A BITTER student bombarded university chiefs with more than 40 requests about a course they failed to get onto, bosses have revealed.

Oxford University said the case showed why Freedom of Information (FoI) laws – which give the public the right to information – need to change.

But campaigners said the laws must be protected to hold decision makers to account.

The university told a Parliamentary inquiry into FoI that the “aggrieved” student’s requests tied up an academic for about 30 hours.

All but one asked for different, specific information about the course. It told the Oxford Mail the student had made 40 to 50 requests to the university and its colleges since August 2011.

In 2005 the university got 185 requests, rising to 330 in 2011.

It told the inquiry the act gave “inadequate protection” from such “vexatious” requests and discouraged staff “expressing themselves openly and honestly in writing”.

Firms are put off from working with the university over privacy fears and it said it should not have to release pre-publication research data.

But a Divinity Road resident whose FoI requests raised questions about student housing branded the “vexatious” example a “red herring”.

Sietske Boeles said her requests to the university and Oxford City Council showed more students live in private homes than allowed. The council is investigating.

She said: “The act is crucial as it gives us a tool to question publicly funded bodies.”

Campaigner Trevor Craig used the Act to question how Oxfordshire County Council was consulting on plans to cut staff in Wychwood Library by two-thirds. He found about a third of library cash went on back-office staff – but such staff were not being looked at as part of the proposed cuts. He said he was sure the information had an effect on a later u-turn that cut the ratio of volunteers to half at Wychwood Library.

Oxfordshire County Council said the vast majority of requests were submitted “responsibly and in good faith”. South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils said FoI had been “generally beneficial in promoting transparency”.

Most of its 400 annual requests take about an hour to respond to and none had been refused as vexatious.

The Justice Select Committee is taking evidence before making recommendations to the Government.

oevans@oxfordmail.co.uk