I have now spoken to the OIC. Their advice is that there is likely to be no problem releasing this information without the student's explicit consent. The problem is to do with security and ensuring that the person who is getting the info is entitled to it.
Now, I'm not technical enough to know about the finer points of this. My simple minded and naïve understanding is that it is unlikely that anyone asking for this info would be doing so unless they had been told by the student which HEI they had attended! However I suppose one should not assume
Mandi Barron
Assistant Registrar (Regulation) and Information Officer
Bournemouth University, Registry
1st Floor Melbury House, 1-3 Oxford Road
Bournemouth, BH8 8ES
tel: +44 (0) 1202 961076 fax: +44 (0) 1202 961066
email: [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Miranda Routledge [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 12 July 2006 12:13
To: Mandi Barron; [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Question for HEIs re confirmation of Awards
We put a notice in our Student Handbook informing students that this
information will be released as follows:
References
If you have provided the name of a member of staff as a referee, the
University interprets you as having given your consent for the disclosure of
personal information in the form of a reference. As a matter of good
practice, you are encouraged to inform people if you intend to cite them as
a referee.
What happens to my information after I graduate?
Provision of References - Like other universities we archive student records
after graduation, in order to be able to confirm requests from prospective
employers, provide references etc.
see also
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/ar/student/handbook/section16/index.htm
Hope this helps
Miranda
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mandi Barron" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 9:53 AM
Subject: Question for HEIs re confirmation of Awards
All
Currently we receive numerous requests from employment agencies and
employers asking us to confirm that a student has indeed studied with
us. We currently ask for the student's written authority to release this
information however this causes a lot of work and prolongs the process.
My question is this. As the agency/employer etc has been provided with
the information by the student already, and we are just confirming these
details, do we actually need to obtain the student's written authority
to release, or is this implied by the student supplying the info in the
first place?
In such cases can we confirm without the students explicit consent?
And what about cases where we are not provided with dates and programme
of study, just that the student has claimed he is an ex-student of the
University? Could we confirm or deny that and provide details of the
programmes and dates of study if appropriate? This is different to the
first scenario in that we would be disclosing (rather than confirming)
personal information without explicit consent, however it could be
argued that this is preventing fraud?
Any thoughts would be appreciated
Mandi
Mandi Barron
Assistant Registrar (Regulation) and Information Officer
Bournemouth University, Registry
1st Floor Melbury House, 1-3 Oxford Road
Bournemouth, BH8 8ES
tel: +44 (0) 1202 961076 fax: +44 (0) 1202 961066
email: [log in to unmask]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
All archives of messages are stored permanently and are
available to the world wide web community at large at
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/data-protection.html
If you wish to leave this list please send the command
leave data-protection to [log in to unmask]
All user commands can be found at : -
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/help/commandref.htm
Any queries about sending or receiving message please send to the list owner
[log in to unmask]
(all commands go to [log in to unmask] not the list please)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
All archives of messages are stored permanently and are
available to the world wide web community at large at
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/data-protection.html
If you wish to leave this list please send the command
leave data-protection to [log in to unmask]
All user commands can be found at : -
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/help/commandref.htm
Any queries about sending or receiving message please send to the list owner
[log in to unmask]
(all commands go to [log in to unmask] not the list please)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|