To whom it may concern,

This is a request for information through the Freedom of Information Act.

1. What was the total market value of the university’s investment portfolio(s) on the 31st July 2022?

If you are going to provide this information through your Annual Accounts/Financial Statements, please provide the specific page number, section and row that the value can be found on. For example, page 28, section 5 “Investments”, row “total market value.”

For guidance on the number we are seeking, please see this example from the University of Glasgow at ‘Annual Investments’ in cell C1091 here: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/sustaina...

2. On the 31st July 2022, were the institution's investment portfolio(s) managed directly by the institution, indirectly by [an] external fund manager(s), or a combination of both?

3. If the university uses external fund manager(s) to manage investment portfolios, please provide the name of each fund manager used, along with the percentage of the total investment funds that they were managing on the 31st July 2022.

Please present this information in this format:

Fund manager name - Percentage of total investment funds managed
Schroders - 47%
CCLA - 49%
University - 4%

4. If the institution invests directly, please provide the details of companies invested in (by way of all investment portfolios), including the full names of each company invested in, and the market value invested in each company on the 31st July 2022. Please provide this information in a spreadsheet format.

5. If the university holds investments through [an] external fund manager(s), please provide a breakdown of the university’s holdings with that investment manager on the 31st July 2022, including the market value for each company that forms part of your investment portfolio(s) with them. Please provide this information at a company level in a spreadsheet and/or the format that this information is provided to you by your fund manager(s).

For example, see the University of Glasgow’s breakdown at ‘Annual Investments’ here: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/sustaina...

6. Does the institution have an ethical investment policy, or similar? If so, please state if it is publicly-available, and provide a web link.

If applicable, in response to any of the above information requested, please confirm that the University does not hold this information.

Please confirm receipt of this request and we look forward to hearing back from you within the next 20 working days.

Yours sincerely,

Laura Clayson

Dear University of the Arts London,

I am writing to request an internal review of University of the Arts London's handling of my FOI request 'University Investment Portfolio Statistics'.

I would like to please request an internal review on the decision not to disclose the names of the fund managers used by the university (question 3 of the FOI request) and the market values at the company-level within the university's investment portfolios (question 5 of the FOI request) on the grounds that disclosure of such information "constitutes personal data" (for question 3) and "would likely prejudice the commercial interests of UAL" (for question 5).

Other institutions in the sector have willingly disclosed this information to us for analysis this year - just as the University of the Arts London did in the previous years that we have undertaken this annual research. This is in spite of the issues you have raised, indicating public interest around the transparency and accountability of public authorities outweighs the arguments for non-disclosure that you highlight.

Last year the University of the Arts London has shared a company-level breakdown of the COIF Ethical Fund and the Jupiter Ecology Fund. If it is not possible to do so this year, could you kindly clarify which circumstances have led to this year's decision to not disclose the information?

Please let me know if there is anything more you need from me to support the internal review process.
Please may I remind you that guidance published by the Information Commissioner's Office states internal reviews should ideally take no longer than 20 working days.

Kind Regards,

Laura Clayson