Peterhouse Initial Response Checklist

Peterhouse initial response checklist

To help the application process run as smoothly as possible, we have compiled this checklist of the required documents for this stage in your application along with a list of common pitfalls overleaf. Please ensure you complete and return the checklist and the enclosed forms, together with additional requested documents, such as a copy of the photo page of your passport, by Friday 3rd November. Returns must be made by post.

Please note that we do not, under any circumstances, confirm receipt of documents as we receive huge amounts of post at this time of year. Please do not call or email us asking us to acknowledge receipt as we will not respond. We will send out weekly emails regarding the documents we have received from you and what is missing. Otherwise, please assume everything is in order unless we contact you. You will be chased for missing evidence well before the stage where your application could be disadvantaged.

We recommend that you place the copy of your passport’s photo page or your birth certificate in a separate envelope inside the large one and mark it confidential for the attention of the Admissions Coordinator only.

Data Protection Declaration – all applicants

Pages 3-5 of this document, please sign and return page 5

Copy of the photo page of your passport– all applicants

Or a copy of your birth certificate or national ID card

Written Work if we have asked for it in our initial response email

(Make sure you’ve got the correct number of copies and each

copy has a completed cover sheet, page 6 of this document)

Disability Adjustment Form if you declared a disability on your application

Pages 7-8 of this document (not required if you don’t have a disability)

If you declared a disability but do not require any adjustments please still complete and return page 7

Statement of Resultsif you have already taken A or AS levels

If you haven’t taken AS or A levels then no action is required. Please do not submit results for internal school exams.

ALL APPLICANTS: PLEASE RETURN THIS FORM BY POST ALONG WITH THE DOCUMENTS REQUESTED BY 3rd NOVEMBER TO:

Peterhouse Admissions Office

Trumpington St

Cambridge

UK

CB2 1RD

Common pitfalls and mistakes

Whilst minor mistakes in submitting documents won’t have an impact, failures to provide necessary information can ultimately lead to your application being severely disadvantaged. Don’t worry, we’re here to help and we will follow up multiple times before any action is taken (but please ensure your contact details are accurate and our email addresses are on your ‘safe sender’ list). This section is here to help you complete things correctly, as incorrect or incomplete documents will have to be returned to you, which takes time and may result in deadlines being missed.

Data Protection Declaration

Make sure you have signed and dated where asked. If you want us to be able to give feedback to your school, you’ll need to agree to this by ticking and initialling (write your initials) in the appropriate place. Please note that this agreement forbids you from discussing details of your interview questions or other assessment material until 1st September 2020.

Remember to include a copy of the photo page of your passport or, if not available, a copy of your birth certificate, driving licence or your national ID card if this states your place of birth and citizenship. We need this to check your identity during the admissions process so please do not redact any information (we will store all information securely); if you are concerned about your security you could write COPY over it in bold letters.

Written Work

Remember to check (and double-check) that you are submitting the original and the correct number of copies and that each original and each copy has a completed cover sheet stapled to it. A blank cover sheet can be found on page 6 of this document. If your typical schoolwork is in a language other than English and you will be using translations please submit send an extra copy as well as the original. If you have been asked for written work but aren’t currently at school or don’t currently take any essay subjects then please contact the Admissions Office for guidance.

Statement of Results

If you have completed A levels, or have AS results with UMS (unreformed subjects like Maths in England, all subjects for Welsh or Northern Irish exam boards) please send a statement of results detailing your marks in each module. This must either be on school headed paper, or signer by a teacher with the school stamp. If you do not hold such qualifications, a statement of results is not required at this stage.

Disabilities

If you have declared a disability on your UCAS application then you need to complete the Adjustments Form even if no adjustment is necessary (but this needn’t be countersigned by a teacher). Failure to do so will mean that we’ll have to chase you to get the form filled in. If you do require adjustments, please make sure these are specifically detailed (i.e. write ‘20% extra time in writing exercises’ not just ‘extra time’) on the form and that the cover sheet is completed and signed by a teacher.

Post

Please ensure you pay for sufficient postage as insufficient postage causes large delays in paperwork reaching us and costs us money. In the UK, a standard stamp is not sufficient for posting a large letter (e.g. A4 documents). If in doubt, post from a post office or check In general, the UK post is very reliable and there will be sufficient time to post anything again if anything does go missing before problems occur so recorded delivery or couriers are not necessary within the UK or EU (if you are posting from outside the EU this advice may not apply – consult your local post office). Please note that we do not acknowledge receipt of documents – we will chase you for missing items and send periodic updates of what we have received.

Revd Dr S. Hampton

September 2014

Peterhouse

The Data Protection Act 1998: Admissions and Student Records

To assist the College to comply with its legal obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998 this form sets out the main purposes for which the College holds, processes and discloses personal data. Full details of the College’s notification to the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) can be obtained from the Senior Tutor as the College’s Data Protection Officer or from the OIC directly. Other information may be published from time to time with further guidance and descriptions of individuals’ obligations. A breach of the College’s data protection policy or procedures may result in disciplinary action. Any queries should be raised with the Senior Tutor.

Signing at the end of this form indicates consent to the College’s processing of personal data of the signatory for the specified purposes.

The College processes personal data to assist in the admissions process, to enable the provision of education and welfare services to its Junior Members, to facilitate the administration of Junior Members’ accommodation, to provide up-to-date academic records, to assist in the administration and collection of fees and charges to comply with legal and other obligations (e.g. Health and Safety), to facilitate communications and mailings to enable the provision of references to assist with fund-raising by the College and the University, for alumni activities and for research and archive purposes.

Information is provided by the applicants and Junior Members themselves (by way of application forms and other means) and also by third parties such as schools, local authorities and examination boards.

In order to ensure the proper functioning of the College as an institution of higher education, the College may, from time to time, consider it appropriate to disclose within the College relevant personal data about the applicant or Junior Member to other members of staff: committees and organisations (such as the College’s JCR and the College’s Graduate Society) and also to various external bodies, including the College Visitor, the University of Cambridge and any of its officers, Faculties and departments, appropriate members of staff of the University of Cambridge, the Cambridge Review Committee, other Cambridge Colleges, inter-collegiate bodies, other educational institutions, employers and potential employers, professional bodies, funding bodies, local authorities and other governmental and regulatory bodies. Such external bodies may be in the United Kingdom or abroad (including outside the EEA). The College may or may not seek further consent to specific disclosures depending upon the intended disclosure.

To assist with intercollegiate and University activities, the College may provide the names of College members (and, in the case of Fellows and employees, their College contact details) to the University’s Cambridge Review Committee for its production of a directory, the Resident Members list which is obtainable from bookshops.

It is also the College’s policy to provide the room number and e-mail address of Junior Members to bona fide members of the University of Cambridge upon enquiry, but not to others. Junior Members should inform their visitors accordingly. If Junior Members wish such details not to be given out in these circumstances then they should inform the Data Protection Officer in writing accordingly.

The College may in addition need to process certain categories of ‘sensitive personal data’ and signature on this form indicates explicit consent to the processing of sensitive personal data by the signatory as set out below:

Medical Records and Data – to assist in providing healthcare and welfare, to assist in meeting the needs of Junior Members with disabilities, to assist with any dietary and accommodation requirements and to provide appropriate educational services. Any medical information provided to the College Nurse by or about Junior Members will be held in accordance with the principles of medical confidentiality.

Applicants or Junior Members hereby give explicit consent for any information that they provided to the College or a member of the College staff to be disclosed to the College Nurse and the Senior Tutor (and other members of College staff as the Senior Tutor considers necessary), but such personal data shall not be disclosed outside the College, except with the relevant Junior Members’ explicit consent to the proposed disclosure or in other circumstances required or permitted by law (for example to protect the vital interests of the Junior Member or another person). The College may inform the Junior Member’s “emergency contact” of necessary medical information in such circumstances.

Ethnic Origin – to assist with any dietary requirements and to identify possible sources of financial assistance. The College may also process information provided by Junior Members about their ethnic origin for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring, but only in an anonymous form, and may disclose such statistics to external bodies. The College will not otherwise disclose any information about a Junior Member’s ethnic origin without the explicit consent of the Junior Member to the proposed disclosure or as otherwise required or permitted by law.

Criminal Records – to protect other members of the College community and the University, to operate a proper disciplinary procedure, to assist with the provision of references, and to comply with any legal obligations. The College may receive information about a Junior Member’s criminal record or allegations of a criminal offence form the Junior Member or from external sources, such as the police or the Criminal Records Bureau.

Subject to the Requirements of the Rehabilitation of offenders Act 1974 and the prior specific authorisation of the College Data Protection Officer, the applicant or Junior Member hereby gives explicit consent to the disclosure of information about criminal offences or allegations of criminal offences committed by the applicants or Junior Member to appropriate staff within the College, to appropriate staff or officers of the University of Cambridge and to appropriate staff or officers of other Colleges within the University of Cambridge.

The College may also be obliged by law to disclose information about a Junior Member’s criminal offences or allegations of criminal offences to other external bodies, such as the police, in certain circumstances. The College may also be permitted by law to disclose such information to other external bodies without the explicit consent of the Junior Member in other circumstances (for example where the proposed disclosure is necessary to protect the vital interests of another person).

CONSENT

I agree to the University of Cambridge and to Peterhouse, Cambridge, processing data contained in my personal file whether provided in confidence or by other individuals or institutions. I recognise that some of the information received by the University of Cambridge and by Peterhouse, Cambridge, will have been provided confidentially. I accept that this information will be retained by the University and the College for as long as it remains relevant. In the case of unsuccessful applications this normally means that hardcopy files will be destroyed on the 1st September in the year following application, and electronic files are anonymised and kept for research and statistical purposes.

Sharing details of your admissions assessment and interviews risks compromising the standards of admission, and could harm the interpretation of your own performance. I understand that the College expects me to retain confidentiality and not to share interview questions and unseen work with other applicants, or to discuss them publicly for a period of at least 36 months from the date of my participation in either of these processes. This includes communication indirectly or directly by email, websites, chat rooms and texts with other candidates. The College will treat any breach of confidentiality as a very serious matter.

I attach a document with any objections to the processing of my personal data (Y/N)

NAME (please write in block capitals)…………………………………......

SIGNATURE:………………......

SUBJECT APPLIED FOR:…………………………......

DATE:………………......

UCAS Personal ID (a 10 digit number):......

FEEDBACK ON APPLICATIONS

Peterhouse is happy to provide feedback, when requested, to applicants who have been interviewed by the College, but have failed to secure an offer, either in the first instance from Peterhouse or subsequently from a pool College. Please note that requests for feedback must come from the candidate themselves and not from their UCAS referee.

We provide feedback to the writer of the UCAS reference (usually, therefore, a member of staff at the applicant’s school/college), or in the case of applicants who have left school, at the time of applying, we will provide feedback directly.

This is for two reasons:

1. The referee is well placed to judge the best way to convey the feedback to the individual concerned so that it is received as a beneficial learning experience;

2. The provision of feedback to the applicant’s institution informs advisers of future applicants about the standards and requirements for the relevant Cambridge course and thus is of wider benefit to the admissions process.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 we require your consent in order to send feedback on your application to your UCAS referee.

TO GIVE THIS CONSENT, PLEASE WRITE YOURINITIALS ANDTHE DATE HERE:

Please use a separate cover sheet for each copy of work. This work should be submitted to PeterhouseAdmissions Office no later than 3rd November.

Please note it is non-returnable. It must be original marked work not re-written or corrected for Cambridge. All written work must be in English (except where required for Modern Languages and joint courses including a Modern Language).

Please keep a copy of what you send, as reference may be made to it at interview.

To be completed by the applicant and attached to the front of written work

To be completed by school/college representative

Disability/Specific Learning Difficulties (including Dyslexia and Dyspraxia) and Request for Adjustments/Allowances at Interview

We wish to ensure that, wherever possible, we can make any appropriate adjustments/allowances if you are called for interview. To enable the College to do this please complete and return the attached form by 3rd November 2017.

Please have the information confirmed by your teacher/tutor or other relevant member of staff at your school/college, and supply the appropriate evidence as requested. If you have Specific Learning Difficulties, please do NOT send a full Educational Psychologist report at this stage unless there is particular reference to the support you require that will help the College make appropriate adjustments to its assessment and selection procedures.

If you do not require any adjustments please still complete and return the form to save us chasing you.

If you have any queries please contact the Admissions Office. We look forward to hearing from you.