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

Dear Mr Barnard,

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 your question 2 where you state you are looking for the
“average successful applicant’s STEP Score” can you confirm your meaning
with regards to “successful”? Are you seeking those applicants who
received an offer after application? OR those who after receiving an offer
also enrolled at the University?

·         In addition, for your question 2, can you confirm your meaning
with regards to “average” are you seeking the Median or Mode for the
successful applicant’s STEP score?

Please note The Grades awarded for STEP are S (Outstanding), 1 (Very
Good), 2 (Good), 3 (Satisfactory) and U (Unclassified). Those for the AEA
are D (Distinction), M (Merit) and U (Unclassified), the University of
Warwick will accept Distinction in AEA in place of grade 2 in STEP.
Therefore, it is difficult to quantify such data as “S”, “D” and “M” into
a number, but they can be grouped by number.

·         The University is unable to provide information in relation to
part 1, 3, 4 and some of part 5 of your request as the information
regarding exam results is held individually for each applicant. The
University’s admission team does not have the software or the expertise to
collate exam performance into the requested groupings. Determining whether
an applicant scored an A or A* would need to be done applicant by
applicant, line by line and would take a significant amount of time which
the University estimates would exceed the appropriate costs limit under
section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act states that a public
authority is not obliged to comply with a request for information if the
authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would
exceed the appropriate limit.  This is currently £450, which equates to 18
hours of staff time calculated at £25 an hour as set out in the Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations
2004.

Would you prefer that we disregard part 1, 3, 4 and the related section of
part 5 of your request so as not to exceed the cost limit? Please let us
know how you would like to proceed.

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

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Dear Mr Barnard,

Thank you for your clarification, I will submit this to the department in question to provide us with the information you seek.

Are we correct to assume that you would you prefer that we disregard part 1, 3, 4 and the related section of part 5 of your request so as not to exceed the cost limit as outlined in our previous email?

We look forward to hearing from you regarding this.

Kind Regards
 
Legal Compliance Team

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Dear Mr Barnard,

Thank you for your email dated 30^th of January 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.

THIS IS A REQUEST UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000.

The following questions are about the G103 Mathematics course. I would
like to ask about the most recent entry, which should be 2017 as I believe
all offers would have been given by now. If not, I would like information
of the 2016 entry.

1. What percentage of successful applicants had 8 A*s or fewer at GCSE and
what percentage had 9 or more?

2. What is the average successful applicant's STEP score?

3. What is the average number of A grades at AS level for successful
applicants?

4. What is the average number of A* grades at A2 level for successful
applicants?

5. How many successful applicants have come from Queen Mary's College,
Basingstoke in the last 5 years, and what were their average number of A*s
at GCSE, As at AS level, and A*s at A2 level? (This is not just for 2017
entry)

6. How important are GCSE grades in the application process?

After seeking clarification you provided the further following
information:

For question 2 I mean the applicants who had received an offer, and I
would like the average to be the median, please.

Are we correct to assume that you would you prefer that we disregard part
1, 3, 4 and the related section of part 5 of your request - Yes, that
would be fine.

The median STEP score for successful applicants to the 2016 entry cycle of
the University of Warwick’s G103 Mathematics course is 3.

The University has provided data for the 2016 entry cycle of applications
as it is unable to provide the data for the 2016/17 admissions cycle for
entry onto G103 Mathematics course for the academic year 2017/18 as it
isn’t complete yet. The University will not be in a position to provide
this until after the enrolment data is available, for the various cohorts
of students.

Within the last 5 years, from 2012 – 2016, there have been 10 successful
applicants for the University of Warwick’s G103 Mathematics course, who
have come from Queen Mary’s College, Basingstoke.

The University is unable to evaluate how important GCSE grades are in the
application process for the University of Warwick’s G103 Mathematics
course. As the Freedom of Information Act 2000 only covers any recorded
information that is held by a public authority in England, Wales and
Northern Ireland, and by UK-wide public authorities based in Scotland. The
Information Commissioner’s Office notes that public authorities do not
have to answer requests if this would mean creating new information or
giving an opinion or judgment that is not already recorded. As this part
of your request would mean providing an opinion we have declined to
respond to this part of your request.

However, the following text from the Mathematics’ department's webpages –
found here [1]http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/maths/...,
may assist you in answering your question - "All candidates must also
satisfy the University's General Entrance requirement. This means some
breadth in your studies - at least five different subjects to GCSE or
A-level, and English to GCSE grade C or above."

I trust that this information will be helpful to you. Should you require
any clarification, please contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Rowley

Ian Rowley | Director of Development, Comms & External Affairs| External
Affairs
University House | University of Warwick | Coventry | CV4 8UW

References

Visible links
1. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/maths/...