Outreach privacy notice

When you apply for outreach activities

We will process the personal data you or your school provides to us when either you or your school/college make an application for your participation within an outreach activity/programme. This data will include some or all of the following: 

• your name, home address and other contact details you may provide
• your email, your user name, your computer’s IP address, MAC address and device name
• your date of birth and year group
• your gender
• your learner ID number (UPN/ULN)
• the name of your school/college and in some cases, your previous school/college (e.g. if you took your GCSEs there)
• your qualifications/grades
• whether you are entitled to free school meals
• whether you are in care or are a care leaver
• whether you are a young carer
• information about your home life such as whether your parents/carers have been to university and your household income). We will assume that you have obtained consent from those individuals before you supply their contact details to us.

If your school or college provides this information to us, we will assume that they have your consent to do so.

In addition to this, we may need to process some data about you that is classed as ‘special category’ or sensitive personal data. This includes data about your ethnicity and health/disability data. Ethnicity data is important, as it enables us to carry out our statutory obligations/conditions of funding as we need to ensure our outreach activities are targeted at learners who are under-represented in higher education. We may also request data about your health or any disability you have which will be used to provide help or reasonable adjustments at events. Access to, and the sharing of, your special category personal data are controlled very carefully. Special category data is also used for research and statistical purposes, but not in a way which will involve making any decisions about you personally or putting measures in place which relate to you personally.

Engagement data and tracking outcomes

If you are accepted on to an outreach activity, we will monitor your engagement within the activities for the duration of the activity and evaluate the impact these activities have had in terms of your attainment, aspirations and where you go after school/college.

• we will collect the outreach engagement data using registers within events
• from time to time you may be asked to complete evaluation forms, so that you can provide feedback on outreach activities

Obtaining information about you from third parties

At key points in your educational career we may ask your school/college to provide us with information about you, such as your exam results and what qualifications you are studying and where, and education data from your Individual Learner Record (ILR) which is held by your college. We may also ask the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), University Central Admissions Service (UCAS), the Student Loans Company (SLC), and the National Pupil Database (NPD) to provide us with the following information from your ILR:

• your attainment at school/college
• if you have/are receiving free school meals
• if you have a disability and your ethnic group
• the type/level of course you are studying
• whether you went to university

We may also monitor and track your outcomes from this information if you have not engaged in outreach activities. This will allow us to compare your outcomes against outcomes of other learners that have engaged in outreach activities to support planning and help evidence which outreach activities are most effective. We may ask HESA, UCAS, SLC and NPD and/or your school/college to provide data on your background characteristics (e.g. from the school census), attainment and post-16 progression data (e.g. did you stay on in sixth form/go to college/go to university).

We will process your personal data in order to deliver our outreach and widening participation activities and agenda which includes:

• considering the suitability of your application for the outreach event/programme to which you or your school/college has applied
• enabling you to take part in outreach events and activities, including putting in place any support which is appropriate and managing those events and activities
• monitoring your subsequent engagement with those activities
• communicating effectively with you or your school/college by post, email, phone or other electronic media, including the communication of our decision on your application to take part in an outreach activity/programme
• accessing national data sets and identify if you progressed to higher education
• responding to any queries about your participation within outreach activities
• fulfilling our analysis and reporting obligations (e.g. monitoring your engagement in outreach activities to see if they have made a positive difference to your attainment and post 16 progression)
• to enable us to contact others in the event of an emergency (we will assume that you have checked with the individuals before you supply their contact details to us)

When you apply for an outreach programme/activity, we:

• check if you are eligible to attend
• track your engagement within activities
• track your outcomes via local and national data sets
• evaluate the impact of your engagement within outreach activities

When we have collected data about you from third parties (see Obtaining Information About your from Third Parties), that data will be matched together with data we hold to enable us to establish the impact of our activities/programmes and report to our funders/make statutory returns (e.g. the Office for Students). This data is not used to make decisions about you, including whether you can participate in further activities.

We will use your data to prepare aggregated and anonymised evaluation reports to enable us to carry out future statistical analysis on the impact of outreach activities/programmes on learners from different socio-economic backgrounds or for historical or research purposes or to meet such reporting obligations as may be imposed on the University by relevant authorities, for example the Office for Students.

Video conferencing applications

When using video conferencing applications, such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, personal data such as your IP address and device name may collected by the companies who own these applications in order to schedule and create a record of meetings, improve and tailor your experience when using these applications. Where video conferencing applications are used to record meetings, personal data captured within the recording are stored within the cloud service owned by that company. Where recording is taking place, you will be notified at the beginning of or as you enter the recording session.

Data held and used by the University are compliant with GDPR. Personal data stored by a service provider within the cloud may be stored outside of the European Economic Area.

Processing of your personal data is carried because it is necessary:

• to perform our outreach activities and programmes, which are tasks we carry out in the public interest
• to deliver the outreach programme you have applied for in accordance with our contractual obligations
• to comply with a legal obligation (e.g. equal opportunities monitoring) or regulatory obligation (e.g. reporting to Government or governmental bodies)

We will only process special category data with your explicit consent or if it is necessary:

• for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes
• to perform our outreach activities in the substantial public interest where the law allows us to do so and in line with our Data Protection Policy
• very occasionally, when it is needed to protect your vital interests and you are not capable of giving their consent (for example, in an emergency)
• for the establishment, exercise or defence of any legal claims

If your consent (or that of your parent/carer) is required for any specific use of your personal data, we will collect it at the appropriate time, explaining why we are collecting the data and how we will use it, and you can withdraw this at any time. Sometimes your school/college will collect this before forwarding information about you to us.

Within the University, your data is shared with only those University staff who need access to it to deliver and support our outreach programmes and activities.

Your personal data is shared with a range of external organisations as is necessary for the purposes set out above and as permitted or required by law, including the following:

• The Aimhigher Partnership, your school/college, The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), University Central Admissions Service (UCAS), The Student Loans Company (SLC), National Pupil Database (NPD), Individual Learner Record (ILR) as explained above (see ‘What personal data will be processed’). This will include sharing special category data you provided as part of your application and subsequent engagement within outreach activities (e.g. your ethnicity and any details of the disability)
• relevant higher education statutory regulatory bodies (e.g. the Office for Students)
• third parties commissioned to deliver outreach activities or conduct evaluation or research on behalf of the Government, and Government or non-governmental agencies in the public interest
• occasionally and when necessary internal and external auditors or regulators
• individuals, companies or organisations commissioned by or on behalf of the Government, Government or non-governmental agencies (e.g. the Office for Students) to provide or evaluate outreach activities/programmes

Your personal data is shared as is necessary, on a considered and confidential basis, with several external organisations which assist us with delivering our programmes and activities or who are commissioned to deliver outreach activities or conduct evaluation or research on our behalf. These organisations act on our behalf in accordance with our instructions and do not process your data for any purpose over and above what we have asked them to do. We make sure we have appropriate contracts in place with them. Sometimes your personal data is processed by these organisations outside the European Economic Area (for example, because they use a cloud-based system with servers based outside the EEA), and if so, we make sure that appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure the confidentiality and security of your personal data. 

We will not normally publish or disclose any personal data about you to other external enquirers or organisations unless you have asked us to do so or have consented to it, or unless it is in your vital interests to do so (e.g. in an emergency situation).

We will retain the personal data collected from you and your school/college during the application process, your subsequent engagement within outreach activities and data we collect to evaluate the impact of our outreach programmes until you reach the age of 25 or for 7 years, whichever comes latest.

Details about your rights are set out on the Data Protection – How the University Uses Your Data webpage. This also explains how to ask any questions you may have about how your personal data is used, exercise any of your rights or complain about the way your data is being handled.

This privacy notice is effective from 27 September 2018 and was last updated in June 2020. It is reviewed when necessary and at least annually. Any changes will be published here and you will be notified by email or as appropriate.