3 April 2020
Nick Hegarty
By email:
[FYI request #12276 email]
Dear Nick,
Please find the following answers to your Official Information Act request of 20 February 2020
regarding rugby scholarships awarded by the University of Otago between 2018 and 2020.
I am requesting information to know how many scholarships for university rugby club were given in
2018, 2019 and 2020.
I take your question to be related to Undergraduate Entrance Scholarships. A full range of the
available scholarships can be found
here. There are two particular scholarships that are relevant to
your question.
The University of Otago Alumni in America Inc. Rugby Performance Entrance Scholarships is the only
scholarship that particularly targets rugby players. As specified in the regulations, this scholarship
requires that recipients “must play for, and be a financial member of the Otago University Rugby
Football Club for the tenure of the scholarship”.
I am unable to confirm the exact numbers of awards of this scholarship between 2018 and 2020
because we are currently unable to access the appropriate system remotely. However, it is likely
that both advertised scholarships were awarded each year. If you would like to have confirmation of
the exact numbers please contact me and I will request this information post lock-down.
The University of Otago Performance Entrance Scholarship awards scholarships to individuals across
a wide range of sports, cultural, leadership, and academic endeavours; it does not award them to a
particular club and nor is there an expectation that any student would represent the University in
their high performance sport.
The exact number of Performance Entrance Scholarships the University awards and the weighting of
the criteria used to assess award are commercially sensitive and therefore we withhold this
information pursuant to section 9(2)(b)(ii) of the Act. Please note, you have the right to make a
complaint about this decision to the Ombudsman.
Claire Gallop
Manager, Policy and Compliance, Office of the Registrar
