In a complex, devolved, organisation like ours, data stewards can find it difficult to keep track of who is using their data.  Conversely, it can be difficult for people who need access to administrative data to find out how to request access.

Bear in mind that we have to meet our moral and legal responsibilities regarding access to private information, particularly information about individuals.  We need to know where this data is being used and what it is being used for.   This is now a legal requirement.

To help both communities – data users and data stewards – the Data Protection Office is working with Enterprise Architecture and Service Management to create a standard process for requesting data.  We will have a web form that captures all the requirements and presents this to the relevant data stewards.  We will keep a record of access requests so that data stewards can follow up and check that the data is still required.

We should give a shout-out here to Student Systems, who have been running a process along these lines for several years.  Their experience and expertise is an invaluable starting point for the new University process.

Keeping track of data requests / Enterprise Architecture by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0