Administrative and legal support for the protection of personal data in the context of digitalization as a safeguard against violations of academic integrity and an element of anti-corruption activities

It is indicated that Ukraine has chosen a strategic direction of digitalization of public administration and the education sector, which is reflected in the provisions of the Law of Ukraine «On Administrative Procedure» and is confirmed by scientific research. The result of this course was the widespread implementation of information and telecommunication systems used to make qualification and management decisions. Such systems, in particular automated assessment and plagiarism checking tools, process sensitive personal data of an assessment and qualification nature regarding students and teachers. The study is devoted to a comprehensive administrative-legal substantiation of the necessity for, and the development of, mechanisms for algorithmic accountability in the public administration of educational and scientific activities that utilize Automated Decision-Making (ADM) tools. The work’s relevance is determined by Ukraine’s strategic course toward digitalization and the necessity of harmonizing national legislation with European standards, particularly Regulation (EU) No 2016/679 (GDPR). It is substantiated that the implementation of ADM for processing assessment-qualification personal data (grades, anti-plagiarism results, qualification conclusions) creates a new type of administrative-legal conflict. This is because these data carry high reputational and legal consequences, making them critically vulnerable to abuse and corruption risks. It is determined that the main administrative-legal gap lies in the absence of a mandatory and detailed mechanism for preventive control over the logic of ADM within the Law of Ukraine «On Administrative Procedure.» This lack of control gives rise to the phenomenon of «algorithmic corruption» and undermines the essence of the right to effective appeal, as the «black box» effect prevents a substantive audit of the algorithm’s logic. To eliminate the identified risks, the necessity of legally formalizing the Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is substantiated as a mandatory preliminary administrative procedure for all educational systems that make qualification decisions. It is proven that the implementation of DPIA must be accompanied by the integration of two key GDPR guarantees into national administrative law: the right to human intervention and the right to a meaningful explanation of the algorithm’s logic. The creation of independent expert (audit) commissions is proposed, which would be vested with administrative powers to oversee DPIA, conduct periodic audits, and review ADM decisions.