Please note - the information below is not legal advice, and any judgment about whether to release information in any one case rests with the centre/school where the relevant request is made. Centres should refer to data protection legislation in their country. If in doubt, they should seek independent advice.
Until now, our communications to you have been clear that you should not share the predicted grades and rank orders you provided to us for June 2020 with candidates, parents, or anyone outside your centre before results day. However, this will change after results day.Â
Predicted grades and rank orders are considered the personal data of candidates. In many countries, data protection laws mean that candidates have a right to know this information after results day. However, candidates only have a right to know their own information. You must not share information with them about other candidates, or information that risks revealing information about other candidates. Sharing personal information with third parties could constitute a data breach.
Should I share information with candidates after results day?
We recommend that you check all data protection laws that apply to your local or national context, and then consider the three possible approaches you could take:
- You could offer to release the predicted grades of individual candidates if they request them (perhaps shortly after results are released).
- You could only release predicted grades in response to a request under data protection law. However, please note that any request, however informal, could require you to release the information, depending on the relevant data protection laws.
- If your relevant data protection laws allow this, you may choose to refuse to release predicted grades, even if requested by a candidate. However, please note that candidates have the right to request this data directly from Cambridge International, and that in nearly all cases we would be obliged to provide it to them by law. Please see section Cambridge International’s obligations further down the page.
Our view is that the first strategy is best. This would allow candidates who believe they have been disadvantaged by this year’s process, particularly those who believe this has implications for their progress to the next stage of education or employment, to find out information to which they are entitled, without introducing unnecessary confusion and doubt for other candidates. Waiting until the following day or week to release this information allows for a cooling-off period, and for this to take place in the context of a teacher-supported interview, talking about next steps.
We would encourage you to discuss the approach you plan to take with other local centres, and to agree an aligned approach if possible.
What do I need to do?
If you choose to follow our suggested strategy, we recommend you take the following actions:
- Explain your approach clearly to candidates and their families in advance.
- Think carefully about how you will manage requests for predicted grades. You may wish to put together a simple form for candidates to complete.
- Think carefully about who will receive and respond to these requests. Make sure the person carrying out this role fully understands your process, what data they are able to release and who to.
- Make it clear that, for data protection reasons, requests for predicted grades must be from candidates themselves, rather than their parents or carers. If you receive a request from a parent or carer, we recommend you tell them that the candidate must make this request directly.
- Think about the wording you will use when providing predicted grades. You may wish to adapt and use this template letter (DOC, 28KB).
We advise you not to reveal a candidate’s rank order unless a candidate explicitly asks for this. This would not help the individual candidate and, particularly if the cohort is small, may inadvertently reveal information about another candidate – a possible data breach.
Centres should consider what would constitute a small cohort and in considering whether to disclose rank order what the possibility of disclosing third party information could be.
If a candidate asks for their rank order, we advise you to treat this as a formal request for personal data, and seek appropriate advice.
Cambridge International’s obligations
Cambridge International is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) part of UK law. This means that candidates have the right to receive a copy of their personal data from us, including predicted grades and rank orders submitted by you. If requested from us, we have to provide this data to candidates by law unless there is a clearly justifiable reason not to (for example, concern about someone’s safety). The GDPR stipulates that we must provide this data within 30 days of receiving the request.
Our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) advise candidates to ask their schools for this information. Therefore, if we receive a request, we will direct candidates back to you in the first instance. This is because you will be able to share information with them promptly as part of wider, individualised support.
If candidates proceed with their request for data from us, we will contact you and ask if there is any clearly justifiable reason for us not to give them the data. If there is a reason not to provide the data, you must provide us with this reason within 10 days of us asking for it so we are able to meet the 30 day time limit imposed by the GDPR.
After the deadline, if we have not heard from you regarding a reason not to provide the data, we will release the data to the candidate in line with our legal obligation.
If you provide a reason not to release the data, our Data Protection Officer will review it.
- If the Data Protection Officer believes that the reason can be accepted under the GDPR, then the data will not be released and we will tell you and the candidate.
- If the Data Protection Officer believes that the reason cannot be accepted under the GDPR, we will contact you. We will allow you the opportunity to respond before we release the data to the candidate in line with our legal obligation.