Date of response: 25 July 2024
We have now considered your request of 20 July 2024 for the following information:
Question 1. How many of your PA (physician associate) students achieved distinction/merit/pass/fail over the last 3 years in your exams?
Our response:
| | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
| Number of students who achieved Merit | Information not held - s.1(1)(a), FOIA | Information not held - s.1(1)(a), FOIA | Information not held - s.1(1)(a), FOIA |
| Number of students who achieved Distinction | Information not held - s.1(1)(a), FOIA | Information not held - s.1(1)(a), FOIA | Information not held - s.1(1)(a), FOIA |
| Number of students who Passed | 29 | 22 | 24 |
| Number of students who Failed | <5 | 0 | 0 |
Information not held - s.1(1)(a), Freedom of Information Act
On this occasion it is not possible to provide all of the requested information. In line with your rights under section 1(1)(a) of the Act to be informed whether information is held, we confirm that the University does not hold any recorded information for how many of our Physician Associate (PA) students achieved a distinction or merit over the last three years.
The PA degree at the University of East Anglia is not classified, therefore we do not have the information on distinction/merit.
Values fewer than five - <5
On this occasion, it is not possible to provide all the requested information. The Act contains several exemptions that allow public authorities to withhold certain information from release. We have applied the following exemption to part of your request.
| Exemption | Reason |
| s.40(2), Personal information | Disclosure of some of the requested information would be contrary to the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation |
We can confirm that the University does hold this data. However, due to the small numbers involved, we consider these details are exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the FOI Act.
Due to the small numbers involved, it would be possible to identify a living individual(s) from this information and, therefore, we would consider it to be personal data. Disclosure of this personal data would contravene the first data protection principle of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), that being Principle (a) – lawfulness, fairness, and transparency. We consider that disclosure would constitute unfair processing of the data as any individual would reasonably expect for their data to remain confidential and not released to the public. The University is only permitted to disclose personal data if to do so would be fair, lawful, and transparent. Therefore, the requirements of this exemption are met, and we are unable to disclose this information.
To ensure that we do not inadvertently release personal data in this response or in combination with other publicly available data, we have replaced all values between 1 and 4 in relation to the number of individuals with the value ‘<5’.
Question 2. And how many passed/failed the PANE in the same time period?
Our response:
Please see our response to previous related request, our ref: FOI_24-022.
In addition to this please see latest year’s figures below:
| January 2024 | Pass | Fail |
| Written exam | 26 | <5 |
| OSCE | 23 | 5 |
Please note that the figures provided above may not be a full and accurate record of the results. This is because they only contain data where the candidate has provided consent for their results to be shared with the University by the Royal College of Physicians.
Please also note that as this is a two-year course, and exams would be taken in the third year, therefore students starting in 2019 will not take their final exams until 2021.
Most students sit in January and those that sit in May are usually the ones that failed in January. All students have to sit and pass the written and OSCE.
We have been advised that should any person requesting full data in relation to the results of candidates taking the Physician Associate National Exams should contact the Physician Associate exams unit directly via email: PAExams@rcp.ac.uk.
Values fewer than five - <5
On this occasion, it is not possible to provide all the requested information. The Act contains several exemptions that allow public authorities to withhold certain information from release. We have applied the following exemption to part of your request.
| Exemption | Reason |
| s.40(2), Personal information | Disclosure of some of the requested information would be contrary to the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation |
We can confirm that the University does hold this data. However, due to the small numbers involved, we consider these details are exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the FOI Act.
Due to the small numbers involved, it would be possible to identify a living individual(s) from this information and, therefore, we would consider it to be personal data.
Disclosure of this personal data would contravene the first data protection principle of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), that being Principle (a) –lawfulness, fairness, and transparency. We consider that disclosure would constitute unfair processing of the data as any individual would reasonably expect for their data to remain confidential and not released to the public. The University is only permitted to disclose personal data if to do so would be fair, lawful, and transparent. Therefore, the requirements of this exemption are met, and we are unable to disclose this information.
To ensure that we do not inadvertently release personal data in this response or in combination with other publicly available data, we have replaced all values between 1 and 4 in relation to the number of individuals with the value ‘<5’.
Question 3. How many are registered on the PAMVR?
Our response:
On this occasion it is not possible to provide any of the requested information. In line with your rights under section 1(1)(a) of the Act to be informed whether information is held, we confirm that the University does not hold any recorded information for the number of Physician Associate students registered with the Physician Associate Managed Voluntary Register (PAMVR). Once students have graduated and left the University, we do not track or record whether they have registered with the PAMVR.