Assuming that I have understood your question correctly, there should be no
problem.
The Act requires that personal information is collected and used fairly.
Essentially this means that the subject knows who is using it, what for and
to whom it may be disclosed. It should only be used for the purpose for
which it was collected and notified to the Information Commissioner's
Office.
In this case the students will be providing information to the college (the
college is a single legal entity), so as long as the information is passed
to those working for the college and for the purpose it was collected
(feedback about courses), that is fine.
The only possible problem could be that your lecturers might not want their
colleagues to see the feedback about their courses. So it might be wise to
talk to them. However, in my view, as they are working in a professional
capacity and in an environment where peer review is not unusual, this is a
personnel problem not a legal one.
------------------------------------------------------------
Ken Allen
Corporate Information Security Manager
Corporate Information Unit
Suffolk County Council
Libraries & Heritage
Room 37, St Andrew House
County Hall, Ipswich
Suffolk, IP4 1LJ
Tel:+44 (0) 147 358 4567
http://www.suffolkcc.gov.uk
mailto:[log in to unmask]
------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2003 12:21:13 +0100
From: Kirstie Ball <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Sharing module feedback scores - data protection implications
Dear all,
This is the first time I've posted to this list, so please be gentle! I
run a set of programs at the University of Birmingham which involve
students from various engineering schools taking business modules in a
major/minor format (ie major in engineering, minor in business). They
are all new modules, and the program has been running for one year. The
engineering schools have expressed an interest in seeing student
feedback from business school modules. In the past (ie on older
programs which are being phased out), they have administered their own
module feedback questionnaire, alongside the business school
questionnaire. This has meant students filling out two questionnaires,
and two sets of administrators coming into the classroom at two separate
times ie is wasteful of resources and basically inefficient. In
addition, the business school has redesigned its questionnaire recently,
in line with best practice, and frankly, the engineering one is a bit
ropey (from the horses mouth btw), and they would rather see the results
from our questionnaire anyway.
=20
In my view it would be better if all participating schools used the
results from the business school questionnaire. However, I have a
feeling that I should gain the written consent of all of the lecturers
involved from a data-protection point of view. I also have a feeling
that I should define the process of feedback dissemination, with named
individuals in other schools before I even approach individual
lecturers.
=20
From (a) a legal and (b) a best practice point of view, what's the best
way to proceed with this?
Thanks in advance,
Kirstie=20
Dr Kirstie S Ball=20
Lecturer in Organizational Management=20
Birmingham Business School=20
University of Birmingham=20
Birmingham B15 2TT=20
Dir 0121 414 2546=20
Web: www.bham.ac.uk/business=20
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