Top university apologises after leaking sensitive student data
A UNIVERSITY has been forced to apologise after emailing highly sensitive information about students’ dead relatives and their mental health to more than 300 fellow undergraduates.
A staff member at the University of East Anglia (UEA) attached a spreadsheet which listed reasons students had confidentially given as extenuating circumstances to a group email.
The reasons, typically given as to why students needed an extension to essay deadlines, also included suicidal thoughts, sexual assault, serious family illnesses, anxiety and depression.
It disclosed the names and university IDS of 40 undergraduates in the School of Art, Media and American Studies and was sent to 320 American Studies students.
The university, based in Norwich, is in the UK’S top 20 and was inside the world’s top 150 in 2015. It is also ranked in the top five for American Studies.
Affected student Megan Baynes, 23, said she was “angry beyond belief ”.
Her family member’s illness was detailed on the sheet and she only found out when a friend messaged her.
“I trusted my department to handle my extenuating circumstances in a sensitive manner and instead they have quite literally put them on show for the world to see, it’s humiliating,” she said.
Another student Sophie Atherton, 22, said: “It shouldn’t have happened in the first place.”
She said the department was “not very supportive at all” and its response to the leak was “not good enough”.
“I’d like to see handwritten apologies to every single person on that list,” she added.
The email was received by students on Friday and sent from a staff member’s university email address.
A second email was sent shortly afterwards, from the same account, saying: “You may have erroneously received an email with a spreadsheet attachment.
“Could you please delete this without opening/reading.”
Theodore Antoniou-phillips, the students’ union education officer at UEA, said: “This is a shocking and utterly unacceptable data breach that should never have happened.”
The UEA, which said the email was “mistakenly sent”, apologised “unreservedly” and said it had referred itself to the Information Commissioner.
A spokesman added: “This clearly should not have happened and the university apologises unreservedly. It has launched an urgent inquiry and is offering support to anyone affected.”