11 April 2019 RECORDS MANAGEMENT SECTION The University of Edinburgh File ref: T3/30/344 Old College South Bridge Mr Kai Chen Edinburgh EH8 9YL Direct Dial 0131 651 4099 Sent by email: request-560909- Switchboard 0131 650 1000 [email protected] Email [email protected] Dear Mr Chen Freedom of information request Thank you for your email of 14 March 2019 requesting information about postgraduate taught admissions from 2016/17 to 2018/19. The University of Edinburgh is a global university, rooted in Scotland. We are globally recognised for our research, development and innovation and we have provided world- class teaching to our students for more than 425 years. We are the largest university in Scotland and in 2017/18 our annual revenue was £984 million, of which over £279 million was research income. We have over 41,000 students and over 10,200 full-time equivalent staff. We are a founding member of the UK’s Russell Group of leading research universities and a member of the League of European Research Universities. In 2018/19 the University has 15,854 taught and research postgraduate students studying full-time and part-time. We are committed to providing a wealth of resources and opportunities to enable our postgraduates to benefit from our inspiring research culture. Our academics are leaders in their fields and the University is also committed to delivering high-quality, innovative teaching. The latest report from the Quality Assurance Agency awarded us the highest rating possible for the quality of the student learning experience. More information on our postgraduate degree programmes is available on our website. The University is committed to creating and maintaining a diverse community of students and staff, thereby enriching the learning, working and social experience for all, and demonstrating our commitment to social justice. We are one of the world’s leading universities, and our community of students and staff is one of the most international in the UK. We have staff from 110 countries, and students from 161 countries; 43 per cent of our student population comes from outside the UK. Postgraduate taught admissions For each of the last three admission cycles, you requested a list of all postgraduate taught programmes, complete with application, interview and offer statistics. The application and offer statistics you have requested are provided in table 1 in the UNIVERSITY SECRETARY Ms Sarah Smith The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336 enclosure. The interview statistics you have requested are provided in table 2 in the enclosure. You will see that interview statistics are only provided for a small number of programmes. Interviews and admissions tests do not normally form part of our admissions process, but there are some exceptions for specific programmes. As our central systems do not hold statistics on interviews, I have approached each of the University’s three Colleges to identify which Schools hold this information. Schools are likely to hold and record interviews in different ways. For some programmes, applications and offers have been recorded onto the reporting system after the interviews have been held and candidates selected. Due to this, interview statistics will be higher than application statistics in some cases. Further explanations on programme-specific interview processes are included in the table 2 notes. You requested the percentages of all international and Chinese applicants who were interviewed and made an offer and separately the percentages for Business School and School of Mathematics programmes. As the Business School does not hold a complete record of the number of interviews held (the School has however confirmed that for a small number of programmes each student made an offer was interviewed), and the School of Mathematics does not hold interviews for its postgraduate taught programmes, we do not hold this information. You requested the number of applications from and offers to Chinese applicants for each programme with Business School and School of Mathematics programmes provided separately. This information is provided in table 3 in the enclosure. You will see on both tables 1 and 3 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 data protection law. 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). You also requested offer holders’ subject area for previous degrees, average academic performance, minimum entry grades and previous universities attended. This information is only held on our reporting system if individual applicants have chosen to manually enter it on their applications; many applicants did not enter the information and where they did so the information was not provided in a standard format. The University requires applicants to provide copies of degree certificates and academic transcripts to support their applications. Typically this will list the institution studied at, all courses taken, all grades received and degrees conferred. To gather the requested information we would need to manually enter information from each offer holder’s provided transcript into the system to be able to report on it. Doing this would cost more than £600, the limit over which the University is not required to respond to freedom of information requests. I have, however, provided a list of previous institutions in table 4 of the enclosure. Please note that this is the information held in our reporting system as manually entered by the applicants on their applications. Therefore there are numerous spelling errors and, as a proportion of applicants have not named an institution at all, it cannot be considered a complete list. 2 Right to review If you are dissatisfied with this response, you may ask the University to conduct a review of this decision by contacting the University's Records Management Section (www.ed.ac.uk/records-management/about/contact) in writing (e.g. by letter or email) or in some other recorded form (e.g. audio or video tape). You should 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 appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner using the guidance at www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal. If you do not have access to the Internet, please let me know and I will provide a copy of the relevant web pages. Privacy notice for information request applicants The University of Edinburgh's request privacy notice, which describes how we use the information you have supplied about yourself and your request, is available on-line at www.ed.ac.uk/records-management/freedom-information/make-a-request/privacy-notice. Yours sincerely Rob Don Information Compliance Officer Enc. Table 1: Postgraduate taught programmes, applications and offers 2016/17 – 2018/19; Table 2: Postgraduate taught programmes, number of interviews 2016/17 – 2018/19; Table 3: Chinese applications and offers to postgraduate taught programmes, 2016/17 – 2018/19; Table 4: Offer holders’ previous institutions 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] 3 Table 1: Postgraduate taught programmes, applications and offers 2016/17 - 2018/19 2016/17 2016/17 2017/18 2017/18 2018/19 2018/19 Degree programme Applications Offers Applications Offers Applications Offers ChM in Clinical Ophthalmology (Online Learning) - 2 Years 42 21 59 38 41 29 ChM in Clinical Ophthalmology (Online Learning) (ICL) - 4 Years 6 <5 <5 <5 5 <5 ChM in General Surgery (Online Learning) - 2 Years 63 44 61 46 55 52 ChM in Trauma and Orthopaedics (Online Learning) - 2 Years 45 23 74 53 56 44 ChM in Urology (Online Learning) - 2 Years 21 14 24 18 35 27 ChM in Vascular and Endovascular Surgery (Online Learning) - 2 Years 20 15 8 7 15 13 ChM in Vascular and Endovascular Surgery (Online Learning) (ICL) - 4 Years <5 <5 <5 <5 DClinDent Oral Surgery - 3 Years * 5 <5 <5 31 5 DClinDent Orthodontics - 3 Years * 15 <5 14 <5 69 7 DClinDent Paediatric Dentistry - 3 Years * <5 <5 8 <5 43 <5 DClinDent Prosthodontics - 3 Years * 6 <5 17 5 61 5 DClinPsychol Clinical Psychology (Core Programme Route) - 3 Years * 31 31 34 34 32 32 DPsychotherapy Psychotherapy and Counselling - 4 Years * 11 <5 47 15 DPsychotherapy Psychotherapy and Counselling - 7 Years * 8 <5 11 5 DVMS Veterinary Medicine - 4 Years * 41 <5 120 10 EMiLA Landscape Architecture (European Masters) <5 7 6 5 <5 LLM Commercial Law - 1 Year 399 274 478 334 494 301 LLM Commercial Law - 2 Years <5 <5 <5 LLM Commercial Law and Chinese - 2 Years 6 <5 <5 <5 LLM Comparative and European Private Law - 1 Year 27 20 23 14 26 17 LLM Comparative and European Private Law - 2 Years <5 LLM Corporate Law - 1 Year 155 99 232 137 LLM Corporate Law - 2 Years <5 <5 <5 LLM Criminal Law and Criminal Justice - 1 Year 82 53 99 58 97 64 LLM Criminal Law and Criminal Justice - 2 Years <5 <5 <5 <5 LLM European Law - 1 Year 50 38 44 34 60 42 LLM European Law - 2 Years <5 <5 LLM Global Environment and Climate Change