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Student data 'could be exploited for profit' by privateer Pearson

DATA belonging to students could be "exploited for profit" with campaigners raising concerns yesterday over a possible conflict of interest.

A statutory instrument which came into effect on Monday gives powers to the Office for Students (OfS) to hand over student data from higher education institutions in England and Wales to groups such as Pearson, the Student Loans Company, HMRC and the Competition and Markets Authority.

The OfS has information on declared mental and physical health conditions, graduate employment and more. The data was previously held by universities and the new regulation is supposed to keep data sharing “up to code.”

However, Defend Digital Me campaigners have questioned the objectivity of OfS chairman Michael Barber, who was a former adviser at private education giant Pearson.

Defend Digital Me director Jen Persson warned that the move opens up the possibility of “exploitation of their personal data for profit.”

She told the Morning Star: “Corrupt at worst, and careless at best, the government must not sell out students’ or staff rights this way.

“It’s an unprecedented power for this global player Pearson to be given unlimited amounts of data from undefined sources across higher education without any duty of transparency or accountability [as to] how it will be used and why.

“With nothing set in law, how uses might change over time, whatever government says today could be changed tomorrow.

“This is power to give them the data, handing it over lock, stock and barrel, and so badly worded that anything goes, without narrow purposes and clear necessity, without transparency or obligations to publish how the data is used.”

Pearson has previously faced criticism for selling student data and Ms Persson said there are “no guarantees” it will not do so again.

“It is already a giant data controller in England’s education sector,” she said.

“We are deeply concerned that the legislation explicitly says the recipients may use data for their own purposes.

“Serious questions of unfair competition need to be asked before the sector will be able to trust that the OfS can be an independent regulatory body fit to oversee how Pearson will use the power this data will give it.”

A Pearson spokesman said that the data sharing is necessary to safeguard against “fraudulent access to public funding by centres offering qualifications awarded by Pearson.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said the OfS needs to be able to share information with bodies “when needed” to “properly address any issues around quality, management and governance, student experience and potential wrongdoing.”

The legislation follows the new Data Protection Act, which supposedly gives people more control over how their information is used.

A University and College Union (UCU) spokesman said: “After all the fuss around [EU privacy regulation] GDPR it is quite bizarre that students will now be put in a position where their data is shared with commercial companies without the knowledge of what they will do with it.”

In a 2015 Ucas survey, 90 per cent of 37,000 students said they did not want their data to be handed to commercial companies without consent.

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