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The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) requires that all Scottish public authorities make certain types of information routinely available, and provide a guide to information telling the public how to access the information and what it might cost.
This Guide to Information also contains details of the environmental information which the University routinely makes available under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs).
Abertay University has adopted the Model Publication Scheme produced by the Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC), who is responsible for enforcing FOISA. You can find out information about Model Publication Schemes on the Commissioner’s website or by contacting us at the address below. For the Guide to Information for the University's subsidiary companies, please visit the Publication Scheme page on Governance and click on the links there.
We have made a commitment to publish all information which we hold which falls within the classes of information in this Guide to Information, which describes the information which we publish in accordance with the scheme, and how you can access this information.
We are obliged by FOISA to have due regard to the public interest in providing access to the information that we hold which relates to:
This Guide to Information was originally prepared by the Scottish Higher Education Information Practitioners Group ('SHEIP'), under the auspices of Universities Scotland's Secretaries’ Group, and in consultation with the Scottish Information Commissioner. SHEIP consulted the public authorities to be covered by the Guide, to assess what information should be included in the Guide, taking account of reviews of information requests, and assessments of previous publication scheme feedback. The following principles have been included in devising this Publication Scheme, as required by the Scottish Information Commissioner.
Information is downloadable wherever possible in these Publication Scheme pages, normally in commonly-used electronic formats, such as Microsoft Office or PDF. If you would like information in alternative formats, e.g. hard copy, please contact Freedom of Information, Academic Registry, Abertay University, Bell Street, Dundee DD1 1HG, or telephone 01382 30800, or foi@abertay.ac.uk.
Some information is withheld by the University in terms of the available exemptions in the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. These include where certain information is commercially confidential or where personal data, or sensitive personal data, is involved.
Please see below.
Please see the University's Charging Scheme below.
Contact details are provided on individual pages and sections of the Publication Scheme.
The duration of information provided in this Publication Scheme varies, and for some documents these include several prior years, such as for the University's Annual Accounts. Some information is provided only in current form, as outdated documents (e.g. policies) would be superseded.
Our Guide to Information provides more details of the information available under the scheme, along with additional guidance on how the information falling within each category may be accessed.
Online:
Most information listed in our Guide to Information is available on our website. In many cases a link within Section 8: Categories of information will direct you to the relevant page or document. Where no such link is present, you can find this information using our website’s search facility or the University’s A-Z page. If you are still having trouble finding any document listed under our scheme, then please telephone Freedom of Information, Academic Registry, on 01382 308000 for further assistance.
By email:
If the information you seek is not published on our website, we can send it to you by email, wherever possible. Please contact foi@abertay.ac.uk and we will try to help.
By phone:
Information provided through the scheme can also be requested from us over the telephone. Please call Freedom of Information, Academic Registry, on 01382 308000 to request information available under this Scheme.
By post:
Information under the scheme may also be available in paper copy form. Please address your request to: Freedom of Information, Academic Registry, Abertay University, Bell Street, Dundee, Scotland DD1 1HG. When writing to us to request information, please include your name and address, full details of the information or documents you would like to receive, and a cheque for any fee applicable (see Section 4 of this page: Our charging policy, for further information on fees). Please also include a telephone number so we can telephone you to clarify any details, if necessary.
By inspection at our premises:
Some of the information that we publish in accordance with the scheme may be available for inspection on site. Please use the telephone number, email address or postal address above if you wish to discuss this.
Much of the information covered by this Publication Scheme is published anyway by the University on its website, and where this is the case, this Publication Scheme provides links to these other pages.
Our strategy in maintaining this Guide is to be as open as possible. All information covered by the publication scheme can either be accessed through our website, or will be provided as promptly as possible following our receipt of your request.
If a document contains information that the University may legitimately wish to exempt from disclosure under an appropriate section of Scotland’s freedom of information laws (for example, sensitive personal information, or a trade secret or other commercially sensitive information), we may remove or redact the information before publication, but we will inform you that we have done so and provide an explanation of why the information is withheld. Detailed guidance on information that may be exempt from publication is available from the Scottish Information Commissioner's website.
If you wish to complain about any information which has been withheld from you, please refer to Section 7 – Contact us.
Wherever possible, information contained within our Guide is available from us free of charge where it can be downloaded from our website or where it can be sent to you electronically by email.
The University's FOISA and EIRs charging policy is as follows:
If you submit a request to us for information which is not available under the Publication Scheme the charges will be based on the following calculations:
Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004, no charge will be made for determining whether or not the University holds requested information, nor for the decision as to whether it can be released. However, the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information will be charged for. Please see below.
As required by the Freedom of information (Scotland) Act 2002, no charge will be made for information requests which cost £100 or less.
Where information costs between £100 and £600, the requester will be asked to pay 10% of the cost, as permitted by the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. The maximum charge in this case which can be levied will be £50 (taking into account that no charge may be made for costs up to £100).
Where information costs over £600 to provide, the University is entitled to refuse such requests under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, or it may opt to charge a fee. If it does so, the cost of staff time involved will be charged. A maximum hourly rate of £15/hour will be applied to this calculation. Other costs chargeable include copying, postage (1st class) and materials all as stated or at cost. However, please note for the avoidance of doubt that any costs in excess of £600 may be charged with the agreement of the requester, in addition to the £50 charge for the first £600-worth of information. If this is not paid, the information is not required to be provided.
The requester will have 3 months to decide whether to pay (and if so, to pay the fee in advance). If the requester does not pay the fee, no charge will be made, and the information requested will not be provided.
As with Freedom of Information requests, the first £100-worth of information will be provided to the requester without any charge being levied.
As with Freedom of information requests, where information costs between £100 and £600, a charge of 10% of the cost of providing the information will be levied (including staff time, copying, postage (1st class) and materials all as stated or at cost). The maximum charge leviable under this heading will be £50. The charge must be paid in advance of receipt of requested information. No information will be provided unless the invoice is paid.
Where information costs in excess of £600, the actual total cost (including staff time, copying, postage (1st class) and materials all as stated or at cost) will be charged to the requester, and no information will be provided unless the invoice is paid. The charge must be paid in advance of receipt of requested information. The full cost of the first £600-worth of information will be included within such charges (in addition to the cost in excess of £600) with no upper limit on the chargeable amount. As the actual cost of staff time is used for this costing calculation, please note that the time cost rate levied may exceed £15/hour, if providing the information requested requires the use of staff paid at a higher grade than equivalent to £15/hour.
No charge additional to those stated in this policy will be made for requesters who require a special format, falling within the Equality Act 2010 (or other relevant or successor equalities legislation).
Photocopying is charged at 3p per A4 single sheet; 5p for A4 double-sided black and white; 25p per A4 single sheet; for A4 double-sided colour copying; 50p. Binding if required will be £1 per booklet.
Postage is charged at actual rate for first class mail. A charge of 35p will be made for each CD/DVD used if this is required.
Information obtained from this publication scheme cannot be copied or reproduced without formal permission. Such permission will usually be granted provided it is copied or reproduced accurately, is not used in a misleading context and provided that the source of the material is identified and the copyright status acknowledged.
The publication scheme may, however, contain information where the copyright holder is not Abertay University. In most cases the copyright holder will be obvious from the documents. In cases where the copyright is unclear, however, it is the responsibility of the person accessing the information to locate and seek the permission of the copyright holder before reproducing the material or in any other way breaching the rights of the copyright holder.
Wherever possible, this scheme will indicate where the University does not own the copyright on documents within the section on Classes of Information. Please refer to the University’s intellectual property policy, which is available here. Where there are web links to other organisations, they will normally hold the copyright, but users are advised always to check with the organisation in question.
Information about Crown copyright material is available on the website of the Queen's Printer for Scotland. We can provide you with a copy of this information if you do not have internet access.
The Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 do not apply to information which would be exempt from disclosure under the Data Protection Act 1998 or the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, or exempt under other information legislation. Nor do these Regulations apply to any recorded information which the University holds where another party holds the intellectual property rights (e.g. copyright or database rights).
The Information Commissioner's Office has published a Guide to the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015. View the guide. The Guide says that the Regulations apply to libraries (including University libraries), museums and archives. However, the Guide also says that documents held by educational and research establishments, public service broadcasters and cultural and performing arts bodies (other than libraries, museums and archives) are excluded.
The University's Bernard King Library page is available here, and for more information, please click on the Abertay University Statement on Reuse of Public Sector Information May 2016.
If the information you are seeking is not available under this publication scheme, then you may wish to request it from us.
Details of how to make an information request are available at the page for Access to Information and Records or on the Publication Scheme page itself.
You can contact us for assistance with any aspect of this guide to information. We will be pleased to hear your comments and suggestions, work to resolve any complaints, or advise you on how to ask for information that we do not routinely publish. Please contact Secretariat at the contact details below if you wish to make a request for your own information under the Data Protection Act 1998, in respect of which a fee is payable: this is not a Freedom of Information request.
Freedom of Information, Governance Office, Abertay University, Bell Street, Dundee, Scotland DD1 1HG.
Telephone 01382 308000 (please ask for FOI Processing, Governance Office).
You may wish to contact us by email: foi@abertay.ac.uk. Important note: if you are a student with a query about your studies, please do not contact the Freedom of Information mailbox, but instead please contact the Support Enquiry Zone, which you can find information about here. Alternatively, you may wish to contact your Academic School. If you are an applicant, please visit the University's Study Here pages, for information and contact details for admissions.
Please note the following categories of information which are available under the model Publication Scheme.