Data protection for applicants to study at the University

What is this document about?

This Statement explains to enquirers and applicants to the courses offered by the University how their personal data, which may include special category data, collected from, and about, them may be used by the University. It also includes some examples of how such data is processed.

Who is this for?

The statement will be of primary interest to applicants to courses offered by the University, anyone enquiring about courses or experiences at the University, and will be of general interest to careers advisers and the wider public.

How does the University check this is followed?

Applicants to courses offered by the University are given information about the use(s) that will be made of their personal data when they provide their data to UCAS (if applying through that organisation), directly to the University or through a university representative to the University. A reference to the University’s data protection policy is included in the Admissions Policy. International students who apply through agents are provided with information on how their personal data will be processed by the agent directly.

Occasional queries about personal data from applicants indicates that this Statement is known about and read

Who can you contact if you have any queries about this document?

All enquirers may contact the University’s Data Protection Officer, Samantha Hill, on 023 9284 3642 or Samantha.hill@port.ac.uk.

The University of Portsmouth processes your personal data, in order to keep in contact with you when you express an interest in attending an event or Open Day at the University, when you make an enquiry or order something from us, and to administer your application to study at the University.

If you have any questions about how the University processes your data, then the following contact information may be useful.

The University’s correspondence address is:
The University of Portsmouth
University House
Winston Churchill Avenue
Portsmouth
PO1 2UP

Main switchboard: 023 9284 8484

The University’s Data Protection Officer is:
Samantha Hill – Information Disclosure Manager
Email: Samantha.hill@port.ac.uk
Direct telephone number: 023 9284 3642

‘Personal data’ is any information that relates to an individual (in this case, you, as an enquirer, or applicant, to the University) who can be identified either directly by that information or by a combination of that information and other identifiers, such as your name, contact details, application number.

‘Special Category data’ is information that reveals racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade-union membership, the processing of genetic or biometric data in order to identify an individual, data concerning heath or data concerning an individual’s sex life or sexual orientation. The University does not collect all of this data but will collect some for the purposes listed below.

‘Criminal offence data’ is any personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences.

We will collect your personal and special category data - and potentially criminal offence data - directly from you on application, if attending an Open Day and through feedback surveys.

The University of Portsmouth processes your personal data, and if required, your special category data such as ethnicity and health data or criminal offence data, for a variety of purposes, involving all aspects of the administration of your application and for the purpose of equal opportunities monitoring.

If you express an interest in attending an event or Open Day at the University, receiving a prospectus, or engaging in work experience at the University, or you use the University’s Live Chat function, we will use your contact details to provide you with information (either by email or telephone/text) about those events or to provide the information you have requested, and to keep in contact with you about other opportunities at the University.

We analyse all interactive behaviour with our website, live chat, emails and advertisements to deliver relevant online advertisements about the University to you at a later date. We will also use your contact details to contact you to gather feedback on our service.

If you apply to study at the University we will use your contact details to keep in touch with you about your application, provide you with information about University residential accommodation, tuition fees and other issues which may be of interest to you.

If you are unsuccessful in your application or choose not to study with us, we will keep your data but only for audit and statistical purposes, and in case of queries.

We will use anonymised data (you will not be able to be identified by the data) for such purposes as to monitor use of our website, to monitor attendance at events and for equality monitoring.

The University’s legal basis for processing your personal data in relation to enquiries about the University or attending an Open Day or recruitment event is that we have asked for your consent to contact you again. When you make an enquiry to the University, we will respond to your enquiry and also ask whether you wish to receive further communications from us that may help you in your decision to attend university. You will always be given the option in our communications to opt out from receiving, or to unsubscribe from, any further communications.

We also believe that it is within the University’s legitimate interests to share some data about attendees at University events with the Higher Education Access Tracker (see link below) to monitor conversions from enquiries to university enrolment

The University’s legal basis for processing your personal data in relation to applications to study at the University or to undertake work experience at the University, is that the processing is necessary to enable us to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with you to facilitate your study or work experience, or that it is within the University’s legitimate interests to process this data.

If we collect any special category data from you when processing your application to study at the University, when requesting your information, we will either:

• ask for your explicit consent to process this data, or
• process the data to enable us to promote and maintain equality of opportunity or treatment between different groups of people for reasons of substantial public interest.

Only those staff within the University who deal with enquiries and events will have access to the data you provide when you request information from the University or book onto Open Days or request work experience opportunities at the University. These staff will be within the Marketing and Communications and UoP Global Departments, the People and Organisational Development team, the University’s Admissions Centre and potentially within the academic area in which you wish to study /carry out work experience. They will have access to your data only so that appropriate information is made available to you.

The personal data provided in your application, including your personal statement and references, will be seen by staff within the University’s Admissions Centre and where a particular course requires further consideration, by subject or professional requirement specialists, within academic departments of the University. Staff within the University’s Student Finance Centre will also have access to basic applicant data. Your data will also be shared with any partner college or partner institution which provides the course you have applied for, on behalf of the University, once you have accepted a place on the course.

If you apply to live in Halls accommodation, your application will be seen by staff in the Student Housing team.

If you declare any health data we may share this with the Additional Support and Disability Advice Centre to ensure any needs you may have can be accommodated on the course you wish to study, and with the Student Housing team, if you wish to live in Halls.

The University uses a customer relationship management (CRM) system to assist us with responding in an appropriate, timely, and effective way when dealing with your enquiries. Our CRM stores details of your enquiry and means that when you contact us we will have details of your previous enquiries already. This helps us to improve the information that we provide to you about our courses, services and processes in future.

We will share your name and email address with our third party advertising agency to provide relevant advertising to you, as well as with our mailing house to send out printed copies of any requested information.

We also provide details of attendees at University events to HEAT for inclusion in the Higher Education Access Tracker. Further information on how HEAT uses your data can be found at here.

If you have applied for a UoP course that is delivered by one of our partner colleges or partner institutions, we will share your application with that partner college or institution. This allows staff at those organisations to contact you to offer you an opportunity to visit the college or institution, to discuss the course you have been accepted on and to ensure you receive timely and accurate start information.

If you apply for accommodation in halls we will, where appropriate, share your application details with Unite Students, the third party company that operate Trafalgar, Margaret Rule, Rosalind Franklin Halls, Greetham Street Halls and Chaucer House, or The Student Housing Company, the third party company that operates Catherine House, for accommodation allocation and management of the accommodation agreement.

If you identify yourself on your application as a care leaver, we will also share your data with the University’s Student Finance Centre, to enable them to send you information about bursaries for which you may be eligible.

If you are an international applicant, we may be required to share certain data with the UKVI so that we can issue you a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) document. Further visa advice can be found on here. 

The University uses Google Apps for Education, which may involve personal data being stored on servers based outside of the European Union.

We may use Eventbrite facilities for booking you onto events, such as Open Days. Information stored on Eventbrite servers is covered under the Eventbrite terms of use.

Enquiry data will be held for one year after the end of the academic year in which you have stated you plan to start university.

The personal data of applicants who go on to enrol at the University will be held for six years after graduation or withdrawal from the University.

If you are not offered a place at the University or do not take up an offer, your personal data will be held for one year after the end of the academic year in which you were applying to study at the University.

You are entitled to request a copy of the data we hold about you (a Subject Access Request) and to raise an objection to the processing of data, where the processing of data we hold about you is likely to cause you damage or distress.  You also have the right to request either the rectification of any incorrect data, the restriction of any further processing of your data or, in the case of enquiries, the erasure of your data (right to be forgotten).

If you require any further information on, or wish to object to, any of the uses to which we put your data, you should contact Samantha Hill, the University’s Data Protection Officer on 023 9284 3642 or Samantha.hill@port.ac.uk.

Finally, you have the right to complain about the processing of your data to the UK regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office. For more information about this body and how to make a complaint, please see www.ico.org.uk