Not too familiar with the HE staff terms of employment but:-
What does the HE staffs contract state about the data collected and
processed by them on behalf of the data controller? If it is not
sufficiently explicit to deal with situations as described, does it meet the
requirements of the act? Or is the data controller not required to provide
the same level of protection where servants/agents are processing compared
to that when a data processor is processing?
Ian W
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Wilson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2000 2:21 PM
Subject: Re: Withholding student marks
> Richard,
> Interesting one!! Here goes..
> 1. NO - the Uni would I think deem Academics to be "reliable &
trustworthy" (The fact that you are bringing up DP issues confirms this!)
> 2 & Possibly 3. Legally Not sure - probably need a test case!
> 4 . Data subject is the owner of the data (i.e. the mark not the script)
and as such has a legal right to access (upon making a formal request and
paying fee etc.). However, exam scripts have a special time extension of 5
x months from access request to allow for exam panels etc. Releasing marks
informally to students might cover you.
> 5. "Reliable & trustworthy" again - most (if not all) academics do their
marking at home anyway.
> 6. There could be Human Rights issues if failure to process grades denies
student a right to education (Article 2 of Protocol 2).
> Peter
> P.S. Would one way round all this be to NOT mark the assessments in the
first place - thereby - No Data?
>
> Peter Wilson
> Data Protection Officer
> University of Paisley
>
> >>> Richard Howley <[log in to unmask]> 12/06/00 12:04pm >>>
> Dear all,
>
> As many of you will be aware HE staff are currently involved in industrial
> action and as part of the action is to withhold assessment grades from the
> formal university processes. We have been advised to provide informal
> feedback to the students but not to feed the grades into the normal
> university assessment processes so that formal assessment meetings, etc
> cannot take place.
>
> Does this raise DP issues?
>
> 1. By withholding the data from the university are we restricting their
> ability to discharge their legal responsibility to safeguard the data,
etc?
> 2. Are we (academic teaching staff) allowed to withhold data from the
> registered data controller?
> 3. Data Controllers can be defined as 'those who determine the manner in
> which processing is carried out' ('The DPA Explained' , Leigh-Pollitt and
> Mullock, 2nd Ed. 2000. page 4). Are we, by determining how we will process
> the data, acting as the data controller? Is this allowed?
> 4. At the basis of all this is perhaps the question 'who owns the data'?
The
> data (ie. assessment grade) is a reflection of the intellectual property
of
> the person carrying out the assessment and as such at what point does this
> 'intellectual property' become the property of the data controller
(normally
> the employer according to the 98 Act, (L-P & M, page 23))?
> 5. One of the unions involved in the dispute suggested that staff keep
> grades 'at home'. Is this allowed under the 98 Act? Are we not denying
data
> subjects their rights to access the data? Are we not restricting the
ability
> of the data controller to ensure that the data is adequately protected?
> 6. Are there other DP issues involved by withholding data?
>
> I would be interested in your informed comments on these issues.
>
> Richard
> _____________________________________________________________
> Richard Howley
> Academic Manager
> FTMS/De Montfort University Campus (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd
> De Montfort University
> Leicester
> LE1 9BH
>
> email: [log in to unmask]
> tel: +44 (0)1162 551 551
> fax: +44 (0)116 254 1891
> tel (mobile): 07951 084 593
> http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~rgh
> http://www.dmu.ac.uk
> __________________________________________________________
>
>
>
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