dated 11/01/2014. Your request has been allocated
reference 06-14.

A full response will be issued in due course in line with the statutory
timescales.

Yours sincerely

Louise Chapman
Legal Executive
Student Loans Company Limited
100 Bothwell Street
Glasgow
G2 7JD

Tel: 0141 243 3062 (ext 33062)

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FOI Publication Scheme, Student Loans Company Limited

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Wright

I refer to your email dated 11/01/2014 requesting the following information
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”):

"Please can you provide all information relating to the accreditation of
first degree courses at BIMM - Manchester (UCAS B39 Campus R)

Please provide copies of any correspondence or electronic tasks between
yourselves and the Department for Skills and Innovation relating to the
acceptability of the institute in general (all campuses) and the Manchester
campus in particular for student finance. Where there is any discrepancy
between courses being accepted for student finance at one campus and the
same course not being accepted at another then please provide any
associated information that could justify this decision."

Response

By way of clarification of your request, SLC and the Department for
Business, Innovation and Skills are not involved with the accreditation of
first degree courses, rather the specific designation of courses at
alternative/private providers. We have interpreted your request to relate
to the specific designation of courses at BIMM Manchester campus.

We can confirm that having conducted a search of our records the Student
Loans Company Limited (“SLC”) does hold information that falls within the
scope of your request. However, having reviewed your request I have
concluded that this information cannot be released as the cost of complying
with your request would exceed the appropriate limit set out in the Freedom
of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations
2004. The limit applying to us is £450 or 2.5 days (calculated to be 18
hours of staff time at £25 per hour). The reason for this is that your
request is considered too wide ranging in order to collate all
correspondence/electronic tasks relating to BIMM in general.

The information is therefore exempt under section 12(1) of the FOIA and in
accordance with section 17(1) of the FOIA this letter constitutes a Refusal
Notice in respect of your request.

By way of providing advice and assistance under section 16 of the FOIA, we
can confirm that the following courses have been specifically designated
for the purposes of student support at BIMM Ltd’s Manchester campus at 8
Great Marlborough Street, Manchester, M1 5NN:

· 3 year full time BA Professional Musicianship
· 3 year full time BA Event Management
· 3 year full time BA Music Business

We can confirm that these courses are registered on our systems, allowing
eligible students access to student support.

We have also attached copies of the most recent specific designation
correspondence, which includes reference to the Manchester campus.

Please note that the names of any individuals have been redacted, as we
consider them to be exempt under section 40(2) of the FOIA. SLC considers
names of junior members of SLC and other organisations to be personal data
belonging to the individuals under the Data Protection Act 1998 and it
would be unfair to those individuals if their details were to made publicly
available.

Internal review process

I trust that my answer to you is satisfactory; however, if you are unhappy
with the decisions made by me in relation to your freedom of information
request, you may ask SLC for an internal review.

Any such appeal would be conducted by Chris Andrew, Company Secretary, 100
Bothwell Street, Glasgow, G2 7JD. You may request a review by writing to
Chris Andrew or by emailing the FOI Office
([SLC request email]). SLC will only consider requests for
internal reviews which are made within 3 months of the date of our original
response (except in exceptional circumstances).

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.
The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Please note that freedom of information responses may be published on our
corporate website www.slc.co.uk under the Freedom of Information disclosure
pages
(
http://www.slc.co.uk/freedom-of-informat...
).

Yours sincerely

Louise Chapman
Legal Executive
Student Loans Company Limited
100 Bothwell Street
Glasgow
G2 7JD

Tel: 0141 243 3062 (ext 33062)

(See attached file: FOI request 06-14 communications.pdf)

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