Tēnā koe RC

I 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 18 October 2024). If we are unable to respond to your request by then, we will notify you of an extension of this timeframe.

Ngā mihi
Kelsey

Kelsey Kennard (she/her)
Official Information and Compliance Coordinator | Kaituitui Pārongo Ōkawa me te Tautukunga

University of Otago | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka
Office of the Registrar and Secretary to the Council | Te Tari o Te Pouroki me te Kaituhi ki te Kaunihera

Tēnā koe RC

I refer to your request for information dated 20 September 2024 made under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act). You have requested data in relation to student exchanges at the University of Otago.

Your request in its current form is very complex and therefore we are likely to need to propose a charge or decline the request pursuant to section 18(f) of the Act as it will require substantial research and collation. This is particular so given that our systems do not hold the information to the level of detail that has been requested, and therefore to fulfil parts of your request, it is likely that we would need to individually investigate the student record of every student who has gone on exchange to collate the information you have requested.

However, proposing a charge or declining your request may not be necessary if the scope of your request can be clarified and/or limited so as to make the request practically manageable. For example, would data on the number of students who went on exchange each year from 2015 - 2024, broken down by destination country suffice?

We will wait to hear back from you before we continue to process your request. Please note, any clarification or amendment of a request is considered to be a new request for the purpose of calculating the maximum statutory timeframe for response - see section 15(1AA) of the Act.

In addition, we note that the eligibility criteria for the University of Otago Global Student Exchange is available on the following webpage: https://www.otago.ac.nz/study/otago-glob.... Generally, students who meet the eligibility criteria are accepted for their preferred exchange destination, however there may be cases where that is not possible (e.g., one of our exchange partners can only accommodate a certain number of Otago students).

Ngā mihi
Kelsey

Kelsey Kennard (she/her)
Official Information and Compliance Coordinator | Kaituitui Pārongo Ōkawa me te Tautukunga

University of Otago | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka
Office of the Registrar and Secretary to the Council | Te Tari o Te Pouroki me te Kaituhi ki te Kaunihera

Tēnā koe RC

I refer to your request for information dated 20 September 2024 made under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act). You have requested information in relation to student exchanges at the University of Otago.

The Act requires that we advise you of our decision on your request no later than 20 working days after the date your request was received or clarified. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to meet that time limit. We are therefore writing to notify you, pursuant to section 15A of the Act, of an extension of the time to make our decision in respect of your request, by a further five working days - to 1 November 2024.

This extension is necessary to allow for consultations necessary to make a decision on your request. We thank you for your patience - we will endeavour to provide our response sooner if possible.

If you are not satisfied with our extension of time, you have the right to make a complaint to the Ombudsman under section 28(3) of the Act. However, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss any concerns with you first.

Ngā mihi
Kelsey

Kelsey Kennard (she/her)
Policy Analyst | Kaitātari Kaupapa Here

University of Otago | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka
Office of the Registrar and Secretary to the Council | Te Tari o Te Pouroki me te Kaituhi ki te Kaunihera

Tēnā koe RC

Thank you for your patience. Please see attached the University of Otago's response to your Official Information Act request dated 20 September 2024.

Ngā mihi
Kelsey

Kelsey Kennard (she/her)
Policy Analyst | Kaitātari Kaupapa Here

University of Otago | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka
Office of the Registrar and Secretary to the Council | Te Tari o Te Pouroki me te Kaituhi ki te Kaunihera