21 December 2021
Ethan Arvokolv
By email:
[FYI request #17715 email]
Dear Ethan
We refer to your information request dated 25 November 2021 made under the Official Information
Act 1982 (the Act). You have requested:
• The upper quartile, lower quartile and median of the weighted GPA for successful general
graduate entry BDS applicants in the 2018 – 2021 admission cycles;
• The upper quartile, lower quartile and median of the GPA score for successful general
graduate entry BDS applicants in the 2018 – 2021 admission cycles, referring to the
cumulative GPA of the degree used for application;
• The age distribution among successful graduate entry applicants for BDS in the 2021 cycle;
and
• The number of reapplicant(s) among the 2021 BDS graduate general entry applicants.
We contacted you 6 December 2021 to query whether you would be willing to limit the scope of
your request. At the time we advised that the request in its original form was very complex and
would take our staff extensive time to research and collate the information.
We note that we have not heard back from you. Accordingly, we need to refuse your request
because the scope of your request remains extremely complex and would require substantial staff
time to research and collate. Unfortunately, this is not practically possible. We also note that the
University only calculates the weighted GPA, so the information you have requested in relation to
the degree used for application would require extensive manual calculation.
Our decision is made pursuant to section 18(f) of the Act on the basis that the information requested
cannot be made available without substantial collation or research.
We considered whether fixing a charge would be appropriate – however, given how long it would
take our staff to collate the information, and that it is not practically possible for these staff
members to allocate their time towards such a request, we decided that fixing a charge was not an
appropriate or pragmatic solution.
We note that our analysts would be able to provide you, at no cost, the upper quartile, lower
quartile and median of the weighted GPA only for successful graduate entry BDS applicants for the
2020 and 2021 BDS programmes. If this is of interest to you, we ask that you please submit a new
request for this information.
We 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.
Yours sincerely
Kelsey Kennard
Official Information and Compliance Coordinator
Office of the Registrar