I’ve got some family history at UCLA. Both my father and uncle attended in the early 1940s. They, or at least my father, didn’t get degrees; they were on an accelerated pre-med program which led directly into medical school without a bachelor’s degree. I earned a graduate degree there myself between 1982 and 1984, and since then I’ve been returning, either to take extension courses, or to borrow books from the library, or what not. It’s always been mildly interesting to realize that my elders trod some of the very same stairs and passages that I do today. It’s rather a rare thing for anybody who grew up in L.A.
A few years ago I had to visit Murphy Hall to find out if I had any fees outstanding. My uncle had the same first name as I, and so when they looked me up they mentioned that he was in their database, even though it was more than 60 years since he was there. I imagine in a relatively young institution such as UCLA, they might now have every student who ever attended, since 1929, in their database. But what about really old universities like Harvard, Yale, or, for that matter, Oxford and Heidelberg? How far back would they go with this?
I would think that they keep them forever. The registrar has a very big responsibility to protect them for a student’s lifespan at least. Someone could theoretically need them to go to grad school whether they are 60 or 80 years old. I have never seen them get death notifications and, even then, there is no reason to purge them. The physical transcripts I have gotten for myself are very compact. It wouldn’t take up too much space to keep them for all students that have ever attended. Computers make this even easier and those files have to be constantly backed up just like all critical modern information and even the records for all students that have attended a large university would be rather small in information systems terms.
How far back to student privacy laws apply? Would a historian need to jump though hoops to get Harvard to release say Franklin Roosevelt’s repord cards?
I don’t know about that but both GW and John Kerry had their Yale transcripts released before the last election. Contrary to popular belief, GW had higher scores overall.
I don’t know about privacy laws but we kept paper copies of everything pertaining to a student save a few basic details like raw marks, address etc until three years after they graduated. At this point everything was unceremoniously dumped but now that we’re keeping a digital record, we should be able to keep everything indefinitely.
I work for a university, and we have some record of students’ results going back to the 1920s at least. Though only those from the 80s on are electronically recorded. Anything before that is in written form of varying decrepitude, with some in copper-plate writing, some stuck in books with yellowed brittle sellotape.
I might have to find out what our privacy rules are, and see if I can dig up some dirt on the alumni from the early twentieth century…
Oxford and Cambridge in the UK have records going back to the Middle Ages:
Alumni Cantabrigiensis: a biographical list of all known students, graduates and holders of office at the University of Cambridge from the earliest times to 1900
[Part 1:] J. Venn and J.A. Venn, From the earliest times to 1751 (4 vols; Cambridge, 1922-1927)
Part 2: J.A. Venn, From 1752 to 1900 (6 vols; Cambridge, 1940-1954)
(reprinted in facsimile, 1974-1978)
J. Foster, ed., Alumni Oxonienses: the members of the University of Oxford, 1500-1714 (4 vols; Oxford, 1891-1892)