university of gloucestershire

Sustainability

U

Website privacy notice

Last updated: 31 March 2023

In order to operate the University of Gloucestershire website (‘university’), we may collect and store the personal information you submit to the university via this website. The purpose of this privacy notice is to tell you how the university will collect, use and protect the personal data that you provide via this website.

This website is provided and hosted by the Sustainability department at the university. By submitting your personal information, you are consenting to the university holding and using it in accordance with this policy. The policy is subject to change and any future changes will be notified on this page. By continuing to use this website you are agreeing to such changes. We recommend that you check the privacy policy each time you visit this site.

This privacy policy applies to the website provided, hosted and managed by the Sustainability department at the university. The website that this privacy policy applies to is:

sustainability.glos.ac.uk

1. Identity and contact details of the Data Controller

The University of Gloucestershire is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office as a Data Controller and is committed to protecting the rights of individuals in line with Data Protection legislation. A copy of this registration can be viewed on the ICO website.

2. Contact details of the Data Protection Officer

The Data Protection Officer is responsible for advising the University on compliance with Data Protection legislation and monitoring its performance against it. If you have any concerns regarding the way in which the University is processing your personal data, please contact the Data Protection Officer at:

Data Protection Officer
University of Gloucestershire
Fullwood House
The Park
Cheltenham, GL50 2RH

Email: dpo@glos.ac.uk

3. What information do we collect about you?

3.1 Information you give us

When you visit this website, you may be asked to provide certain information about yourself, including your name, telephone number, email address, country of residence, address, year group, school/college, qualifications, gender, ethnicity, and disability information.

3.2 Automatic information

We automatically receive and save certain types of information whenever you interact with this website. We use the information to monitor website traffic and to assist with the navigation and user experience of the website. We may also use this information to personalise your website experience and show you information that is relevant to you.

Information that we will automatically receive includes:

  • Requested URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
  • IP address (Internet Protocol) address (this may or may not identify a specific computer)
  • The domain name from which you access the internet
  • Referring URL
  • Software (browser/operating system) used to access the page
  • Date and time pages were visited

3.3 Cookies

Please see our cookies page for additional information on our use of cookies.

4. How will your information be used?

The information you give us will be used by the university to facilitate and administer event bookings (such as open days, offer holder days and campus visits), general enquiries, outreach activities, course applications, newsletter signups and marketing communications.

We may use the information we collect so that we can manage and improve the university website. Demographic and statistical information about user behaviour may be collected and used to analyse the popularity and effectiveness of the website. Any disclosure of this information will be in aggregate form and will not identify individual users.

We may also use the information we collect about you to personalise your website experience, by showing you content that is most relevant to you. Your IP address may be used to determine the country you are visiting our website from and to show you relevant content based on your location.

We use services from Google on this website (and those covered by this privacy policy) to measure and analyse visitor information. For further information on these, please visit Google Analytics.

The university will not (nor will it allow any third party to) use the statistical analytics tools to track or collect personally identifiable information of visitors to this website. The university will not associate any data gathered with any personally identifying information from any source as part of our user of the statistical analytics tools.

5. What is our lawful basis for processing your personal data?

Prior to application

We will use your data to process your enquiry and provide you with marketing materials where you have given us your consent to do so. This includes but is not limited to, communications about courses, accommodation and events. If you have booked an event, you will receive communications regarding the event, irrespective of the communication preferences you have chosen, so we can ensure you have everything you need to know.

  • We may process your personal data because it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract.
  • We may also process your personal data because it is necessary for the performance of our tasks carried out for a legitimate interest.
  • We also have a legal requirement to report back to the government based on a task carried out in the public interest to widen participation for underrepresented groups in higher education.

On application

Once you have applied to study, you enter a contract with the university to provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision about whether to attend the university. This includes invitations to interviews, applicant days, reminders of key dates (including deadlines) and induction.

To opt out of receiving this information you will need to email the university at enquiries@glos.ac.uk.

We may also process your information for a legitimate interest if you have given us the consent to do so. This includes sending you communications about your course, the facilities of the university and general accommodation information.

Special category data

In some of our activities, for example, those related to widening participation in university from underrepresented groups, we need to collect data that is classified as special category (sensitive) personal data under data protection legislation, including details on ethnicity and race.

This is processed on the basis of a legitimate interest under Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and condition J of Article 9(2) of the GDPR which states: processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject.

This data may also be shared with government bodies, or organisations working on behalf of the government for research and analysis purposes.

6. Who your personal information is shared with?

Your information will be processed by the university and organisations working on our behalf who are compliant with current data protection legislation in order to show you relevant content or send you relevant communications, for example:

  • providers who send communications on behalf of the university, e.g. letters, emails, SMS or other communications
  • providers who will use your profile information to identify others who may be interested in the university.
  • providers who will use your IP address to identify the country you are visiting our website from

No information will be passed to third-party organisations for them to contact you directly themselves.

Information about you may be disclosed to other organisations outside of the university where it is in our legitimate interests and/or as required by law, including but not limited to:

  • the police and other crime and fraud prevention, and detection agencies for crime prevention or detection purposes
  • the Home Office, including UK Visas and Immigration, UK embassies, local authorities and other governmental bodies
  • Government bodies and agencies where the university is legally obliged to do so such as the Office for Students, the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, the Higher Education Statistics Agency, UCAS, the Department for Education, and the Higher Education Access Tracker and its subscribers
  • the Disclosure and Barring Service
  • sponsors, agencies or bodies funding or intending to fund your programme of study
  • your country’s government, high commission, embassy or consulate
  • third parties who initially provided us with personal information relating to you such as third-party recruitment agents.

7. Transfers to other countries and safeguards in place

Data collected may be transferred outside the EU, for example, some data processed by the university’s contracted software supplier is stored on servers located in Canada. Canada has “adequacy” status from the European Commission. Whenever data is transferred from one location to another it will always be in a secure, encrypted or password-protected format.

We ensure that any data processor complies with confidentiality, current data protection legislation, data sharing protocols and safeguards, governing law, intellectual property, liability and pursuant to its commitment to compliant practice.

8. How long will your information be held?

When we captured your data along with your intended year of entry (when you planned to start studying at university), the general information you provide to us will be held for one year after this date. If no ‘year of entry’ was known, we keep your information for a maximum of 3 years from the time it was collected. If, however, you become an applicant you will be subject to other notices that we will provide to you and your data will be held in line with the University’s Records Retention Schedule.

If you attend one of our events and activities, we will only retain certain detailed information that we need for the purpose of administration for as long as necessary to serve that purpose. In order to conduct long-term evaluation, tracking and research about access to higher education, we will retain some of your key personal information until you reach the age of thirty or up to fifteen years from graduation. After this time, any personal information will be removed from our systems, but we may continue to retain and process your information in an anonymised form. This will enable us to track your university and career destinations.

If you have given your consent and you wish to withdraw it, you can opt-out at any point by contacting us directly at enquiries@glos.ac.uk, at the address below, or by unsubscribing via any email communications you receive from us.

You can also amend your communication preferences here.

9. What are your rights?

Under UK Data Protection Legislation you have the following rights:

  • to request access to, and copies of, the personal data that we hold about you;
  • to request that we cease processing your personal data;
  • to request that we do not send you any marketing communications;
    to request us to correct the personal data we hold about you if it is incorrect;
  • to request that we erase your personal data;
  • to request that we restrict our data processing activities (and, where our processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent, without affecting the lawfulness of our processing based on consent before its withdrawal);
  • to receive from us the personal data you have provided to us, in a reasonable format specified by you, to another data controller;
  • to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to any of our particular processing activities where you feel this has a disproportionate impact on your rights and freedoms.

Please note that the above rights are not absolute, and we may be entitled to refuse requests where exceptions apply.

Any requests or objections should be made in writing to the University’s Data Protection Officer, contact details are in Section 2 of this Privacy Notice.

10. How to make a complaint

If you have queries, or concerns or wish to raise a complaint regarding the way in which your personal data has been processed you should contact the Data Protection Officer in the first instance, using the contact details under Section 2 above.

If you still remain dissatisfied, then you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a decision. The ICO can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Website: www.ico.org.uk