Undergraduate Admissions Handbook 2011-12

2.8 Applicants with previous criminal convictions

2.8.1 Aims of admissions policy

The principal aim of the Admissions Policy of the Colleges of the University of Cambridge is to offer admission to students of the highest intellectual potential, irrespective of social, racial, religious and financial considerations.
Two further aims are:

Aspiration: to encourage applications from groups that are, at present, under-represented in Cambridge
Fairness: to ensure that each applicant is individually assessed, without partiality or bias, in accordance with the policy on Equal Opportunities, and to ensure that, as far as possible, an applicant’s chance of admission to Cambridge does not depend on choice of College.

Once students have applied, then the principle of fairness takes absolute precedence.

The aim of the Equal Opportunities policy is to ensure that no prospective student should receive less favourable treatment on any grounds that are not relevant to their academic ability and/or their potential to achieve success in their chosen course of study.

It is, however, important that these aims are achieved without prejudice to the safety and wellbeing of other members of the College and University community and, indeed, there may be occasions where this has to be placed ahead of all other considerations.

The following procedures are intended as a mechanism to ensure that decisions regarding the admission of an applicant with criminal convictions are taken fairly and only after the implications of any conviction have been fully explored.

2.8.2 Scope of procedure

To ensure the safety and protection of both students and staff, the following procedures should be followed in relation to applications from any student declaring (or discovered to have) a criminal conviction which has not been spent under the terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Please note that, under the terms of this act, sentences of 30 months imprisonment or more are never spent, while those of lesser duration do not have to be declared once spent. In practice, this means that the more serious offences must always be declared.

The scope of these procedures does not include applications for Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and Education, for which special arrangements are in place. Details of the procedures for Medicine and Veterinary Medicine can be found on the School of Biological Sciences website. An information sheet for Medicine and Veterinary Medicine applicants about CRB check procedures can be found in Forms and letters. Education students will receive more information from the Faculty of Education about the procedures for CRB checks in the second year of their course.

2.8.3 Notes and procedure

1. Declaration of criminal convictions

All undergraduate UCAS applicants who have a relevant criminal conviction or who are serving a prison sentence for a relevant criminal conviction must tick a box on their UCAS application to indicate this. A relevant criminal conviction is deemed by UCAS to include ‘convictions, cautions, admonitions, reprimands, final warnings, bind over orders or similar involving one or more of those listed below:

any kind of violence including (but not limited to) threatening behaviour, offences concerning the intention to harm, or offences which resulted in actual bodily harm
offences listed in the Sex Offences Act 2003
the unlawful supply of controlled drugs or substances where the conviction concerns commercial drug dealing or trafficking.’

Convictions that are spent (as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974) are not considered to be relevant.

Applicants also agree to the following statements when submitting their UCAS application:

‘I confirm that the information given on this form is true, complete and accurate and no information requested or other material information has been omitted.’
‘I agree to my personal data being processed by UCAS and educational establishments.’
‘I accept that, if I do not fully comply with these requirements, UCAS shall have the right to cancel my application and I shall have no claim against UCAS or any higher education institution or college in relation thereto.’

There is no firm guidance to applicants regarding where they should declare details of any convictions, although the most likely choice is the Personal Statement section of their application or through a separate letter to the institution.

If an applicant is convicted of a relevant criminal offence after they have applied, they must inform both UCAS and the institutions to which they have applied.

Cambridge Admissions Office staff will advise Colleges of any applicant who declares a criminal conviction on their UCAS application. The Criminal Convictions box can be found on the front of the UCAS copy form, or on the first UCAS Weblink page for those Colleges that do not receive copy forms.

It is the responsibility of the College to seek out this box and the personal statement/references for any indication of convictions, which might necessitate the application of the procedures set out below.

2. Action to be taken on receipt of an application which includes a declaration of criminal convictions

College Admissions Tutors must assess applications on academic merit alone in the first instance. If there are no academic grounds for making an offer (either before or after interview), then the application should be rejected in the normal way.

If, from an academic viewpoint, the applicant is felt to merit the offer of a place, the Admissions Tutor should refer the application on to the College’s Senior Tutor. The Senior Tutor should then try to obtain as much information as possible about the nature of the offence(s) concerned from the applicant. In particular, the applicant should be asked to provide references from their Probation Officer and/or the prison authorities.

Applicants who are serving prisoners at the time of application will be required by UCAS to submit their application via the prison authorities, who are expected to indicate the suitability of the applicant to undertake a course of study and whether the applicant would be available to commence a course if an offer was made and accepted.

(a) Convictions resulting in a sentence of imprisonment
In the case of convictions which have resulted in a sentence of imprisonment (including a suspended sentence), the Senior Tutor of the College should prepare a case recommending and objectively justifying either acceptance of the applicant or rejection on grounds related to their criminal record.

Such cases should include an assessment of the risk to other members of the College, department/faculty and the wider University community. Where possible, this assessment should be supported by documentary evidence. Consideration should also be given, within the case, to the need to alert other parties (for example the College accommodation office, faculty or school offices, Socrates/ERASMUS or industry placement organisers/providers etc.) to the circumstances. An indication of any special arrangements that would be required for appropriate supervision once the applicant becomes a student should also be detailed in the case.

Once completed, the case should be submitted to a standing committee of the College concerned, with appropriate membership, as determined by the College, supplemented by two of the three (Associate) Secretaries of the Senior Tutors’ Committee and the Deputy Academic Secretary, who will jointly take responsibility for deciding whether or not an offer should be made.

(b) Convictions NOT involving a sentence of imprisonment
In the case of convictions that have resulted in a sentence not involving imprisonment, the Admissions Tutor should normally decide in consultation with the College’s Senior Tutor and the Secretary of the Senior Tutors’ Committee whether or not an offer should be made. Objective reasons for the decision should be recorded.

If the Admissions Tutor is concerned that the nature of the offence in question warrants more extensive investigation, they may choose to refer the matter to the College’s Senior Tutor for consideration under the more thorough procedures as described in (a) above.

In all cases, the College’s Senior Tutor will provide written confirmation to the College Admissions Office of the decision to make an offer or reject the applicant, together with a complete copy of the documentation relating to the case.

3. Action to be taken where there is reason to suspect that an applicant has unspent criminal convictions which they have not declared

This is most likely to occur where a referee refers to criminal convictions within a reference, but the UCAS Verification Unit may also occasionally alert Cambridge Admissions Office to undeclared criminal convictions.

Any Admissions Tutor concerned about the possibility of an undeclared unspent criminal conviction should notify Cambridge Admissions Office.

Cambridge Admissions Office will seek the advice of the UCAS Verification Unit. The Verification Unit should be able to ascertain whether or not the Admissions Tutor’s suspicions are well-founded. In the event of an applicant having failed to disclose a very serious conviction, UCAS may decide to cancel the application. If the application is not cancelled, the Admissions Tutor should follow the appropriate procedures detailed in section 2 above.

4. Action to be taken where it transpires that a matriculated student has unspent criminal convictions which were not declared when they applied

In such a case, the decision to offer admission will already have been taken on academic merit alone. When the fact that the student in question has undeclared unspent criminal convictions comes to light, the College’s Senior Tutor should be alerted to the situation. The Senior Tutor should then try to obtain as much information as possible about the nature of the offence(s) concerned from the student. In particular, the student should be asked to provide references from their Probation Officer and/or the prison authorities.

(a) Convictions resulting in a sentence of imprisonment
In the case of convictions which have resulted in a sentence of imprisonment (including a suspended sentence), the Senior Tutor of the College should prepare a case recommending and objectively justifying either the retention or revoking of the student’s College membership on grounds related to their criminal record.

Once completed, the case should be submitted to a standing committee of the College concerned, with appropriate membership as determined by the College supplemented by two of the three (Associate) Secretaries of the Senior Tutors’ Committee and the Deputy Academic Secretary, who will jointly take responsibility for deciding whether or not the student’s College membership should be retained.

(b) Convictions NOT involving a sentence of imprisonment
In the case of convictions that have resulted in a sentence not involving imprisonment, the College’s Senior Tutor should normally decide in consultation with the Secretary of the Senior Tutors’ Committee whether the student’s College membership should be retained or revoked. Objective reasons for the decision should be recorded.

If the College’s Senior Tutor is concerned that the nature of the offence in question warrants more extensive investigation, they may choose to consider the matter under the more thorough procedures as described in (a) above.

5. Recording information relating to criminal convictions

All correspondence relating to the declaration of criminal convictions by an applicant will be held confidentially on the applicant file in the College Admissions Office.

Once an applicant matriculates, this correspondence should be passed to the College Tutorial Office to be kept securely as part of the student record there or elsewhere within the College.

At all stages, Admissions Tutors, Cambridge Admissions Office and College Admissions Office staff, College officers, and tutorial staff should ensure that procedures are in place to restrict access to correspondence relating to an applicant’s or student’s criminal record on a strictly ‘need-to-know’ basis.

Under the terms of the relevant legislation, documentation relating to Criminal Records Bureau disclosures should be disposed of after six months.

6. Appeals

Appeals about admissions decisions under these procedures are dealt with on an individual basis with the applicant concerned. An applicant’s parent or guardian may only initiate an appeal if the letter of appeal is accompanied by a signed statement from the applicant authorising the parent or guardian to act on their behalf. Any appeal should be forwarded as soon as is reasonably practicable to the Admissions Tutor of the College concerned. An initial response will normally be sent within three weeks.

Appellants are asked to put all specific concerns in writing.

Specific concerns or omplaints about the admissions process will be investigated by the Admissions Tutor or Senior Tutor, as appropriate, who will consult other persons where necessary. Where it appears, after investigation of the appeal, that a procedural error has occurred, consideration will be given to what steps (if any) should be taken to reconsider the matter, and what steps (if any) should be taken to avoid similar errors occurring in the future.

A written account of findings and any action to be taken will be provided by the Admissions Tutor for every formal appeal under these procedures received. A written report on all appeals received during the admissions round will be made to the appropriate College committee.

After the final response from the College has been received, the appellant may ask that the Director of Admissions for the Cambridge Colleges review the appeal. Should the appeal concern the College at which the Director of Admissions is a Fellow, then the Secretary of the Senior Tutors’ Committee will conduct the review.

In such circumstances, the appellant should send copies of all correspondence and details of the specific appeal in confidence to the Director of Admissions for the Cambridge Colleges c/o Fitzwilliam House, 32 Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1QY. S/he will request full details from the College concerned. The Director of Admissions for the Cambridge Colleges (or the Secretary of the Senior Tutors’ Committee) will send a written report of the review, and if appropriate, recommendations for action, to the appellant and to the Senior Tutor of the College.

Appeals concerning a decision to revoke College membership under these procedures are dealt with on an individual basis with the student concerned through the College’s appeals procedures.

The Objective Assessment for Disclosure of Criminal Conviction Form can be downloaded from Forms and letters.