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US SSN Disclosure

Information Regarding Disclosure of Your Social Security Number Disclosure of your Social Security Number (“SSN”) is requested for the student records system at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (the “University”) and for compliance with Federal and State reporting requirements. Although an SSN is not required for admission to the University, failure to provide your SSN may result in delays in processing your application or in the University’s inability to match your application with transcripts, test scores, and other materials.

Student SSNs are maintained and used by the University for financial aid, internal verification, and administrative purposes, and for reports to Federal and State agencies as required by Federal and State law.* Federal law requires hospitals that incur indirect costs for graduate medical education programs and hospitals that receive Medicare payment for direct graduate medical educational activities to identify residents by SSN. The privacy and confidentiality of student records is protected by Federal and State law and the University will not disclose your SSN without your consent for any other purposes except as allowed by law.

With few exceptions, an individual student is entitled upon request to be informed about the information the University collects about the student, to receive and review the information, and is entitled to have the University correct any incorrect information about the student.  The Texas Education Code requires the disclosure of student SSNs in reports to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board with respect to data that institutions of higher education are required to report and requires the report to include the student’s name and SSN in order to commit specific award amounts to students in the Board’s Texas Grant II Program. The reporting manual permits an assigned 9-digit number if the student does not have a SSN. 

Federal law requires an institution to verify a student borrower’s SSN in the national student loan database and to include the SSN in certain reports and in loan assignments. Schools are required to give notice regarding any change in status of student, to identify students by SSN, and to maintain current records on students, including verification of SSNs and the student’s citizenship. Federal law requires students to provide their SSN for financial aid forms, including those for health professions, such as doctors and nurses participating in the Health Education Assistance Loan Program (HEAL), and for a student to receive any grant, loan, or work assistance. 

Sec. 559.003 of the State Government Privacy Policies requires every state governmental body that collects information about an individual by means of a form that the individual completes and files with the governmental body in a paper format…to prominently state, on the paper form…that: with few exceptions, an individual employee is entitled upon request to be informed about the information the University collects about the employee, to receive and review the information, and is entitled to have the University correct any incorrect information about the employee.