Examinations and Data Protection
Contents
2. The Examination and Assessment Process
4. Internal and External Examiners' Comments
5. Examination Board Minutes and related documentation
7. Practical Guidance for Departments on Publication of Results
1. Introduction
An Examination is regarded by the Data Protection Act 1998 ("the Act") as ‘any process for determining the knowledge, intelligence, skill or ability of a candidate by reference to his performance in any test, work or other activity’ and would therefore include written assessment work, field work etc.
2. The Examination and Assessment Process
With the exception of those parts of the examination process that are specifically exempted by the 1998 Act (see Section 3 - ‘Examination Exemptions’ below), all personal data produced and processed for the purpose of examinations and assessment may be obtained by a data subject by making a subject access request to the Information Rights Officer through the Secretary’s Office and paying the appropriate fee.
3. Examination Exemptions
There are two exemptions under the Act for certain exam-related information:
The University will not provide access to examination scripts or the information recorded in them. This exemption does not include Examiners' comments (see Section 4 below). This is under Schedule 7(9) of the Act.
3.2 Examination Marks
If a request for examination marks is made before the results are announced, the period for which the University is required to respond to the request is extended from 40 days to the earlier of:
- five months from the date of the request; or
- 40 days from the date the results are published.
In practice, this exemption prevents disclosure of exam results before they are officially announced.
4. Internal and External Examiners’ Comments
Internal and External examiners’ comments, whether made on the script or in another form that allows them to be held and applied to the original script (e.g. in a coded table), are covered by the Act. A data subject has the right to request that are provided within the stipulated timescale (see Section 3.2 above).
Departments should ensure that internal examiners’ comments on examination scripts, assessed work, etc. are
- capable of being produced for a data subject in a meaningful form.
- intelligible and appropriate.
A breakdown of the marks awarded per question may also be provided.
5. Examination Board Minutes and related documentation
Minutes of Examination Boards that contain discussion about data subjects, or minutes of special circumstance committees that make decisions with regard to evidence supplied by data subjects for reduced performance or non-performance in examinations, will be subject to data subject access rights under the Act where candidates are named, or referred to by identifiers from which candidates may be identified (such as numbers).
6. Disclosure of results
Publishing examination results, degree classifications, grades and marks is a common and accepted practice. However, the University must act fairly when publishing results.
As set out in the Student Declaration and the Rules and Regulations for Students, the University publicly discloses examination results in a variety of ways, including publishing pass lists on notice boards, putting degree classes on graduation documentation for degree ceremonies.
The University has a legitimate interest in publishing examination results, however if a data subject has any concerns and/or objections in respect of publication of his/her results which may cause the data subject to suffer distress or harm, the concerns should be raised with the relevant Departmental Data Protection Adviser and/or the Information Rights Officer at data-protection@bristol.ac.uk.
7. Practical Guidance for Departments on Publication of Results
- Wherever possible, exam results should be published in an anonymised form, for example by using the number that all students use on their library card, or that results be provided directly to individual students face-to-face, via post, or via secure electronic means.
- If this is not possible, departments should make sure that disclosure of results should be of a local and limited nature. Posting examination and degree results on the Internet would clearly go beyond a local and limited distribution.
Please bear the following in mind:
- Do not publish results where non-university people can see them, such as on the Internet, in windows, in the press.
- Unless you have the consent of the student, do not disclose results over the telephone, unless a suitable identification system (e.g. using the student number as a password) is in place to ensure that the caller is in fact the relevant data subject.
- Copies of pass lists should be made for University staff only, and should not be given to students or the public.
- Do not send pass lists out by post, or allow them to be taken away from the place where they are published.
- We cannot withhold results from candidates in financial arrears. Candidates in arrears wishing to know their results should make a subject access request.