Reverse Transfer cannot be used to collect or maintain the student consent required to exchange student course data among institutions. The Clearinghouse has, however, compiled the following FERPA best practices that your institution may find helpful.
Collecting FERPA Consent
- Admission Application: Add a question to your admissions application asking students if they are interested in participating in Reverse Transfer.
- Transcript Requests: Collect Reverse Transfer FERPA consent whenever a student requests that a transcript be sent to another institution. While this type of consent exchange requires collaboration, it can prove efficient in some circumstances.
- Email Campaigns: Send emails that drive students to a web form or reply back to opt-in to your Reverse Transfer program and give consent for their records to be exchanged. Be aware that approach tends to yield the lowest response rate, about 10%.
- Student Self-Service: If available, use your student information system’s pop-up menus and/or surveys to collect FERPA consent for Reverse Transfer.
Storing FERPA Consent
Most institutions track student Reverse Transfer FERPA consent within the admissions module of their student information systems. We also work with institutions that track consent in spreadsheets or databases. However, for data extraction efficiency, we recommend housing the information in an environment where it can be easily queried.
