14 November 2016 RECORDS MANAGEMENT SECTION The University of Edinburgh File ref: T3/7/1796 Old College South Bridge Ms Elisabeth Nimbley Edinburgh EH8 9YL Direct Dial 0131 651 4099 Sent by email: request-367135- Switchboard 0131 650 1000 [email protected] Email [email protected] Dear Ms Nimbley Freedom of information request Thank you for your email of 24 October 2016 requesting information about applications from students of specific schools. The University of Edinburgh is the largest university in Scotland and one of the UK’s top rated research universities. We have over 35,000 students and over 9,000 full-time equivalent staff. In 2014/15 our turnover was £840 million. Applications from specified secondary schools and colleges You asked how many applications the University received from students of certain Scottish schools, specifically: Fettes College, Gordonstoun School, Merchiston Castle School, Glenalmond College, Loretto School, Strathallan School, Kilgraston School, Edinburgh Academy, St Leonard's School, St George's School, Glasgow High School, Glasgow Academy, Mary Erskine School, George Heriot's School and George Watson's College. You also asked how many of these applicants received an offer, and how many were entrants. Most of this information is provided in Table 1 below. Academic School Applications Offers Entrants Year 2013/14 Edinburgh Academy 23 12 <5 Fettes College, Edinburgh 34 22 5 George Heriot's School 82 45 16 George Watson's College 77 45 10 Glenalmond College 9 <5 <5 Gordonstoun School 7 <5 0 Kilgraston School 17 13 5 Loretto School 14 6 <5 Merchiston Castle School 20 12 <5 St George's School for Girls 35 25 8 UNIVERSITY SECRETARY Ms Sarah Smith The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336 Academic School Applications Offers Entrants Year St Leonards School & Sixth Form College 11 7 0 Strathallan School 31 16 6 The Glasgow Academy 64 38 12 The High School of Glasgow 69 51 15 The Mary Erskine School 56 31 11 2014/15 Edinburgh Academy 18 12 5 Fettes College, Edinburgh 32 18 6 George Heriot's School 59 15 95 George Watson's College 117 52 14 Glenalmond College 24 10 <5 Gordonstoun School 14 5 0 Kilgraston School 18 11 7 Loretto School 27 17 6 Merchiston Castle School 20 11 <5 St George's School for Girls 23 9 <5 St Leonards School & Sixth Form College 17 7 <5 Strathallan School 33 6 <5 The Glasgow Academy 66 35 11 The High School of Glasgow 60 38 8 The Mary Erskine School 61 37 7 2015/16 Edinburgh Academy 31 22 6 Fettes College, Edinburgh 34 21 5 George Heriot's School 92 61 22 George Watson's College 118 45 11 Glenalmond College 23 9 5 Gordonstoun School 11 <5 0 Kilgraston School 21 14 6 Loretto School 20 11 <5 Merchiston Castle School 26 6 <5 St George's School for Girls 36 16 5 St Leonards School & Sixth Form College 13 5 <5 Strathallan School 42 16 9 The Glasgow Academy 56 31 13 The High School of Glasgow 68 39 15 The Mary Erskine School 52 24 11 2016/17 Edinburgh Academy 38 16 7 Fettes College, Edinburgh 33 17 <5 George Heriot's School 107 59 19 George Watson's College 109 46 21 Glenalmond College 18 6 <5 Gordonstoun School 20 10 <5 Kilgraston School 23 17 8 Loretto School 23 12 5 2 Academic School Applications Offers Entrants Year Merchiston Castle School 25 14 <5 St George's School for Girls 34 14 7 St Leonards School & Sixth Form College 21 9 <5 Strathallan School 35 10 <5 The Glasgow Academy 95 44 19 The High School of Glasgow 81 34 13 The Mary Erskine School 54 28 9 Table notes The numbers in the table show: 1. Applications for undergraduate degree programmes only 2. Applications, not applicants. An applicant may make more than one application to the University in an admissions cycle 3. Applications submitted during the relevant admissions cycle for immediate entry and for deferred entry in the following year. Applications from the previous year's cycle for deferred entry are not included 4. ‘Entrants’ are the number of applicants who met their offer conditions and firmly accepted it, i.e. became ‘Unconditional Firm (UF)’. A very small number of UF applicants do not proceed to enter the University, or withdraw soon after commencing their studies. You will also see that I have not provided the exact number where the number is fewer than five. This is because disclosing these low numbers could enable individuals to be identified. This would breach the data protection principles set out in the Data Protection Act 1998. The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 does not require us to provide this sort of information as it is exempt under section 38(1)(b). Minimum entry requirements You also asked how many of the applicants in Table 1 above met the minimum entry requirements. We do not hold comprehensive statistical information to answer this part of your request. In the case of applicants who withdrew their application prior to a decision being made, applicants who were rejected following assessment of a portfolio, and applicants who were rejected for other reasons, for example because their application was submitted too late, we do not collate information about whether the minimum academic requirements were met. To respond to this part of your request, the University would have to manually examine, extract and collate information from 376 individual applications. This would also involve cross-referencing each applicant’s grades with the entry requirements for the specific programme they applied for. Doing this would cost more than £600, the limit over which the University is not required to respond to freedom of information requests. Right to review If you are dissatisfied with this response, you may ask the University to conduct a review of this decision. To do this, please contact the University's Records Management 3 Section in writing (including by fax, letter or email) or in some other recorded form (e.g. audio or video tape), describe the original request, explain your grounds for dissatisfaction, and include an address for correspondence. You have 40 working days from receipt of this letter to submit a review request. When the review process has been completed, if you are still dissatisfied, you may ask the Scottish Information Commissioner to intervene. Yours sincerely Lorraine Peters Information Compliance Officer If you require this letter in an alternative format, such as large print or a coloured background, please contact the Records Management Section on 0131 651 4099 or email [email protected] 4 .