Univ’s Senior Tutor has apologised after college officials emailed the 50 lowest collections results of students to the entire JCR.
Dr Anne Knowland, Senior Tutor of the college, said, “We would like to apologise to all students affected by this inadvertent disclosure for any distress this has caused and reassure them that we are investigating exactly how this happened and are determined to make sure this does not happen again. University College takes the treatment of sensitive data very seriously.”
The individuals concerned are said to be “mortified” over the incident, according to JCR President Abigail Reeves, who also commented that the college had handles the incident “incredibly well”.
The spreadsheet including the week’s collection timetable unintentionally included another tab disclosing the results of students who achieved a 2.2 or below last Michaelmas, along with their name, subject and percentage score. This included the marks of nine engineers and six law students.
Another email was later sent out by the same member of staff trying to recall the previous message. It asked Univ students to “[please] delete the one previously sent out” as “it contained inaccuracies.”
Dr Knowland also wanted to remind students that collections do not count towards a student’s final degree but that they play a key role in “identifying problems and give students an opportunity to practise sitting examinations, improve exam techniques, and understand methods of assessment and marking criteria.”
Otamere Guobadia, a second-year law student, and whose results were disclosed on the list, said, “I don’t feel as though there’s any pervasive feeling or undercurrent of betrayal. Someone made a mistake, shit happens. I’ve gotten over it. When the story went national, the press seemed to lose the context and value of collections.”
Some of the brightest people I know are on that list, and conversely you have people like me. Failing a collection doesn’t make you stupid, and the staff member in question is absolutely lovely and ruthlessly efficient – frankly I feel sorry for her. Lord knows I’ve done far more stupid things.”
