Dear colleagues
I would like to do a quick survey on what naming convention you print on your certificates, especially for international students.
I'm referring to the differences in ordering first name and family name. All students are registered on our student record system (Banner) with first name/middle name/family name. There is also a 'legal name' section and, if completed, certificates are printed with the legal name preferentially. So far, so good.
However, what happens in practice is that if students request, for instance, the family name/first name order to appear on their certificates, it creates problems farther down the line with verifications and employment references. We at Southampton are looking at using an external service such as HEDD or QualCheck and I would anticipate that only if records match exactly would the auto-verification functionality work. Even without using an external system, a lot of to-ing and fro-ing tends to occur as we're very careful (obviously) to make sure we're complying with the DPA.
If students ask, I usually 'strongly recommend' that they follow the UK/EU naming conventions but one of our collaborative partners is particularly keen on us issuing certificates under the family name/first name scheme.
Would you be good enough to let me know how you manage this at your institution? As always I'll collate answers and circulate or do an overview
Many thanks
Jackie
Jackie Lupton
Exams, Awards and Graduation Manager
University of Southampton
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