Kia ora Charlotte

We acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act request.

If we have any questions or need to seek clarification on any points we will be in touch soon. Otherwise, we will seek to respond to your request as soon as practicable and no later than 20 working days after the date your request was received (by 1 June 2021). If we are unable to respond to your requests by then, we will notify you of an extension of this timeframe.

Vanessa Vidallon
For the Office of the Registrar

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Kia ora Charlotte

 

We refer to your information request dated 4 May 2021 made under the
Official Information Act 1982 (Act).

 

We respond to each of the items you have requested in turn below.

 

1) The number of New Zealand Rural Origins sub-category dentistry
applicants for the last 5 years (HSFY category only) 

 

The total number of applications received for the BDS programme under the
rural sub-category of the HSFY category are as follows:

2017 -  36

2018 -  28

2019 -  37

2020 -  37

2021 -  44

 

2) The number of New Zealand Rural Origins sub-category seats available in
dentistry (HSFY category only)

 

There is no set number of places. 

 

The University is required by Government to assign 10 places per annum to
students of rural origin, irrespective of admission pathway.

 

The total number of enrolments for the BDS programme under the rural
sub-category of the HSFY category are as follows:

 

2017 -  6

2018 -  5

2019 -  1

2020 -  1

2021 -  4

 

Please note that applicants may apply under multiple sub-categories. 
Sub-category applications are considered for selection in sequence as
follows: Mâori, Indigenous Pacific, Socio-economic Equity, Refugee, Rural,
General. This means, for example, that a student admitted under the Mâori
sub-category, may also have been eligible to be admitted under the Rural
sub-category, but will not be considered or subsequently counted towards
admissions under that sub-category.

 

3) The lowest successful first-round offer GPA for the last 5 years via
the rural subcategory (HSFY category only)

4) The lowest waitlist GPA for the last 5 years via the rural subcategory 
(HSFY category only)

5) The lowest successful waitlist offer GPA for the last 5 years via the
rural subcategory (HSFY category only) - successful meaning offered a
place in dentistry from the waitlist

 

With regards to items 3, 4 and 5 of your request, it will take our staff
some time to collate this data – we estimate 3 hours.

 

Accordingly, given the resource involved to supply this information, we
will have to fix a charge for supply of the information you have requested
pursuant to clause 15(1A) of the Act. As noted above, we have estimated it
will take three hours of staff time to produce the information requested. 
In accordance with general guidance available from the Office of the
Ombudsman, we have fixed a charge for supply of this information at $152
(calculated at $38 per half hour with the first hour free). 

 

Before we proceed further with this part of your request, please confirm
your agreement to pay the charge in full in advance.  We will then advise
on how to provide this payment.  Once payment is received, we expect to be
able to provide you with the requested information within 15 working
days.  Should collation and checking of the information requested take
fewer than three hours, we will refund you for unused time at the rate
stated above.

 

If this is helpful, we note below the minimum admission scores for all
offers (includes waitlist) for the BDS programme HSFY category under the
rural sub-category:

 

2017 – 69.53 

2018 -  73.95

Given that the enrolment numbers for each of 2019, 2020 and 2021 are less
than 5 persons – for privacy reasons, we cannot release information for
these years. Where the numbers of the candidates are very low, there is a
risk that the identity of those persons could be determined/inferred.

 

I note your right to seek a review of these decisions via a complaint to
an Ombudsman. However, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss any
concerns with you first.

 

We will wait for your response.

 

Ngâ mihi

Mayhaka

 

Mayhaka Mendis • Manager, Policy and Compliance, Office of the Registrar •
Deputy Privacy Officer • Te Whare Wânanga o Ôtâkou, University of Otago •
P.O Box 56, Dunedin • Tel +64 3 479 8993

 

 

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