UCL United World Colleges outreach bursaries winners

The request was refused by University College London.

Dear University College London,

I would like to request the following information regarding UWC outreach bursaries:

1) To which UWC colleges were these scholarships given in the last 5 years?
2) Of which nationality were the students that received the scholarship?

Yours faithfully,
Marko

Finance.FOI Requests, University College London

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Data Protection & FOI
Legal Services
UCL

Goudie, Alex, University College London

Dear Marko,

Thank you for your enquiry which we have handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I can confirm that UCL holds information relevant to your request, however we are unable to provide this information to you as it is considered that an exemption applies.

The requested information is exempt from disclosure as the exemption at Section 40(2) is applicable. Section 40(2) states:

“Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if—
(a)it constitutes personal data which do not fall within subsection (1), and
(b)either the first or the second condition below is satisfied
The first condition is—
(a)in a case where the information falls within any of paragraphs (a) to (d) of the definition of “data” in section 1(1) of the M1Data Protection Act 1998, that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene—
(i)any of the data protection principles,
(ii)section 10 of that Act (right to prevent processing likely to cause damage or distress)”

Section 40 exempts personal information about a ‘third party’ (someone other than the requester), if revealing it would breach the principles of the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998. The DPA prevents personal information from disclosure if it would be unfair or at odds with the reason why it was collected, or where the subject had officially served notice that releasing it would cause them damage or distress. It is the First Data Protection Principle concerned with the fair and lawful processing of personal data which is of issue in this instance.

Although there are no directly identifiable details within the data being requested, such data may be used by ‘motivated intruders’ and other knowledgeable third parties to identify the name of an individual who was a recipient of a scholarship. UCL accepts small numbers of students from UWC institutions and so if we were to disclose the name of the college the recipient attended then this would significantly increase the probability of that student being identified as the winner of the scholarship. Similarly, to disclose the nationality of the recipients would increase the chances of them being identified by anyone who was aware that they attended a UWC.

There would be no expectation that UCL would disclose the name of the scholarship recipient to the wider public and it would be considered unfair to do so. It is for these reasons that this information is exempt under section 40(2) of the Act.

More information on the anonymisation of data can be found at: https://ico.org.uk/media/1061/anonymisat...

If you have any queries or concerns, please contact me, using the request reference number.

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 [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
www.ico.org.uk

Alex Goudie
Data Protection & Freedom of Information Adviser
Legal Services|Finance and Business Affairs|UCL
Ext: 57862
Tel: 020 3108 7862

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