Outreach privacy notice

Outreach is a central function of the University of Chester, based within the Directorate of Access, Skills and Apprenticeships (DASA). The purpose of Outreach, and specifically its work to ‘widen participation’, is to raise the aspirations and attainment of those students in schools and colleges who are underrepresented in higher education.

Introduction

The University of Chester is committed to protecting the rights and freedoms of individuals as detailed in relevant Data Protection legislation including looking after any personal data that it collects, uses or holds. It is issued under your right to be informed about how the University collects, uses and stores your personal data. This Data Processing and Privacy Notice describes how and why we collect and use personal information about you for Outreach and Widening Participation purposes.

The users of the University’s Outreach provision are defined as:

  • Students within targeted schools and colleges who take part in the Outreach delivered by the University of Chester.
  • Prospective students and/or service users.
  • Teachers and Advisors based within schools and colleges who wish to arrange Outreach activity for their institutions.

Data Protection Principles

We will comply with data protection legislation, which says that the personal information we hold about you must be:

  • Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way
  • Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes
  • Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes
  • Accurate and kept up to date
  • Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about
  • Kept securely

What Personal Data does the University collect?

Outreach at the University of Chester collects the following Personal Data, either from individuals attending activity (from Years 9 and above), from their parents/guardians if the attendee is younger than this age, or via Data Sharing Agreements between the University, and individual educational institutions:

  • First name
  • Middle Name (if applicable)
  • Last Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Postcode
  • Gender
  • Disability (if applicable)
  • Ethnicity

What Special Category Data does the University Collect?

Outreach at the University of Chester collects and processes Special Category Data relating to ethnicity and disability that are disclosed to us by users at an event, via their parents/guardians, or as data shared as part of a data sharing agreement. This data will be used as part of the legal basis (see below) to monitor and evaluate Outreach and Widening Participation activity on a longitudinal basis, for those students underrepresented in higher education.

Why does the University need this data and how will the University use this data?

Outreach at the University of Chester requires the collection of Personal Data in order to monitor and evaluate Widening Participation and Outreach programmes longitudinally; tracking the progression of participating students to investigate the impact of Widening Participation and Outreach on their attainment, progression, social mobility, graduate outcomes and eventual employment.

What is the Legal Basis for processing the data?

The University of Chester is statutorily required to demonstrate financial integrity and performance accountability, particularly relating to educational outcomes, therefore certain university activities (e.g. in this case, Outreach and Widening Participation activity) are deemed to be tasks necessarily carried out ‘in the public interest’.

The HEAT Service enables Outreach at the University of Chester to monitor and evaluate Outreach and Widening Participation activities longitudinally; tracking the progression of participating students to investigate the impact of Outreach and Widening Participation on their attainment, progression, social mobility, graduate outcomes and eventual employment.

The lawful basis of a task carried out in the public interest is therefore applicable to data collected and processed by the HEAT Service on behalf of the University of Chester, in terms of enabling them to meet their statutory obligation to evidence effectiveness of such programmes to funders, education regulators such as (but not limited to) the Office for Students, and central Government.

For how long will the University keep this Data?

Outreach at the University of Chester will store this data in a secure database until the individual is aged 30. This allows the University and its partners to measure the effectiveness of the activity they have undertaken, on their possible progression into higher education.

Who has access to the data and with whom will the University share this data?

Only designated members of staff within the University, with responsibility for Outreach and Widening Participation Activity, will be provided with the relevant access to the secure database.

For research and evaluation purposes only, this data may also be shared with the Office for Students (OfS), the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), the Department for Education (DfE) or HESA, and our partners including Higher Education Access Tracker service subscribers and the National Data Service.

How will the University keep this data secure?

Outreach at the University of Chester uses HEAT to store and process the personal data of its participants (as detailed above). HEAT have negotiated Data Processing Agreements and Service Level Agreements with the University of Chester and use encrypted, hashed, pseudonymised and anonymised techniques to protect the integrity of Personal Data. Personal Data is only made available to employees who are authorised to use it, and those employees are required to take appropriate security precautions and receive continual training on best security practices.

Outreach at the University of Chester will collect student data, either directly from participants in their Widening Participation and Outreach programmes, or indirectly from partner schools, colleges and other agencies with whom they collaborate for programme delivery. Paper based forms will be transported securely to then be inputted onto the secure electronic systems, abiding by institutions Data Protection Policy.

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes.

What Rights do you have as a Data Subject?

As a data subject of the University, under the Data Protection legislation, you have a number of rights with regards to your data, dependent upon the legal basis for processing that data.  As such you have the right to…

  • Withdraw consent - where the University has used consent as the legal basis for processing;
  • Be informed – about how the University, collects and uses your data;
  • Access your personal data that the University holds and process;
  • Rectify or correct any inaccuracies in your personal data that we hold;
  • Be forgotten by requesting that your details are removed from the University systems;
  • Restrict the processing of your data whilst it is being verified or corrected;
  • Port your data in a machine readable and commonly used format;
  • Object to certain processing by the University including direct marketing, automated decision making, profiling, scientific/historical research and statistics;

The above rights are not absolute and may only apply in some circumstances such as being dependent upon which lawful process has been used or whether an exemption may apply.

You may contact the University’s Data Protection Officer as necessary regarding your rights.

If you would like to object to data being stored by the University of Chester in the Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) database, please submit a request to outreach@chester.ac.uk. We will use the data you submit to check whether we have your/your child's data stored on HEAT and if we do, we will contact you to confirm that you object to the data being stored.  The details you provide will be retained until your query is complete.

Who is the Data Controller and who is the Data Protection Officer?

The Data Controller is the University of Chester, Parkgate Road, Chester, CH1 4BJ.  The Data Controller’s representative is Mr Adrian Lee, University Secretary, who may be contacted at the University address and on 01244 511000.

The University’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) is Rob Dawson.  He may also be contacted at the University’s address and telephone number and also by email on dpo@chester.ac.uk.

The University’s lead on its Outreach and Widening Participation activity, as well as its engagement with the Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) is Sean Williamson, Outreach Manager. He may also be contacted at the University’s address and telephone number and also by email on outreach@chester.ac.uk.

How to raise questions, comments, concerns, or complaints.

Should you have any questions, comments, concerns or complaints regarding the use of your personal data you should contact the University’s Data Protection Officer as detailed above.

You may also raise any concerns or complaints with the Information Commissioner’s Office who may be contacted as follows:

Information Commissioners Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113.

www.ico.org.uk

Changes to this Notice

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates.  We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.