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An item of concern has been raised in connection with the administration of the revised Student Support system this year, particularly the Student Loans Company and the issuing of CD-ROMs to all HEIs containing fee details for undergraduate students. The CD-ROM (issued as a series of regular updates) lists in Excel/CSV format the portion of fees paid to HEIs by the SLC and individual student contribution to the University tuition fee. Details include the financial assessment, the student names, loan account numbers, dates of birth, and course details with UCAS code. Each CD-ROM contains an individual file relevant to an individual HEI, as well as the files for every other HEI in the UK. Effectively, every fees officer (and anybody else) who receives the CD-ROM has full access to personal, academic, and financial information on every student in the country. The Data Protection issue raised here is enormous - I have initiated a discussion topic on relevant academic administration mailing lists ( [log in to unmask] & [log in to unmask] ) to gauge opinion over this. So far I have received various comments agreeing with my concern. Wearing both my job hats at Lucy Cavendish, I have reported the situation to the Office of the Data Protection Registrar. I am concerned both in terms of Data Compliance by the SLC, and also as a member of staff within a HEI responsible for personal student financial information which has been made available nationally without consent. Following written confirmation from me, the DPR's Office have agreed to investigate the matter. --------------------------------------------------- Dr IAN W.F. BAXTER Student Finances & Awards Officer & Data Compliance Officer Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, CB3 0BU. UK. Tel: 01223 332186 Fax: 01223 332178 Email: [log in to unmask] Heritage Management & Tourism R&D [Dept. Archaeology, Cambridge University] c/o 2 Australia Court, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, CB3 0JA. UK Tel: (01223) 358269 Email: [log in to unmask] --------------------------------------------------- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%