University Accommodation Allocation
Dear Aberystwyth University,
Please provide all documents you possess regarding the process by which Aberystwyth University managed and owned residences are and have been allocated to current and prospective students since 2005.
In particular, please provide full copies of all official policies, all procedures, all external or internal correspondence (except where not permitted by law), all data, all minutes of meetings and all other information held by the University on this matter without exception.
Please include full details and justifications of all deviations from any official policies or processes.
Yours faithfully,
Cal Paterson
Dear Cal Paterson,
Thank you for your request for information, received by Aberystwyth
University on 18^th January, in which you requested the following:
Please provide all documents you possess regarding the process by which
Aberystwyth University managed and owned residences are and have been
allocated to current and prospective students since 2005.
In particular, please provide full copies of all official policies, all
procedures, all external or internal correspondence (except where not
permitted by law), all data, all minutes of meetings and all other
information held by the University on this matter without exception.
You will receive a response as soon as possible, and in any event not
later than 20 working days.
The deadline date for responding to this request for information is 15^th
February 2011.
Yours sincerely,
Julie Archer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rheolwr Cofnodion / Records Manager
Adeilad Llandinam Building
Penglais
Prifysgol Aberystwyth / Aberystwyth University
SY23 3DB
Ffôn / Tel. (01970-62)8593
E-bost / E-mail: [1][Aberystwyth University request email]
Gwefan / Website: http://www.aber.ac.uk/infocompliance/
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[Aberystwyth University request email]
Dear Info Compliance [infstaff],
Thank you for your response. For clarity, could you just confirm that you also register the part of my request that you have not echoed back to me: "Please include full details and justifications of all deviations from any official policies or processes."
If this is not legal for particular instances (due to data protection or some other reason) please just continue with processing my request as it is.
Thank you
Yours sincerely,
Cal Paterson
Dear Aberystwyth University,
Can you please answer my request for clarification?
Yours faithfully,
Cal Paterson
Dear Mr Paterson,
I can confirm that we are, of course, processing your request in its entirety.
Regards,
Julie Archer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rheolwr Cofnodion / Records Manager
C42, Adeilad Llandinam Building
Penglais
Prifysgol Aberystwyth / Aberystwyth University
SY23 3DB
Ffôn / Tel. (01970-62)8593
E-bost / E-mail: [Aberystwyth University request email]
Gwefan / Website: http://www.aber.ac.uk/infocompliance/
Dear Info Compliance [infstaff],
By law, you should have responded promptly and by 15 February 2011. You are now late.
Yours sincerely,
Cal Paterson
Dear Mr Paterson,
In response to the above request for information, please find below and
attached the following information. Please accept my sincere apologies
for the delay in providing this information, and for any inconvenience
this may have caused.
1 Accommodation has been and continues to be prioritised,
and volumes of each type reserved, using two mechanisms (i) an
accommodation priorities policy document which is drafted jointly by
Admissions and Recruitment, and RHS, and then adjusted as required before
sign-off by the University's senior management team; it is not
necessarily reviewed annually, but this happens from time-to-time when the
University chooses to adjust priorities; and (ii) an annual volume
allocation based on forecasted numbers where numbers of beds are reserved
for priority categories; this again is drafted between Admissions and
Recruitment and RHS, and submitted to the University's senior management
team for approval and sign-off.
2 Two versions of the accommodation priorities policy
document are relevant for the period from 2005; (i) please find attached a
scanned copy of the earlier version that was valid from 1996 with a
revision in 2004; (ii) the second version is available on-line from the
Accommodation Office website at
[1]http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/media/accommoda...
; this version is valid from 2010 onwards until further notice. There is
only one amendment recently agreed with senior management team to the
current version, that is that from 2011/12 session all students on
approved year out in industry / YES schemes will be guaranteed
accommodation on their return year and this change is due to be made to
the published document very shortly.
3 I have also attached examples of the annual volume
allocations for years 07/08 and 08/09, 09/10 plus current year 10/11
summary. The more detailed categorisation of student types in the
allocations policy documents are embedded within the broader
categorisations within the annual volume allocations document. Please
note that we have not kept previous years allocations information when
there was no `anomalies' that needed to be managed.
The following have been kept because they contain anomalies from our
standard allocations portfolio:
For 07/08 allocations there where two anomalies: (i) an over-demand for
welsh-medium allocations which resulted in the temporary re-designation of
Block 1, Penbryn as a welsh-medium residence, and (ii) a consideration of
an extension to our agreement with Roche Properties for Alexandra Hall.
The attached memo to Finance Group illustrates this.
Please also find attached our allocations plan for 09/10. This has two
options: (i) proposed standard, and (ii) variables. The out-turn was that
we retained Alexandra Hall, retained twins at Pantycelyn, and did not
allocate to John Williams as this was not in our portfolio.
In addition please find attached a copy email and spreadsheet for the
2010/11 allocation that went to the Director of Planning, as a member of
SMT, for approval.
4 Where changes to the priority listings have been
necessary these have been on an individual (not group) basis where an
individual's special circumstances have been relevant, and we are
therefore not able to disclose this type of change to allocation priority.
If you are dissatisfied with this response, you may ask the University to
conduct a review of its decision. To do this, please contact the Records
Manager in writing (including by fax, letter or email), describe the
original request, explain your grounds for dissatisfaction, and include an
address for correspondence. When the review process has been completed,
if you are still dissatisfied, you may ask the Information Commissioner to
intervene.
Yours sincerely,
Julie Archer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rheolwr Cofnodion / Records Manager
C42, Adeilad Llandinam Building
Penglais
Prifysgol Aberystwyth / Aberystwyth University
SY23 3DB
Ffon / Tel. (01970-62)8593
E-bost / E-mail: [2][Aberystwyth University request email]
Gwefan / Website: http://www.aber.ac.uk/infocompliance/
References
Visible links
1. http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/media/accommoda...
2. mailto:[Aberystwyth University request email]
Dear Aberystwyth University,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Aberystwyth University's handling of my FOI request 'University Accommodation Allocation'.
I doubt that this is the entirely of data that you hold on this topic. I find it difficult to believe that you hold only 3 spreadsheets, 5 written documents and a single email on the entire topic of giving people places in halls.
For one, you have included no minutes of meetings (I'm assuming that there have been meetings on this topic).
You have also included almost no internal correspondence - one email sent "for approval" is obviously only part of a much larger chain of correspondence, which I would like to see. I would also like to see the rest of the correspondence sent on this topic (do you really mean to say that that was it?).
You haven't included any external correspondence. Has there really not been a single letter written to any external body on this topic in the past three years?
I would like you to hold a review into whether this really is the entirely of the information you hold.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/un...
Yours faithfully,
Cal Paterson
Dear Mr Paterson,
Thank you for your e-mail. I can confirm that we are reviewing our handling of your request and will contact you in due course.
Yours sincerely
Dr Jonathan Davies
Data Protection Manager
Dear Info Compliance [infstaff],
You have not responded. Why are you taking so long?
Yours sincerely,
Cal Paterson
Tim left an annotation ()
Isn't that illegal? I'm sure they're supposed to provide some sort of response once they've conducted an internal review, even if it's just to say their original response was adequate.
Cal Paterson left an annotation ()
Yes, it is illegal (Aberystwyth University don't really care). Since you're interested, I'll try bugging them again.
Dear Info Compliance [infstaff],
Please provide me with the long overdue outcome of the internal review.
Yours sincerely,
Cal Paterson
Dear Mr Paterson,
I believe the attached information and response (below) was originally
e-mailed to you on the 31^st March. I cannot explain why it did not
reach you, but apologies if it was due to an e-mail error on our own
system.
Regards
Jonathan Davies
-------------------------------------------
Dr Jonathan Davies
Rheolwr Gwarchod Data a Hawlfraint/
Data Protection and Copyright Manager,
Gwasanaethau Gwybodaeth/Information Services
Adeilad Llandinam Building
Penglais
Prifysgol Aberystwyth / Aberystwyth University
SY23 3DB
Ffôn / Tel. (01970-62)8592
E-bost / E-mail: [1][Aberystwyth University request email]
Gwefan / Website: http://www.aber.ac.uk/infocompliance/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Mr Paterson,
I am writing with regard to the University's internal review of the above
request for information. Please find attached additional information
relevant to your request, together with a report of the review panel's
findings.
Yours sincerely,
Julie Archer
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[Aberystwyth University request email]
Tim left an annotation ()
Thanks for chasing them up Cal. I saw this request when you first made it and was really interested in what their response would be, particularly when the accommodation problem is one of their own making.
Cal Paterson left an annotation ()
That's quite alright. Honestly though, I'm still not really happy with the data they have provided - I still don't believe this is everything they have. Problem is, the only way to get anything else out of them now is to go through the Information Commissioners' Office, which apparently takes a very long time (sometimes years).
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Tim left an annotation ()
Did Aberystwyth University ever respond further to this and if so, what was the outcome of the internal review?