Student Privacy Statement - University of Staffordshire

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Student privacy statement

University of Staffordshire of College Road, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 2DE is the data controller for personal data relating to you that it processes. University of Staffordshire gathers and uses personal data about you if you ask for information or apply to join us, while you are a current student and after you leave the University and become one of our alumni. It is necessary for us to do this to be able to perform the contract for your education or to consider entering into such a contract with you, and also so that we can discharge our legal obligations.

This Privacy Statement tells you what personal data we collect about you, how we use the data, the legal justification for using it and who might see it. Please note that we may have to amend this Statement from time to time to reflect changes in how we use personal data or to keep up with best practice, but we will only do this in line with the underlying principle on which this Statement is based – transparency and respect for your personal data. The current version of this Statement can be found on the University website.

Although this Statement is primarily intended for current and former students of the University, we also retain information relating to all applications. We do this for audit and statistical purposes and in case we receive a complaint or appeal.

University of Staffordshire takes seriously its responsibilities under the law governing data protection in the United Kingdom. You can see our current Data Protection Policy on the University website. You can also see our entry on the Data Protection Register on the website of the Information Commissioner’s Office. Our registration number is Z6548391.

The types of personal data we hold

The information we hold includes the details provided by you on application and enrolment, together with data which is collected during and after your studies and personal data which we receive from third parties such as the application details provided by UCAS or immigration details from UKVI. The definition of ‘personal data’ is in the Appendix at the end of this statement.

The University is likely to hold the following information about you:

Your name, address and contact details, including your telephone number and email address;
Your date and place of birth;
Your gender;
Your sexual orientation, if you disclose it;
Your religion;
Your nationality and any other information about your ethnicity or immigration status;
Your qualifications and other academic records, including records of your academic performance, progress and achievement;
Records of any appeals or submissions you make relating to extenuating circumstances;
Any disabilities or other medical information which you disclose to the University;
Information relating to relevant criminal convictions or offences. This will only be used as described in our [policy on special category personal data/ criminal convictions];
Information relating to fees and any sponsorships relevant to your studies;
Your attendance record and the use you make of University facilities such as the virtual learning environment (Blackboard) the library or any of our other services;
Your photograph and video recordings; and
Details of any disciplinary action which is taken against you or in which you are involved or of any complaints made by you or in which you are involved.

The University will also have a digital photograph of you, which is used to produce your student card.

The purpose for which we hold and process your personal data and the legal basis for doing this

We only process your personal data for specified purposes and if it is justified in accordance with UK data protection law. The table below contains illustrations of the typical reasons why we hold and process your personal data and the legal justification for these activities.

Purpose	Legal basis
Assessing eligibility to undertake our programmes	Consent and/or processing is necessary for the purposes of taking steps prior to entering into a contract with us.
Provision of academic programmes and related services (including Blackboard, Beacon, IT and library services).	Contractual necessity i.e. to provide your chosen academic programme
Assessment of academic progress and performance (including attendance)	Contractual necessity.
Administration of complaints, grievances and appeals .	Contractual necessity
Immigration matters	Necessary for us to comply with our legal obligations in relation to student visas.
Making reasonable adjustments for disabilities and providing relevant support to students with ill health.	Explicit consent.
Regulating the University’s community (including dealing with misconduct under our procedures for academic and other misconduct)	Contractual necessity and the public interest in maintaining academic standards.
Obtaining payment of fees	Contractual necessity.
Providing appropriate I.T. and other infrastructure facilities e.g. providing intranet facilities	Contractual necessity
Communicating with you	Contractual necessity, legitimate interest in marketing the University, welfare, safety and the prevention and detection of crime.
Provision of residential accommodation	Contractual necessity
Using our campus facilities, including the libraries, sports facilities and other services	Contractual necessity relating to the terms governing access to and use of the facilities and services
To fulfil statutory reporting requirements.	Necessary for us to comply with our legal obligations.
To monitor our responsibilities under equality legislation.	Public interest and substantial public interest.
To ensure the health and safety of students, including safeguarding, preventing and detecting crime.	Public interest and substantial public interest.
For alumni relations.	Necessary for our legitimate interests in maintaining an alumni network.
For CCTV, other audio or visual recording such as security body cameras, and for general safety and security matters.	Necessary for our legitimate interest in ensuring the safety of the University community and our property and other assets.
To send you marketing information about the University.	Where you have previously enquired about, applied to or studied at the University, we may send you information about our courses on the basis of our legitimate interests in advertising our services. In doing so, we will offer you an opportunity to refuse marketing when your details are first collected and in subsequent communications to you. Any other electronic marketing will only be carried out with your consent.

There may be other processing in addition to the above, for example, when you access our website which uses cookies or when we take photos of our events and publish them. This is done on the basis of our policies and we will inform you about such processing at the time when the data is obtained or as soon as reasonably possible thereafter.

Sharing your personal data

University of Staffordshire is committed to respecting and protecting your personal data. University of Staffordshire may share your data with our administrative, support and academic staff in the course of your study with us and we pass certain aspects of your personal data to our Alumni team when you graduate. Data is not normally voluntarily shared with anyone outside the University. This includes your spouse or partner, parents, or other family members, unless you give us your permission to share it or because, in exceptional circumstances, we have reason to believe that your health or safety or the health and safety of a third party is at risk.

If data is to be shared with overseas organisations, the University will first take all reasonable steps to establish that appropriate safeguards are in place at the recipient organisation. We do share limited data with the Students’ Union since all our students are automatically members of it (unless they notify us that they are exercising their right to opt out of membership) and certain information is needed to enable the Union to contact you about the services it offers.

You should be aware that we do from time to time use outside agencies to act on our behalf to communicate with people, including via social media. We only use reputable organisations who adhere to strict data protection principles and only the minimum data necessary for the purpose is shared with these agencies.

Please be aware that if you are logged in on a social network during a visit to the University website or a University app, the social network might add visit information to your profile on its network based on your privacy settings. If you would like to prevent this type of data transfer you should log out of your social network account before visiting the University website or app, or change the privacy setting of the app if possible. You should read the privacy policy of your social network for more details, including details of your rights and how you can manage your privacy settings.

Also be aware that there are some circumstances in which we are required by law to disclose the information we have about you to external organisations. These organisations include the Office for Students; the Higher Education Statistics Agency's Student Collection Notice; the Student Loans Company; Local Authorities; the police and other bodies with enforcement powers where disclosure is necessary for the prevention or detection of crime; the Disclosure and Barring Service; the UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI); and to professional regulators.

If you are receiving a sponsorship or scholarship or other type of funding, it may be necessary to disclose information about your progress to the person or body supporting you.

If your course requires you to spend time at another institution, or if you are with us as a visitor from another institution, we may need to share some information about you with the other institution to allow it to fulfil its contractual duties.

We may also share some information about you with your potential future employers when you ask us to confirm that you are or were a student at the University or ask for a reference.

Filming, Recording and Photography

Where filming, recording or photography is carried out by or for the University, the University will take reasonable steps to ensure that students are aware that this is taking place.

After you leave the University

After you leave us, the University will continue to maintain information about you for legal limitation periods, as well as for historical and statistical purposes. This will include your academic record so that we can provide confirmation of your qualifications. Some information will be kept permanently, other information will eventually be destroyed in accordance with the University’s Retention of Records Policy.

The University would like to maintain contact with you as one of our Alumni and to send you communications about various activities and events which may interest you, and information about how you might be able to help us with our fundraising to support the University into the future.

How long do we keep your personal data?

Personal data is stored and retained in line with the University’s Retention of Records Policy. The University has in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, altered and used or accessed in an unauthorised way.

Your Data Protection Rights

You have the following rights in relation to your personal data processed by us:

To be informed about how and why we gather your personal information, how we keep it and what we do with it.
To access the personal data we hold about you.
To have the information rectified if it is inaccurate or where appropriate, given the purposes for which your personal data is processed, to have incomplete data completed.
To have your information removed from our records. This is a limited right which applies, among other circumstances if there is no longer any justification for us to keep it or where consent has been withdrawn. There are also exceptions to this right, such as when the processing is required by law or is done in the public interest.
To object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes without your consent. If you ask us to delete your personal data, we will continue to maintain a core set of personal data comprising very brief information to ensure that we do not inadvertently contact you in future.
To request that your data be copied or transferred to another organisation in certain circumstances.
To restrict the processing of your personal data. This is a limited right which will apply in specific circumstances and for a limited period.
To obtain a copy of your data in a commonly used electronic form if the data is processed by automated means and the processing is based on your consent or contractual necessity.
To complain to us and/or to the Information Commissioner’s Office if your information is being used unlawfully.
Where we are relying on your consent to use your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

Further information and contacts

If you:

wish to access the personal data held by the University about you or exercise any other right;
wish to update your information, including your address and preferred contact details, or, where we are relying on your consent to process your personal data, if you wish to withdraw or change your preferences relating to any consents you have given; or
require more information about how the University manages personal data generally,

Please contact the University’s Data Protection Officer at the following address:
Data Protection Officer
University of Staffordshire
Stoke-on-Trent
ST4 2DE
Email: dataprotection@staffs.ac.uk

Concerns and Complaints

If you wish to raise a concern or make a complaint about the way in which the University processes your personal data, you should in the first instance contact the Data Protection Officer with full details using the contact details above. If you do not believe that your complaint has been satisfactorily resolved by the Data Protection Officer, you may contact the Information Commissioner at the following address:

Information Commissioners Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

caswork@ico.org.uk
https://ico.org.uk/

Appendix: The definition of 'personal data'

“Personal data” refers to information relating to a living, identifiable individual. It can also include "special categories of data", which includes information about your racial or ethnic origin, religious or other philosophical beliefs, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying an individual and data concerning physical or mental health or data concerning an individual’s sex life or sexual orientation, the processing of which is subject to strict requirements. Similarly, information about criminal convictions and offences is also subject to strict requirements.