Our marketing/fund-raising people have suggested cold-calling parents
of current students to see if we can raise funds that way (the plan
is to start wiuth a pilot on the grounds of 'what would your response
be' and then extend if it looks positive, but that's irrelevant to
the principle).
My view is that we cannot release information to enable them to do
this. While marketing is one of the things we have identified we
might use student data for, this isn't data which the student has
released about themselves, it is data which they have given us for
use in case of emergency which actually belongs to the data subject,
viz their parent/next of kin/whomever. This is clearly not an
emergency, so I am saying no way.
I am however assured that other institutions have done this (and
reaped financial rewards therefrom). Question - was this pre-the
Act? Or have I missed an obvious loophole? My colleagues have
suggested that we could just call the permanent home number which
the student has given us and talk to whomever, but
a) since we know that in term time they are not going to be at their
home number unless it is also their term time address, how could we
justify it? and
b) it could be tricky anyway, since the callers would have no
idea who lives there or what their relationship to the student is
Since there are days when I am convinced that since there are more
of them than me, it must be me, any reassurance gratefully received!I
*****************
Jane Hopkinson
University Secretary and Academic Registrar
University of Plymouth
Drake Circus
Plymouth
Devon PL4 8AA
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