The Freedom of Information Act 2000 enables members of the public to request information held by public authorities such as SOAS. Compliance with the Freedom of Information Act by the institutions and their staffs is not voluntary or optional but legally compulsory. Deliberately concealing, destroying or altering information to prevent its release is a criminal offense under section 77 of the FOI Act.
Below is the data related to SAAAP (the Alphawood programme) received from SOAS under the FOI Act:
Nov-Dec 2019: In Sept 2019, I requested written correspondence and documents related to the preparation and delivery of a briefing on teaching by the SAAAP-endowed academic staff. This briefing was said by the Director of SOAS to be necessary to send to the Alphawood Foundation “in order to demonstrate compliance with terms established in the Deed of Gift.” The teaching briefing was prepared in April-May 2019 and delivered to the Alphawood Foundation in June 2019. I was dissatisfied with SOAS’s response to my FOIA request as the information appeared incoherent and incomplete, and SOAS also sought to withhold some information by, in my view, incorrectly invoking legal exemptions from disclosure. I requested an internal review of the handling of my request, but the result was that SOAS affirmed its decisions. I have appealed for review by the UK Information Commissioner, the government regulator for information rights. The data disclosed so far by SOAS, on 18 November, 4 December and 16 December, may be seen here.
Aug-Sept 2019: In July 2019, I requested documents and emails related to SAAAP’s Summer Programme in Ho Chi Minh City. The data may be seen here.
Feb 2019: In Jan 2019, I requested catalogue records, gift documentation, and due diligence reports on a Ban Chiang vessel donated to SOAS. The data provided by SOAS may be seen here.
Sept 2018: In July 2018, I requested emails and documents related to SAAAP’s handling of a £100k foreign exchange deficit first mentioned publically in the SAAAP Board’s December 2017 meeting minutes. The data was sent to me by SOAS in 39 working days, well beyond the 20 working-day limit mandated by the FOI Act. The data may be seen here.
May-June 2018: In Apr 2018, I requested emails and documents related to SOAS’s acquisition of a centuries-old Thai sculpture. The data received may be seen here.
Oct-Nov 2017: In Oct 2017, I had requested emails of members of the Alphawood Scholarships Sub-board and the Chair of the SAAAP Board on the subject of the award of Alphawood Scholarships for the 2017-’18 academic year. SOAS provided this set of emails. Subsequently, after my queries, SOAS removed some of the redaction on pages 9, 10, 19, 20, 21, 56-58, and 61 of the original set. The revised pages are here. SOAS also provided a new PDF of p. 59 as the earlier PDF had cut off the right edge of the text. However, SOAS still retained the redactions on some emails on pp. 56-58, citing an exemption under section 40(2) of the FOI Act. I appealed to the Information Commissioner about this decision to redact but was unsuccessful.
15 Sept 2017: In July 2016, I had requested emails of 4 members of the SAAAP Board relating to the March 2016 external review of SAAAP. SOAS provided the emails of 2 members (see 19 Sept 2016 entry below) but withheld the emails of 2 others, Prof. Anna Contadini and Dr. Peter Sharrock. I appealed to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s watchdog for Freedom of Information. The ICO ordered SOAS to release the emails. The SOAS Information Compliance Manager sent me this email of Prof. Contadini and this message of Dr. Sharrock.
June-July 2017: I had requested data on the 2017-’18 Alphawood Scholarships awarding process, including the total number of applicants, the number of awards, and the number of applicants with backgrounds in modern/contemporary art. I also requested emails exchanged during Feb 2017 by members of the Scholarships Sub-Board. The information which the SOAS Information Compliance Manager (ICM) provided to me on 19 June contained lacunae or gaps. Some of these were filled by further information provided by the ICM on 27 June and then 10 July. This information can be found here: 19 June, 27 June, 10 July. However, there are still several gaps in the information sent to me, suggesting the email record is incomplete. I made an internal appeal, but Secretary of SOAS merely asked staff again to check their email boxes and was silent about the gaps in the record.
25 Nov & 6 Dec 2016: I had requested various emails related to the March 2016 external review of SAAAP (the Alphawood programme): (1) Emails exchanged between the Director of SOAS and 3 members of the SAAAP Project Board (which governs the Alphawood programme): SOAS’s response is here. (2) Emails exchanged between the Chair of the SAAAP Board and the External Reviewer between 1 and 15 April 2016: SOAS’s response is here. (3) Emails exchanged between the Director of SOAS and the External Reviewer between 15 March to 15 April 2016: SOAS’s responses are in these files: emails, attachment 1, attachment 2, attachment 3, and attachment 4.
31 Oct 2016: The SOAS Students’ Union obtained 7 documents which were among those given to Prof. Shearer West, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University, who was commissioned to undertake a review of SAAAP, in March 2016.
a. Self-Evaluation Statement
b. Draft Letter from James McDonough to Fiona McWilliams, 26 March 2014
c. Email from Fiona McWilliams to members of the Project Board, 2 April 2014
d. Letter from James McDonough to Valerie Amos, 17 December 2015
e. SAAAP Strategy (V7.0 FINAL), March 2015
f. SAAAP Structure and Governance, December 2015
g. Excerpts from the Deed of Gift, as of its most recent update on 8 Sept 2016
19 Sept 2016: I had requested emails of 4 members of the SAAAP Project Board relating to the March 2016 external review of SAAAP. SOAS provided the emails of two Board members (the Chair and the Programme Administrator), in these files: January, February1, February2, February3, March1, and March2.
However, SOAS declined to disclose the emails of the other two Board members, Prof. Anna Contadini and Dr. Peter Sharrock. Valerie Amos, Director of SOAS, in her capacity as Qualified Person for the purpose of Freedom of Information, claimed that their emails should be exempt from disclosure. I made an internal appeal, but the Secretary of SOAS upheld the Director’s exemption. I then filed an appeal with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, which supported the appeal and ordered SOAS to disclose the emails. See the 15 Sept 2017 entry above.
6 May 2016: Information requested: source of scholarships for the 2 students asked to change their study programmes in Feb 2016; numbers and types of Alphawood Scholarship applicants; emails exchanged by Scholarship Committee members; sections of the Deed of Gift governing the Alphawood programme. See the specific questions and the data provided by SOAS here on SOAS’s website. The data is also here (part 1) and here (part 2).