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Criminal Convictions Policy and Procedure for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Admissions – July 2016
10. Information relating to the criminal convictions of an applicant is to be treated confidentially
and only released to staff on a need to know basis. Where it is decided that staff other than
those referred to in this procedure need to be given information about an applicant’s criminal
conviction, the applicant must be informed that information is being passed on and to whom.
Information Supplied by a Third Party
11. If the University receives information that an applicant has a relevant conviction which the
applicant has not declared, the information will be investigated.
12. If the information is found to be incorrect, no further action will be taken.
13. If the information is found to be correct, the applicant will be asked to explain why the
conviction was not declared.
a)
If the omission of a declaration is considered by the Senior Undergraduate Admissions
Manager or Senior Postgraduate Admissions Manager (hereafter referred to as the ‘Admissions
Officer’) to have been a genuine error, the application will be dealt with in the usual way under
this procedure.
b)
If the Admissions Officer believes that the applicant deliberately sought to mislead the
University, the application will be rejected as fraudulent and UCAS will be informed if the
application came through that route.
Procedure
14. Applications declaring relevant criminal convictions shall be forwarded to admissions
selectors in the usual way for an academic decision, with a request not to make contact with
the applicant at this stage and a reminder that the conviction is to have no bearing on the
admissions selector’s academic decision.
15. If an admissions selector decides to reject an applicant on academic grounds, no further action
in respect of the criminal conviction shall be taken and the reject decision shall be processed in
the usual way.
16. If an admissions selector decides that an offer should be made on academic grounds or wishes
to interview an applicant in order to make the academic decision, the following steps will be
taken:
a)
A member of staff in the Admissions Office shall write to the applicant asking for details of
the conviction including the date and penalty imposed. The applicant shall be invited to
include in the response a letter from a Probation Officer or other relevant person;
b)
The Admissions Officer shall forward the applicant’s response to the Head of School (or
nominee) to which the applicant has applied and invite comment;
c)
The response from the applicant and any comments received from the Head of School (or
nominee) shall be considered by a Panel convened by the Admissions Officer. The Panel will
consist of the Academic Registrar, an academic member of staff and a representative from the