linneo

University extension

Package io.github.devbpm.linneo.extension.university — exported, @since 0.1.0

Terms for universities and other higher education institutions: the data they hold about students, applicants, staff, alumni and supporters beyond the standard user.education.* terms, the purposes they process them for and the people involved. The extension is optional and not applied by default; see Extensions.

It gives the finest detail to the student academic record: enrolment changes and transfers, assessment attempts, final grades and averages, credit recognition, programme progress, degrees, certificates and language proficiency, internships and mobility, means-tested aid and fee exemptions.

Type	Description
UniversityTaxonomy	public final class implements TaxonomyExtension. name() returns NAME, public static final String NAME = "university", recorded as the origin of its terms. Public no-argument constructor; no state. contribute(builder) adds the terms listed below.
UniversityCategories	public final class, private constructor: one public static final String per data category the extension adds (33).
UniversityDataUses	The same for its data uses (27).
UniversityDataSubjects	The same for its data subjects (13).

The constants follow the naming rule of Categories: user.education.attendance is UniversityCategories.USER_EDUCATION_ATTENDANCE, essential.legal_obligation.statutory_reporting is UniversityDataUses.ESSENTIAL_LEGAL_OBLIGATION_STATUTORY_REPORTING. They are compile-time constants, valid in annotations once the extension is applied.

Applying it

Taxonomy taxonomy = Taxonomy.builder().withStandard().extend(new UniversityTaxonomy()).build();
// Taxonomy[158 data categories, 90 data uses, 34 data subjects]

Taxonomy.load() applies it only if the application registers it; see Registering a shipped extension.

A model then uses the extension’s keys next to the standard ones:

package com.example.app;

import io.github.devbpm.linneo.Categories;
import io.github.devbpm.linneo.annotation.Category;
import io.github.devbpm.linneo.extension.university.UniversityCategories;

import java.time.LocalDate;

public class Absence {
    @Category(Categories.USER_UNIQUE_ID)
    private String studentNumber;

    @Category(UniversityCategories.USER_EDUCATION_ATTENDANCE)
    private LocalDate date;

    @Category(UniversityCategories.USER_EDUCATION_ATTENDANCE)
    private boolean excused;

    @Category(Categories.USER_HEALTH_AND_MEDICAL)   // the medical reason is health data, not attendance
    private String medicalReason;
}

new Classifier(taxonomy).verify(List.of(Absence.class)).get(0).fields().forEach(f ->
        System.out.println(f.field() + ": " + f.category().key() + " " + f.category().nature() + " "
                + f.confidentiality() + " " + f.integrity()));

studentNumber: user.unique_id ORDINARY LOW MEDIUM
date: user.education.attendance ORDINARY MEDIUM HIGH
excused: user.education.attendance ORDINARY MEDIUM HIGH
medicalReason: user.health_and_medical SPECIAL_CATEGORY HIGH HIGH

Fideslang rules for custom labels

The extension follows the rules fideslang sets for custom labels, so its terms stay interoperable with other tools:

• Extend existing classes. Every term is a child of an existing term. The only exceptions are the two roots of data uses advancement and research, whose purposes no fideslang use describes.
• The parent is the prefix of the key. user.education.grade.final is a child of user.education.grade, education.placement.career_services of education.placement.
• Data subjects are flat. fideslang data subjects have no hierarchy, so every subject of the extension is a root: a doctoral candidate is doctoral_candidate, not a child of student.
• No version information. fideslang allows version information only in its default taxonomy (“Non-default items can’t have version information”), so no term of the extension carries any; its origin is recorded as university.

Data categories

The extension arranges the categories by the record they belong to: the student record, admission, support and conduct, placements and mobility, and finance. The finest detail is in the student record.

The protection shown is the effective one in the built taxonomy. Values in bold are declared by the extension; the rest are inherited from the parent (user.education and user.financial are ORDINARY, MEDIUM, HIGH; user.contact is ORDINARY, LOW, MEDIUM). No category is secret, and all are personal data.

The student record

Enrolment changes and record transfers below user.education.enrollment, assessment attempts, ratified final grades and averages below user.education.grade, credit recognition below user.education.course_history, progress below user.education.program and degrees, certificates and language proficiency below user.education.accomplishment.

Key	Name	Nature	Confidentiality	Integrity	Holds
user.education.enrollment.modification	Enrollment Change	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Changes to an enrolment after registration: courses added or withdrawn, cancellation, partial or full withdrawal.
user.education.enrollment.transfer	Record Transfer	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Transfer of the subject’s record to or from another institution, with the documents exchanged.
user.education.academic_standing	Academic Standing	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Standing earned by performance: good standing, warning, probation, dismissal, honours.
user.education.attendance	Attendance	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Presence, absence and lateness of the subject in classes, exams or other sessions.
user.education.coursework	Coursework	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Work produced by the subject for assessment: submitted assignments, exam answers.
user.education.grade.attempt	Assessment Attempt	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Each sitting of an assessment: date, attempt number, result and incidents.
user.education.grade.final	Final Grade	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Final course results ratified by the examining board, as recorded in the transcript.
user.education.grade.average	Grade Average	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Grade point averages and rankings computed from the subject’s results.
user.education.course_history.recognition	Credit Recognition	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Credits recognised or transferred from previous studies, work experience or other institutions, with the decision.
user.education.program.progress	Programme Progress	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Credits earned, requirements met and progress towards completing the programme.
user.education.hold	Academic Hold	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Administrative restrictions on the subject’s record, such as registration or transcript holds.
user.education.thesis	Thesis	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Master’s or doctoral thesis or final project: title, supervisors, submission and defence.
user.education.accomplishment.degree	Degree	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Degrees and official qualifications awarded: title, date, final grade, honours and registration number.
user.education.accomplishment.certificate	Academic Certificate	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Certificates issued about the subject’s record, such as transcripts of records or diploma supplements, with their verification codes.
user.education.accomplishment.language_proficiency	Language Proficiency	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Accredited language proficiency levels, such as a certified B2 level.

Admission

Key	Name	Nature	Confidentiality	Integrity	Holds
user.education.application	Admission Application	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	The subject’s application: programme and period applied to, status and answers.
user.education.application.evaluation	Admission Evaluation	ORDINARY	HIGH	HIGH	Reviewer scores, comments, conditions and the decision on an application.
user.education.application.reference	Reference Letter	ORDINARY	HIGH	HIGH	Recommendation or reference letters written about the subject by third parties.

Support, conduct and equity

Key	Name	Nature	Confidentiality	Integrity	Holds
user.education.accommodation	Academic Accommodation	SPECIAL_CATEGORY	HIGH	HIGH	Adjustments granted for study or assessment, such as extra time or assistive tools, and the needs behind them.
user.education.advising	Advising	ORDINARY	HIGH	HIGH	Advisor assignments, advising notes, success plans and referrals to support services.
user.education.disciplinary_record	Disciplinary Record	ORDINARY	HIGH	HIGH	Conduct and academic integrity proceedings and sanctions concerning the subject, such as plagiarism findings or suspensions.
user.education.equity_indicator	Equity Indicator	ORDINARY	HIGH	HIGH	Flags for widening participation or equity reporting, such as first-generation student, care leaver or economic disadvantage.
user.education.risk_indicator	Academic Risk Indicator	ORDINARY	HIGH	HIGH	Early alerts, watchlists, risk scores and predictions about the subject’s progress or retention.
user.education.extracurricular	Extracurricular Activity	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Clubs, societies, sports and other non-curricular involvement of the subject.

Placements and mobility

Internships and mobility are told apart below user.education.placement.

Key	Name	Nature	Confidentiality	Integrity	Holds
user.education.placement	Placement	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Internships, work placements, exchanges and other mobility undertaken during studies.
user.education.placement.internship	Internship	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	A work placement: host organisation, supervisor, agreement, schedule and tasks.
user.education.placement.internship.evaluation	Internship Evaluation	ORDINARY	HIGH	HIGH	The host supervisor’s assessment of the subject’s performance in a placement.
user.education.placement.mobility	Mobility	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	An exchange or study stay at another institution: host institution, learning agreement, recognition and mobility grant.

Finance and contact

Means-tested aid and fee exemptions sit below the standard financial terms user.financial.scholarship and user.financial.fee.

Key	Name	Nature	Confidentiality	Integrity	Holds
user.financial.scholarship.means_assessment	Means Assessment	ORDINARY	HIGH	HIGH	Household income, assets and composition assessed to award means-tested aid.
user.financial.fee.exemption	Fee Exemption	ORDINARY	HIGH	HIGH	Exemptions and reductions of fees and the grounds for them, such as a large family or academic merit.
user.financial.donation	Donation	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	HIGH	Gifts, pledges and recurring donations made by the subject to the institution.
user.financial.wealth_assessment	Wealth Assessment	ORDINARY	HIGH	HIGH	Estimates of the subject’s wealth, income and giving capacity from prospect research.
user.contact.emergency_contact	Emergency Contact	ORDINARY	MEDIUM	MEDIUM	Name, phone number and relationship of the person to contact in an emergency.

Why these levels

• An academic accommodation such as extra time in exams reveals a disability or a health condition, so it is a special category of data even when the record holds only the adjustment and not the diagnosis.
• Disciplinary records, advising notes, risk indicators, admission evaluations, reference letters, internship evaluations, equity indicators, means assessments, fee exemptions and wealth assessments have high confidentiality: they are evaluations, predictions or vulnerability data about the subject, often written by others, or they reveal the household’s income or circumstances. A disciplinary record is data about administrative infringements and sanctions, whose processing LOPDGDD article 27 restricts, which is why it is ORDINARY with high confidentiality and not CRIMINAL_OFFENCE. The grounds of a fee exemption can reveal that the subject is a victim of gender-based violence or terrorism: classify the recognition as a victim itself as user.victim_status (ORDINARY, HIGH, HIGH), and a sanction imposed outside the institution’s own disciplinary regime as user.administrative_sanction.
• The emergency contact is raised to medium confidentiality, above the rest of user.contact: it reveals who the subject’s close relations are.
• The other categories inherit the medium confidentiality and high integrity of user.education (or user.financial).

Where stricter data goes

A record of an extension category may contain details that reveal more than the category. Classify those fields with the stricter standard key, not with the extension’s:

The field holds	Classify it as	Protection
The medical reason for an absence	user.health_and_medical (not user.education.attendance)	SPECIAL_CATEGORY, HIGH, HIGH
A disciplinary case about a criminal offence	user.criminal_history (not user.education.disciplinary_record)	CRIMINAL_OFFENCE, HIGH, HIGH
Membership of a religious or political society	user.demographic.religious_belief or user.demographic.political_opinion (not user.education.extracurricular)	SPECIAL_CATEGORY, HIGH, HIGH
The recognition as a victim of gender-based violence or terrorism behind a fee exemption	user.victim_status (not user.financial.fee.exemption)	ORDINARY, HIGH, HIGH
A sanction imposed outside the institution’s own disciplinary regime	user.administrative_sanction (not user.education.disciplinary_record)	ORDINARY, HIGH, HIGH
A fee exemption or a grade adjustment granted for a disability	user.health_and_medical.disability (not user.financial.fee.exemption or user.education.grade)	SPECIAL_CATEGORY, HIGH, HIGH

The same reasoning applies to other special categories, for example a society linked to a trade union (user.demographic.trade_union_membership) or to sexual orientation (user.demographic.sexual_orientation).

Data uses

The extension adds two roots, advancement and research, because fideslang has no purpose for fundraising or for scientific research; every other use is a child of an existing one, including the new children of the standard education.academic_records, education.assessment and education.financial_aid. Data uses have no protection facets.

Key	Name	Parent	Purpose
advancement	Advancement	(root)	Builds the institution’s relationships with alumni, donors and supporters.
advancement.alumni_relations	Alumni Relations	advancement	Keeps in touch with former students: communications, events, networks.
advancement.fundraising	Fundraising	advancement	Solicits, records and acknowledges gifts and pledges.
advancement.prospect_research	Prospect Research	advancement	Identifies potential donors and estimates their giving capacity.
education.academic_records.certification	Certification	education.academic_records	Issues certificates, transcripts, diploma supplements and degree certificates.
education.academic_records.credit_recognition	Credit Recognition	education.academic_records	Recognises and transfers credits from previous studies or experience.
education.academic_records.verification	Qualification Verification	education.academic_records	Confirms a subject’s qualifications to employers or other institutions on request.
education.accessibility	Accessibility	education	Assesses needs and provides accommodations and disability support.
education.advising	Advising	education	Provides academic advising, success planning and mentoring.
education.assessment.examination	Examination	education.assessment	Schedules and administers exam sittings, including invigilation and special arrangements.
education.attendance	Attendance	education	Records and monitors attendance and follows up on absences.
education.discipline	Discipline	education	Investigates and sanctions breaches of conduct and of academic integrity.
education.financial_aid.means_assessment	Means Assessment	education.financial_aid	Assesses household income and assets to award means-tested aid.
education.learning_analytics	Learning Analytics	education	Analyses learning data to improve teaching and student outcomes.
education.placement	Placement	education	Arranges internships, work placements, career services, exchanges and mobility.
education.placement.career_services	Career Services	education.placement	Helps students and graduates find employment: job boards, guidance, employer events.
education.placement.internship	Internships	education.placement	Arranges, supervises and assesses work placements with host organisations.
education.placement.mobility	Mobility	education.placement	Organises exchanges and study stays at other institutions, in the country or abroad.
education.quality_assurance	Quality Assurance	education	Evaluates and accredits programmes and teaching, including student surveys.
education.recruitment	Recruitment	education	Attracts prospective students: enquiries, events and interest tracking.
education.student_life	Student Life	education	Organises extracurricular activities, sports, societies and campus residence.
education.student_support	Student Support	education	Identifies students at risk and provides interventions and wellbeing support.
education.thesis_supervision	Thesis Supervision	education	Supervises master’s and doctoral theses and manages their submission and defence.
essential.legal_obligation.statutory_reporting	Statutory Reporting	essential.legal_obligation	Compiles the statistics and returns that education authorities require by law.
research	Research	(root)	Carries out and manages scientific research.
research.administration	Research Administration	research	Manages research projects, grants, researchers and their outputs.
research.participation	Research Participation	research	Processes data about the participants of research studies.

The standard taxonomy already has the core academic purposes: education.admission, education.enrollment, education.teaching, education.assessment, education.academic_records and education.financial_aid; staff recruitment is employment.recruitment.

Data subjects

All the data subjects of the extension are flat, as fideslang data subjects have no hierarchy.

Key	Name	Who
doctoral_candidate	Doctoral Candidate	A student enrolled in a doctoral programme.
donor	Donor	An individual who gives or pledges gifts to the institution.
emergency_contact	Emergency Contact	A person named by a student or employee to be contacted in an emergency.
exchange_student	Exchange Student	A student on an exchange, received from or sent to another institution.
external_examiner	External Examiner	An assessor from outside the institution who examines students or theses.
guest	Guest	An individual temporarily affiliated with the institution without student or employee status.
mentor	Mentor	An individual, often an alumnus or volunteer, who mentors students.
philanthropic_prospect	Philanthropic Prospect	An individual identified as a potential donor.
placement_supervisor	Placement Supervisor	The person who supervises a student at a host organisation or institution.
prospective_student	Prospective Student	An individual who has shown interest in studying at the institution.
referee	Referee	An individual who writes a reference letter about an applicant.
trustee	Trustee	A member of the institution’s or its foundation’s governing board.
volunteer	Volunteer	An individual who volunteers time for the institution.

The standard subjects student, applicant, alumnus, faculty_member, staff_member and legal_representative (Linneo) and employee, next_of_kin and visitor (fideslang) cover the rest. Some extension subjects sit next to a fideslang one that is narrower: prospect is someone the organisation sells goods or services to, next_of_kin is a relative (an emergency contact may be a friend or a neighbour) and visitor is someone visiting a location (a guest is affiliated with the institution for a while). doctoral_candidate and exchange_student are kinds of student, but as data subjects are flat they are not children of student: use them when the processing is specific to them.

Why teaching roles are not data subjects

Lecturer, teaching assistant, course coordinator, invigilator or assessor are not data subjects. The models the extension draws on treat them as roles a person holds in a course offering, not as kinds of person: the person is a faculty_member or a staff_member, and a teaching assistant is often a student. Classify the field that records the role with user.workplace.role and the person with the subject they are. The exception is the external_examiner, who belongs to no other subject of the institution.

Standard keys for everything else

The extension adds only what has no standard key. Attributes that the education models share with the standard taxonomy use the standard keys. Some of them have children in the extension, which describe a narrower kind of data: user.education.grade (.final, .average, .attempt), user.education.enrollment (.modification, .transfer), user.education.course_history (.recognition), user.education.program (.progress), user.education.accomplishment (.degree, .certificate, .language_proficiency), user.financial.scholarship (.means_assessment) and user.financial.fee (.exemption). Use the standard key for what the child does not describe:

Attribute	Standard key	Protection
Grades, GPA, scores, results	user.education.grade	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, HIGH
Course and term enrolments, waiting lists	user.education.enrollment	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, HIGH
Courses taken	user.education.course_history	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, HIGH
Programme, major, minor	user.education.program	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, HIGH
Active, on leave, graduated, withdrawn	user.education.status	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, HIGH
Admission tests and language tests	user.education.test_score	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, HIGH
Previous schools, class rank	user.education.previous_education	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, HIGH
Degrees, certificates, badges, awards	user.education.accomplishment	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, HIGH
Scholarships, grants, financial aid	user.financial.scholarship	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, HIGH
Tuition and other fees	user.financial.fee	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, HIGH
Disability type, degree and verification	user.health_and_medical.disability	SPECIAL_CATEGORY, HIGH, HIGH
Race or ethnicity	user.demographic.race_ethnicity	SPECIAL_CATEGORY, HIGH, HIGH
Religion	user.demographic.religious_belief	SPECIAL_CATEGORY, HIGH, HIGH
Gender, pronouns	user.demographic.gender	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, MEDIUM
Home or preferred language	user.demographic.language	ORDINARY, LOW, MEDIUM
Nationality, citizenship, country of birth	user.demographic.nationality	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, MEDIUM
Residence permit, citizenship status	user.government_id.immigration	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, MEDIUM
National identity and social security numbers	user.government_id.national_identification_number, user.government_id.social_security_number	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, MEDIUM
Student number, European Student Identifier, ORCID	user.unique_id	ORDINARY, LOW, MEDIUM
Photographs	user.content.self_image	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, MEDIUM
Directory and disclosure preferences	user.privacy_preferences	ORDINARY, LOW, MEDIUM
Job while studying, teaching licences	user.workplace and its children, user.job_title	ORDINARY, LOW, MEDIUM
Access logs of learning platforms	user.behavior.activity_log	ORDINARY, MEDIUM, HIGH

Sources

The terms are informed by a public model of the higher education domain, read in October 2026. The extension takes concepts from it, not its texts or its structure.

• Open Education API (OEAPI) v6 — the specification of persons, offerings, associations, attempts, results and their enumerations (attendance, personal needs, association roles, affiliations): https://github.com/open-education-api/specification/tree/v6.0. Copyright (c) 2017-2026 SURF U.A. Cooperative (https://surf.nl), licensed under the European Union Public Licence v. 1.2 (EUPL-1.2).

No OEAPI material (schemas, texts or enumerations) is reproduced in Linneo, so the EUPL does not apply to Linneo’s code; OEAPI is cited as the source of the concepts. Linneo is not affiliated with or endorsed by SURF or the OEAPI project.

What it contributed: attendance and personal needs (accommodations). Teaching roles come from the OEAPI association roles.

See also: Extensions · Standard taxonomy · Key constants · Protection levels

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