Widening Participation Privacy Notice

Edge Hill University undertakes outreach activities with individuals, schools, colleges and communities across the UK, to support progression and widen access to Higher Education.

Our respect for the privacy and security of your data is of great importance to Widening Access and Participation teams in Edge Hill University. All personal data is held and processed in accordance with all applicable data protection and privacy legislation in force in the UK, including the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.

What information do we collect about you?

We may collect your personal data in the following ways:

By completing a consent to share form at a HE/recruitment event
When you complete a booking form to attend a university event, such as an Open Day, etc.
When you make an enquiry by telephone, email, live chat, or via our website

We may collect the following personal data:

Your name
Contact information, including full postal address, contact telephone number, email address
Date of birth
Your current school or college
Intended year of entry to Higher Education
Any relevant widening participation characteristics that you identify with: care experienced, a care leaver, a person estranged from their family, mature (aged 21+ on entry to an undergraduate degree), from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic group, a carer, a child of a military family, LGBTQI+ students, disabled students, a refugee, first in family to study in Higher Education, students with certain entry qualifications, students from an area of lower higher education participation, lower household income and/or lower socioeconomic status groups

How do we use the information you provide to us?

Under the UK data protection regulation, we are required to meet one of the conditions set out in Article 6 for processing your data. We use the information we collect only in compliance with this Privacy Notice.

We will process your data with your consent for the purposes of providing bespoke information to you regarding the university’s support offer. Processing could also be required to protect the vital interests of the data subject or others.

The Widening Access and Participation Team, alongside other teams in the university supporting our access and participation plan work, are keen to communicate our support offer via a range of online and offline channels. In order for us to do this, we will hold your data in a secure folder on the university’s internal server which will only be accessed by authorised members of staff working on Access and Participation Plan activity. We aim to keep your data you provide to us up to date, and you are able to provide any updates by emailing [email protected]

Unless you have not indicated your consent, your data will be used for a range of communication via your chosen method(s) including email or phone. To ensure you receive relevant information we use your data to personalise your communications.

Communications may include:

Responding to your enquiry
Sending University publications which are relevant to you
Invitations to future events which are relevant for you, e.g. dedicated programmes of activity
General University information, including but not exclusive to accommodation and finance

Who do we share your information with?

We will only share your data with internal departments who are acting as agents for the University and are involved in helping us communicate our support offer to you.

How long do we keep your information?

We retain personal information that you provide to us in line with University retention schedules, as long as we consider it potentially useful in contacting you about the University. Please see below for the specific retention guidelines for each type of data that we hold:

Teachers, advisors, local authority staff and third sector organisation staff – your data will be held on our system indefinitely or until we have been informed that you have left your institution.
Prospective student data (enquirers and applicants) – your data is used to communicate information relevant to your specified year of entry. Once the year of entry has passed (unless you update this), your sensitive data will be held in the system for reporting/analysis purposes and will be kept for a maximum of 6 years at which point it will be archived and anonymised and only used for reporting purposes.

Is your personal data secure?

We are committed to the security of the information we hold and in ensuring that only people who need to access the information, are able to do so. The information will only be accessed by teams and individuals who contribute to the delivery of the University’s Access and Participation Plan, to offer support to students with Widening Participation characteristics.

Where paper consent forms are used, they are stored in a locked drawer until they are transferred into a file, then securely destroyed.

Access to our secure file is password restricted and only staff members who need access are given the relevant permissions.

Your rights

You are able to withdraw your consent or change your preferences at any time by emailing [email protected]

You have the right to access and be informed of what personal data the University holds about you and what it is used for (please refer to the University’s Subject Access Request Form).

We may amend this privacy notice from time to time, any significant changes to this notice or to the way we treat your data will be communicated via the Edge Hill Website or by contacting you directly through the appropriate means.

You have the right to opt out of sharing your data at any time. Upon request by email to [email protected], we will inform you whether your personal information is stored by us.

You may also write to the Data Protection Officer at Edge Hill University, St Helens Road, Ormskirk, Lancashire, L39 4QP to ask for a copy of your information and we will respond within 40 days to requests for information sent by post.

Edge Hill University undertakes outreach activities with schools, colleges and communities across the UK, to support progression and widen access to Higher Education.

All data collected through Widening Access and Participation initiatives is processed and stored in accordance with the Data Protection Act (1998), General Data Protection Regulation (2018) and Edge Hill University’s Data Protection Policy.

Why do we collect and use this information?

To evaluate the long term effectiveness of outreach activity, as part of government policy to widen participation to Higher Education, including activity numbers and targeting efficiency.
To monitor and track the number of pupils participating in outreach activities to see if it has any long-term impact on progression to Higher Education, including UCAS and HESA choices to inform impact.
To standardise the recording of our interactions with schools and students. We are one of a number of universities using this national methodology.
To identify pupils who are the target demographic for the activity. For specific projects only, for example, as part of the National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP) in Lancashire (Future U), Cumbria (Hello Future) and Merseyside (Shaping Futures).
To comply with the law regarding data sharing

Under data protection law, we are able to process this data because it is necessary for a task to be carried out in the public interest.

For sustained outreach programmes and specifically targeted events, we will ask schools for this information as part of our Service Level Agreement and we have a template letter, which can be edited by the school, in order to inform parents/guardians about the programme.

Under data protection law, we are able to process this data because it is necessary for a task to be carried out in the public interest.

Categories of data we collect, hold and share

Personal information (such as name, date of birth, postcode, gender, school attended)
Characteristics such as ethnicity, free school meal eligibility/pupil premium, year group, experience of Care (specific projects only)
Attendance across a series of outreach session or attendance across the school year (specific projects only)
Relevant medical, dietary or special educational needs information (ahead of a visit to campus)

Who we share the information with

Government and funding bodies include:

Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Office for Fair Access which became the Office for Students on 1 April 2018
Higher Education Statistics Agency
Department for Education
University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS)
Local Authorities

Our collaborative partners include:

Universities and other Higher Education providers
Schools and Colleges
Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) service subscribers
Future U (Lancashire)
Shaping Futures (Merseyside)
Hello Future (Cumbria)
The National Data Service
The University may from time to time engage the services of a third party to conduct research and monitoring into the effectiveness and impact of our programmes.

How do we use your data and keep it secure?

Student data will be stored on a secure database (the Higher Education Access Tracker) and used to administer participation in outreach activities and projects.

For research and monitoring purposes only, this data may also be shared back with the school or college, with government and funding bodies and with our collaborative partners to help evaluate the effectiveness of this activity.

The project and its partners will not use records in a way that would affect a student individually and we will not release data to anyone who is unauthorized. The University does not and will not, sell personal data to third party organisations.

How long will we keep the data for?

We will retain records for the duration of the longitudinal project, for up to 10 years. This is to provide supporting data on participation in HE outreach activities.

We will review our retention periods annually as the project develops in line with ICO guidance and other best practice in the sector. After this period, any personal information will be removed from our records, but we may continue to retain and process your information in an anonymized form.

Summary

The measures that we take to ensure data is collected, processed and stored securely are as follows:

If paper forms are used, they are stored in a locked drawer until they are transferred into a spreadsheet, then securely destroyed.
Electronic files containing individual data are password protected and stored on a secure file area accessible only to designated members of staff.
Access to files containing individual data is restricted to members of the Widening Participation team and, on occasion, designated student advocates carrying out administrative work for the department.
Data is stored on a secure online database accessible only to staff from Edge Hill University’s Education Liaison and Events Team, Widening Participation Team, and the central HEAT team.
Data is never published in a way that would allow an individual to be identified.

Your rights

You have the right to opt out of sharing your data at any time. Upon request by email to [email protected], we will inform you whether your personal information is stored by us.