The Department of Admissions have been left red-faced after circulating an email containing private details of a postgraduate application to every student on the applicant’s course.
The email included a forwarded message from the applicant who was appealing against her rejection from a Masters in Public Health, as well as her email address and full name. The email was prefaced by a note from a member of staff at the Admissions department who added, “This applicant was rejected – DRQ being the reason.” It was sent to every student on the postgraduate health sciences mailing list.
This constitutes a clear breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 which states that information “be kept from unauthorised access, accidental loss or destruction.”
In response to Vision’s request for a statement on the matter, Simon Willis the Director of Student Recruitment and Admissions replied,
“This was an unintentional data breach. It clearly should not have happened and we have reinforced with both the member of staff concerned and indeed all the staff in the Office the need for extreme vigilance when sending emails, including the need to pay particular attention to email addresses prompted by the Google Mail system.
“We handle enormous amounts of personal data in Student Recruitment and Admissions and take data protection very seriously. All staff in the Office are required to follow the online Data Protection training module.
“Following the data breach, we have written to the person concerned to apologise unreservedly for our error and a report has been sent to the University Registrar and the Data Protection Officer.
However, some students feel like this data protection breach has made them cautious about the University’s application process, Becca-Jane Schofield, a postgraduate student in Women’s studies said, “I think if the same had happened to me, I’d not only feel disappointed and exposed, but I’d lose all faith in the University! I definitely wouldn’t want to carry on at York knowing everyone had seen what I’d written, and I certainly wouldn’t want to apply again for my PhD.”