Colleagues will be pleased to hear that I have received a reassuring
and sensible reply from Phil Boyd at the DPR office. Students
undertaking academic research are definitely EXEMPT from notification.
(Phew!).
In a nutshell, if they don't come under the University's notification
their academic research counts as 'personal and domestic use' and
would therefore be exempt (unless future commercial exploitation of
the data takes place).
See the full response below.
---------------forwarded message------------------
Our ref: PB/JDW/G0317
31 May 2000
Dear Ms Johnson,
Thank you for your e-mail of 18 May 2000.
It seems to me that the distinction which you draw between students
such as postgraduate research assistants who are, as you put it,
quasi-employees and undergraduate students is an important one. In
cases where the University is able to direct and exercise effective
control over personal data used in the research then our view would be
that the researchers can rely upon the notification of the University.
In other cases, we would normally take the view that a student was
processing personal data for his or her own personal or domestic
purposes and that the processing would, therefore, be exempt.
Clearly there may be cases where undergraduates conduct research with
a view to commercially exploiting its products, in which case
notification will be required. However, it would seem to me that
this is likely to be a fairly small proportion of the total.
I hope this is of some assistance to you.
Yours sincerely,
Phil Boyd, Senior Compliance Manager.
-------------forwarded message----------------------
Anne Johnson, Assistant Registrar
Student Systems Office, Sussex House,
University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9RH
Telephone (01273) 678761; Fax (01273) 877389
E-mail [log in to unmask]
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/sso/
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