FOI_25-155 Undergraduate applicant data for entry year 2023-24
Date of response: 12 June 2025
We have now considered your request of 18 May 2025 for the following information:
I would like to request the following information for ALL applicants for ALL undergraduate courses (including integrated Master's courses) for the 2023/2024 admissions cycle:
1. Degree title
2. GCSE grades & subjects (or iGCSE grades & subjects, or equivalent qualifications)
3. Predicted/achieved A Level grades & subjects (or IB grades & subjects, or UCAS Tariff points & subjects if applying with another qualification)
4. Nationality — whether they're a Home or International student
5. Contextual factors — were there contextual factors?
6. Accepted or rejected?
7. If accepted, was it via Clearing?
8. If accepted, what was the offer requirement? E.g. A*AA with A* in A Level Mathematics
9. Did they enrol? (I.e. did they begin the course?)
We are requesting the above information for every applicant to all of your undergraduate courses for the 2023/2024 admissions cycle.
To clarify, we DO NOT require names, UCAS IDs, or any direct identifiers.
I would like you to provide this information in CSV format if possible.
Here are example outputs:
Example 1:
1. BA German
2. GCSE — English Language (8), GCSE English Literature (7), GCSE Double Science (7-6), GCSE German (6), GCSE Maths (6), GCSE Religious Studies (6), GCSE Music (5), GCSE Physical Education (5); iGCSE — History (C) 3. Achieved: IB HL German (7), IB HL History (6), IB HL English (6), IB SL Maths (6), IB SL Biology (7), IB SL French (7), Extended Essay & Theory of Knowledge (3) 4. Home 5. Yes 6. Accepted 7. No 8. Unconditional 9. Yes
Example 2:
1. BSc Sport and Exercise Science
2. Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) — English (85%), Science (83%), Maths (80%), Physical Education (88%), Social Studies (75%) 3. Predicted: BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Sport (152 UCAS Tariff points) 4. International 5. Yes 6. Accepted 7. No 8. DDD (144 UCAS Tariff points) 9. Yes
Example 3:
1. MEng Engineering
2. GCSE — Maths (A*), Physics (A*), Chemistry (A), Biology (A), English (A), Economics (A), ICT (B) 3. Achieved: Maths (A*), Physics (A), Chemistry (B), AS-Level Further Maths (B) 4. Home 5. No 6. Accepted 7. Yes 8. ABB with A in A Level Maths 9. No
Please send the above information for every applicant to all of your undergraduate courses for the 2023/2024 admissions cycle. In CSV format if possible.
Our response:
We regret that on this occasion it is not possible to provide the requested information.
Under Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act, we can confirm that the University does hold the information requested, however on this occasion it is not possible for us to provide any of the information for questions 2, 3, 5 and 8.
We have determined that the cost of finding and assembling the requested information will exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as defined by section 12 of the Act and the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004/3244.
'The ‘appropriate limit’ of £450, which equates to 18 hours’ work, as defined by the Information Commissioner’s Office, can relate to one request in its entirety or to a series of linked requests. If the University cannot locate, retrieve and extract some or all of the requested information within the 18 hours we are not obliged to retrieve any of the requested information.
Information relating to applicant data is held within our Admissions, Recruitment and Marketing (Admissions) division. However, some of the information, namely GCSE grades & subjects (or iGCSE grades & subjects, or equivalent qualifications), predicted/achieved A Level grades & subjects (or IB grades & subjects, UCAS Tariff points & subjects, if the applicant is applying with another qualification), contextual factors and what was the offer requirement, is not held in a readable format, or is held within the individual’s UCAS application form.
For the period outlined in your request, we have identified 18,066 Undergraduate applicants for admissions cycle 2023-24. The only way of identifying, extracting and recording the exact information you seek would be to interrogate each individual applicant’s associated documentation and UCAS forms manually.
We have calculated it would take 10 minutes per record, or 3,010 hours, to locate and manually interrogate each individual application. Which exceeds the appropriate time-limit as outlined above.
Under section 16 of the Act which requires advice and guidance on formulating a request to which we can respond to be provided, we would be able to provide the data for questions 1,4,6,7 and 9 only.
Please note we have not considered whether any exemptions may apply to such a request.
We should also point out that any revised request you submit will be treated as a new FOI request, and the 20 working-day time-limit will begin again.
We are sorry we cannot provide the data you requested, but trust this response explains our position.