{"id":64869,"date":"2024-05-03T12:26:12","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T11:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/?p=64869"},"modified":"2024-05-03T15:11:09","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T14:11:09","slug":"university-attendance-monitoring-apps-spark-controversy-amid-surveillance-and-deportation-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/05\/03\/university-attendance-monitoring-apps-spark-controversy-amid-surveillance-and-deportation-fears\/","title":{"rendered":"University attendance monitoring apps spark controversy amid surveillance and deportation fears"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Concerns are growing across UK university campuses that mobile phone apps used to record attendance could be used in surveillance and to potentially even wrongfully deport international students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Covid, universities have increasingly adopted mobile phone software that students must download, allow to track their location, and use to mark their own attendance by entering a one-time code when they arrive at class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the main reasons that universities introduce these digital check-in apps is to prove to the Home Office that international students are at university, and to report people to immigration authorities if they are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some students and staff at universities that have adopted these apps are worried that they could put international students at risk of wrongful deportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Lucy Mayblin, a political sociologist at the University of Sheffield and expert on UK migration, said: \u201cInternational students are in an Orwellian situation. The idea that these apps are impervious to human flaws is a complete myth. The apps are just a faceless computer.  Students are getting trapped in the system which doesn\u2019t care and is oriented to deporting them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student deportations based on bad data have happened before. After a BBC Panorama documentary in 2014 which revealed cheating by some international students in English language tests, thousands of them were wrongfully accused<\/a> and forced to leave the country. There are fears it could happen again.

\u201cThe stakes are really high for international students,\u201d said Dr Mayblin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pressure is also intense on universities to provide data to the Home Office, because they risk losing their visa license<\/a> to sponsor international students if they fail to keep up with Home Office requirements. The consequences of losing sponsorship status would be dire for universities, who are financially dependent<\/a> on international tuition to balance the books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The University of Sheffield is one of the many schools that have started using an attendance app to streamline their reporting to the Home Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andy Winter, Director of Student Support Services at the University of Sheffield, said: \u201cWe launched a digital check-in tool to make recording student attendance faster, easier and more consistent across the University.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Universities say that these apps also make it easier to identify students who may be struggling with their coursework and might need extra support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: University of Sheffield website screenshot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In January, the university started requiring both UK and international students to check-in to class on iSheffield, an app which uses software licensed from Israeli company Ex Libris. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If location tracking on students’ phones is set to ‘always’, Ex Libris is able record and store data on the whereabouts of them everywhere they go. Ex Libris operates attendance apps for at least 11 UK universities, and is only one of several companies providing similar services across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some international students, the new app is making them feel even less welcome in the country than they already do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel like a human being, I feel like a number. Why can I be tracked 24\/7 by my university?\u201d said Jonas, an international student at the University of Sheffield. Jonas, who is gay and from the Middle East, asked to use a pseudonym for protection from anti-LGBT discrimination in his home country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cThe fact that my university, who is supposed to help students find their voices, is instead tracking us\u2026 That says a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student activists at the University of Bristol and Goldsmiths, University of London, have recently staged boycotts<\/a> against the check-in apps at their schools. \u201cThe controlling and monitoring of our locations is fundamentally an affront to our freedom of movement as well as a threat to our privacy,\u201d said Student Action Bristol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\ud83d\udea8BOYCOTT THE UOB CHECK-IN APP\ud83d\udea8
Use this link to sign an open letter to send to the university. https:\/\/t.co\/FY4vhzkFXO<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/9X9hvMNfWm<\/a><\/p>— Student Action Bristol (@StudentsActBris) March 6, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote>