Improving the anonymity of your submission

Owned by Chris F
Last updated: Feb 12, 2024
3 min read

Wherever possible, UCL operates a policy of anonymous marking of assessments in order to ensure fairness. It is up to the student to ensure their submission is anonymous. 

 

 

Use your candidate number NOT your name or student number 

For each year of a student’s programme of study, students will be allocated a personal Candidate Number composed of four letters plus a check digit (e.g. ABCD1). Students may also view and retrieve their candidate card from myStudies in Portico.  

For most summative assessments, students should use their candidate number in the document and/or file name rather than their actual name to ensure they remain anonymous. Where in doubt please follow the instructions provide alongside your assignment or consult with your department.  

Remove metadata that contains personal information

Digital documents often contain metadata e.g. author, last saved, last edited by etc. This metadata can reveal who the author of a document is. Markers will not look for this metadata, and many platforms do not present metadata easily to markers. However, students should be aware that this metadata exists. It is best practice to remove metadata before submitting documents. This applies equally to any of UCL digital platforms including Moodle assignment, Turnitin and AssessmentUCL. 

There are many ways to remove metadata depending on the software you are using.  Some general guidance is provided below.

Removing metadata in Microsoft Word (Windows)

  1. Open your document.

  2. Click the File tab.

  3. Click Info in the column at the left side of the window.

  4. Click the Check for Issues drop-down menu, then click Inspect Document .  

  1. Check the Document Properties and Personal Information box (you can uncheck the rest of the options), then click the Inspect button.  

  1. Click the Remove All button, then click the Close button.  

  1. Select Save as and PDF as file format, and your file is ready to submit.

For further guidance, see Microsoft’s guide on removing hidden data and personal information.

Removing metadata in Microsoft Word (Mac)

  1. Open your document in Word.

  2. Select Tools from the toolbar at the top of your document and select Protect Document...

  1. Check the option to Remove personal information from this file on save and select OK to keep this setting for the document.

  1. Select Save as and PDF as file format, and your file is ready to submit.

 

Removing metadata in a PDF (Windows and Mac - requires Google Chrome)

  1. Right click the PDF, select Open with and choose Google Chrome

  2. Select the printer icon in Chrome

  1. Set Destination to Save as PDF. The resulting PDF will not contain personal information.