Jeanette,
Here at the University of Salford we now use an external service called HEDD which is operated on behalf of 30 universities by a wing of UUK. I believe that if you provide HEDD with certain data it will verify whether it is correct or not.
Prior to this, we had our own arrangements for verifying degrees. We routinely confirmed the degrees of those whose details had appeared in the graduation ceremony programmes as that was effectively information already in the public domain.
If provided with a name and no person with that name had a degree from the University, we would advise that that was the case. My argument was that this was not personal data but in fact was the absence of personal data. If the name was something like Bathilda Bagshot, it worked perfectly, if the name was John Smith, less so.
If a university is unable to confirm that someone does not have a degree, what's to stop anyone claiming that they have any number of degrees from any number of institutions?
Regards
Matt
Matthew Stephenson BA Hons (Oxon), LLB, MSc (Cantab), MBA, PhD, DLitt
Head of Information Governance
Legal & Governance Directorate
620 Maxwell Building, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT
t: +44 (0) 161 295 6856
[log in to unmask] www.salford.ac.uk
www.infogov.salford.ac.uk/
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jeanette Harrison
Sent: 27 June 2017 08:26
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] Qualifications
I would be grateful for advice as soon as possible please regarding whether a University should, if asked by anybody, be prepared to confirm whether an alleged former student has a particular qualification. If somebody has published information on their website claiming that they have a particular qualification from an institution does that make a difference?
The background briefly is that we have been approached by an individual claiming to be a freelance journalist asking us to confirm whether or not an alleged former student has a qualification from the University. At present I do not feel we can disclose the information.
Many thanks for any advice you can give.
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