Policy on Confidentiality of Student Educational Records

Overview/Rationale

Medical student educational records are deemed confidential and only made available to medical school faculty and administration with a specific educational interest or when a student provides consent. 

Accreditation Standards

LCME Accreditation Standard: 11.5 Confidentiality of Student Educational Records

Stakeholders

Medical Students, Staff and Faculty

Policy: (Includes definitions and policy) 

Medical student educational records are deemed confidential and only made available to medical school faculty and administration with a specific educational interest or when a student provides consent. Faculty and administrators who have full direct access to student records include the following: 

  • Dean 

  • Vice Dean for Education 

  • Associate Dean for Student Affairs, Support & Services 

  • Associate Dean for Student Career Development 

  • Senior Director of Student Affairs 

  • Executive assistant to the Associate Deans for Student Affairs 

  • Associate Dean for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging 

  • Associate/Assistant Deans for Admissions 

  • Sr/Director of Admissions 

  • Senior Associate Dean for Curriculum 

  • Sr/Director of Curriculum 

  • Associate Dean for Student Research 

  • Advisory Deans 

  • Executive assistant to the Associate Deans for Student Affairs 

  • Center for Educational Research and Evaluation staff 

Additional members of the faculty or administration, who are asked to provide letters of recommendation, are provided access to a student’s educational record only with the written permission of the student, sent to the Senior/Director of Student Affairs. 

VP&S uses a suite of online tools (e.g., OASIS, ExamSoft, B-line, Qualtrics, iSeek, Microsoft PowerBI, NBME portal, Acuity Insights Analytics, AAMC and ACGME data portals) to manage the curriculum, assessments and student data. Permissions to access student data in these systems are set by the Office of Education on a need-to-know basis, most commonly limited by course, clerkship or phase of the curriculum. Each of these systems has been reviewed by and meet the requirements of the security protocols established by CUIMC Information Technology and CU Information Technology. 

Official transcripts are maintained by the Registrar of Columbia University. 

Student educational records do not contain any student medical records. These are maintained independently by the Columbia University Irving Medical Center Student Health Service. 

View the Records Authorization Form(link is external and opens in a new window) (PDF).