Restrictions on which companies the careers department assists in recruiting university members
To whom it may concern,
This is a request for information through the Freedom of Information Act.
1). Does your university have an active policy in place regarding which companies the careers department does and does not assist in recruiting university members? This may be a policy specific to the careers department, or a wider policy which also applies to the careers department.
For the purpose of this FOI, ‘university members’ includes:
- Current students, both undergraduate and postgraduate
- Alumni and former students of the university
For the purpose of this FOI, ‘recruiting’ refers to any situation, in which the careers department plays a part, where university members are a potential source of employees or volunteers to a third party outside of the university. This includes:
- Events in which the careers department is an organiser
- Digital media controlled by the careers department, including websites, webpages, social media and mailing lists
- Physical materials from the careers department, such as mailings, posters, leaflets and brochures
2). If your university does have an active policy in place regarding which companies the careers department does and does not assist in recruiting university members, please provide a copy of the policy either as an attachment to your response or through the inclusion of a link to where it is published on your website.
If this policy forms a part of a wider policy document, please specify which page we need to refer to in order to locate this information.
3). If your university does not have an active policy in place as outlined above, please can you confirm whether there are any exclusions in place regarding which companies the careers department does and does not assist in recruiting university members. If not in policy form, exclusions might exist in the form of written guidelines or procedures. If any exclusions are in place please list what they are.
Please confirm receipt of this request and we look forward to hearing back from you within the next 20 working days.
Yours sincerely,
Fergus Green
Dear Mr Green
Ref: FOI/20/21/54
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request, which was received by Glasgow School of Art on 25 May 2021.
We will respond to your request as soon as possible, and no later than 22 June 2021, pending any clarification we may need to seek from you.
Kind Regards
Tricia
Tricia Combs
Policy Officer
Academic Quality Office
Glasgow School of Art | 167 Renfrew Street | Glasgow G3 6RQ
Dear Fergus
Ref: FOI/20/21/54
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request, which was received by
Glasgow School of Art on 25 May 2021.
The response below was received from GSA’s Head of Research & Enterprise:
1) No active formal policy in place that governs this particular
area, but that is because we do not actively assist companies in
recruiting members. Rather we support students and graduates to develop
professional skills to enable them to find employment.
2) N/A
3) We have no explicit exclusions in place in the form of written
guidelines or procedures. In practice, however, our focus is on career
opportunities of most relevance to our disciplines in art, design and
architecture; we do informally share some employment opportunities via our
communications channels, including social media, with a positive focus on
including graduate recruitment to the creative industries or professional
roles associated with creative practice.
This concludes our response to your Freedom of Information request.
Your right to seek a review: -
If you are dissatisfied with the way in which the Glasgow School of Art
has dealt with your request, you have the right to ask us to review our
actions and decisions. If you wish to request a review, please contact Mrs
Janet Allison, Academic Registrar, [email address] or email:
[GSA request email] within 40 working days. Your request must be in a
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Kind Regards
Fergus Mason
Policy Officer
Glasgow School of Art | 167 Renfrew Street | Glasgow G3 6RQ
E: [1][email address]
[2]cid:[email address]
Dear The Glasgow School of Art,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of The Glasgow School of Art's handling of my FOI request 'Restrictions on which companies the careers department assists in recruiting university members'.
In your response, you write that: "we do not actively assist companies in recruiting members." However, it looks like the GSA Careers Service actively promotes vacancies via its Social Media pages, website and vacancy service. For example, the Enterprise Studio Bulletin on 05/07/2021, available here, https://gsacareers.wordpress.com/2021/07..., advertises multiple vacancies.
These activities are covered under the text of the original request, which specifically included "Digital media controlled by the careers department, including websites, webpages, social media and mailing lists."
Please could you therefore clarify your response?
Yours faithfully,
Fergus Green
Dear Fergus
Ref: FOI/20/21/54
Thank you for your email. I acknowledge receipt of your request for an internal review of this request, received by Glasgow School of Art on 5 July 2021. We will respond to your request as soon as possible, and no later than 30 July 2021.
Kind Regards
Policy Officer
Glasgow School of Art | 167 Renfrew Street | Glasgow G3 6RQ
E: [GSA request email]
Dear Fergus Green
I have completed an internal review of GSA’s response to the Freedom of
Information request below. The review undertaken involved me contacting
the GSA Head of Research and Enterprise, who responded to your original
request.
I am satisfied that GSA fully answered the questions you asked, listed
below,
• Do we have a policy regarding which companies the careers department
does and does not assist in recruiting university members? – No, we have
no such policy
• If your university does have such a policy in place, please provide a
copy (or relevant wider policy document). – Not Applicable
• If your university does not have such a policy in place, can you
confirm if exclusions are in place, for instance in the form of written
guidelines and procedures? – We confirmed that they are not.
It would appear that the review you have asked for actually relates to
additional contextual information which we provided in our response.
The GSA Head of Research and Enterprise understood the request to concern
instances in which the careers department actively collaborates with a
company or organisation to assist them to recruit to vacancies – as in a
milk round situation, for example – but that is not our practice. Our
careers department does identify selected vacancies that are published
elsewhere and promotes those thought to be of interest to our students and
graduates through its communication channels, but that occurs without the
involvement of the recruiter. That is covered by our response in which we
state “we do informally share some employment opportunities via our
communications channels, including social media”.
I hope this is clear and helps you to understand our response to your
request but if we can be of any further assistance, please let us know.
Kind regards
Janet Allison
Janet Allison I Academic Registrar
Glasgow School of Art, 167 Renfrew St, Glasgow, G3 6RQ
Phone +44 (0) 141 353 4462 I [1][email address]
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