Freedom of Information in Action
FOI requests by journalists have been responsible for uncovering some of the biggest scandals in modern British politics, and that includes student journalists. Below we’ve highlighted just two of many examples.
Uncovering a parliamentary expenses scandal
In Ben Worthy’s 2014 paper, he describes in detail the parliamentary expenses scandal that rocked the UK in 2009. Across the media and political landscape, MPs were taken to task for inappropriate use of parliamentary expenses to cover everything from a lake house for ducks to moat cleaning services. Yes, the type of moat that surrounds a castle. The headlines caused shockwaves, ultimately leading to the Introduction of the Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA).
The revelations were only made possible due to FOI requests submitted by journalists years beforehand. In an article for The Guardian written at the time titled ‘Unsung hero’, journalist Heather Brooke describes her part in the lengthy legal battle that was ultimately won. Her first-person account of FOI in action is an invaluable primer for student journalists (Brooke, 2009).
Exposing Cambridge’s planned UAE partnership
In 2021, student journalists at Cambridge University’s ‘Varsity’ broke the story of the University’s proposed collaboration with several partners in the United Arab Emirates, projected to last 10 years and covered by a £400 million budget. The information was revealed thanks to an FOI request and ended up making national news (Haigh and Goble, 2021).
Varsity has a history of breaking university news with the help of FOI. For example, the paper revealed that Cambridge colleges took “vastly divergent approaches” when submitting student welfare data under the Prevent counter-terrorism strategy (Batley, 2019). And Varsity was also able to share when the University had recorded its first cases of academic misconduct involving AI (Rowan, 2025). Both stories were only made possible thanks to FOI requests by student journalists.
FOI for UK Student Journalists 