Protecting student privacy and information security in a federal student data system

Joanna Gramma is a senior consultant at Vantage Technology Consulting Group and she joins NACUBO’s Megan Schneider, senior director of government affairs, to take on a subject at the intersection of technology and higher education: centralizing a new set of higher education student and institution data at the federal level. Many institutions already make this sort of data public on their own websites; but advocates for a new system argue that a centralized data source would offer a useful tool for parents and students to evaluate all of their different educational options. However, if such a potentially large set of centralized data were collected, does the federal government have both the IT infrastructure and regulatory framework necessary to protect such information? Gramma helps us to understand the current information security landscape and points out some potential areas for further research whether you’re an IT specialist, administrator, or parent.