Student Privacy Notice (Enrolment)

 

Who we are

The University of Wolverhampton (‘The University’, ‘we’ or ‘us’) are a ‘Data Controller’, as defined by the Data Protection Act 2018 and are responsible for, and control the processing of your Personal Data. You can contact us at email dataprotection@wlv.ac.uk, University of Wolverhampton, Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1LY. Tel. 01902 32 1000. Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotection@wlv.ac.uk.

We are committed to protecting your privacy. This notice explains how the University of Wolverhampton collects and processes your Personal Data.

 

How We Use Your Data

Once you accept a place on a course and/or register as a student at the University you will be directed to complete the online Enrolment Form. We will process the personal data collected at application for the purposes of enrolment into the university and for other related purposes whilst you are studying with us. You can see these purposes below. Data protection legislation states that the data controller must also have a lawful basis to process or use your personal data and we will be relying on a number of these in line with the purposes.

Purpose

Lawful Basis (Reason)

Provision of academic courses and programmes

Public Task (Teaching and learning) The purpose of the University, set out in its Royal Charter, is to advance learning and knowledge by teaching and research to the benefit of the wider community.

Support Services for academic courses and programmes to students (including IT and library services) 

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

Assessment of academic progress and performance (including attendance)

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

Administration of complaints, grievances and appeals

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

Immigration matters

Legal obligation (in relation to students or applicants who hold Tier 4 visa)

Making reasonable adjustments for disabilities and providing relevant support to students or applicants with ill health

Legal obligation in relation to our duty to find out and make reasonable adjustments

Obtaining payment of fees

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

Carrying out internal research and analysis for non-academic purposes including monitoring performance and quality at an institutional level and where there is no direct impact on data subjects (Anonymous non-identifiable, aggregate level data )

Legitimate interest in ensuring that the University is able to benefit its staff and students through understanding how they are impacted by its practices

Carrying out internal research and analysis for purposes linked to the Access Participation Plan

Public task and equality monitoring

Supplying contact details to the relevant council tax authority in registered place of residence for Council Tax Registration purposes

Legal Obligation

Inclusion of course taken and grade achieved for the award ceremony

Legitimate interest of the University to recognise achievements students and staff

Assessment of academic progress and performance (including attendance)

Contractual necessity

Communicating directly to students about their course or in case of emergency

In the legitimate Interest of the University for the smooth and efficient running of the university courses and services

Communication directly to students for the purposes of student experience and integration

Legitimate Interests

Inclusivity events such as speeches, talks, meet and greets, discussions and other scheduled activities, which are not marketing related

Legitimate Interests

Events and communications arising out of the international days

Legitimate Interests

Alumni relations

Necessary for the legitimate interests of the University's Alumni department
Consent for marketing, fundraising and maintaining an alumni network

Market research and surveys

Necessary for the legitimate interests of planning and developing the University's operations.

Graduation Preparation

In the legitimate Interest of the University smooth and efficient running of the university's graduation ceremony

External Reporting including to OfS and its agencies

Legal Obligation

Special category for equality and monitoring purposes

Substantial public interest

Providing academic references for PSRB courses

Legal obligation

Providing academic references for non-PSRB courses

Consent

 

Some departments in the University may contact you regarding using your information for promotional purposes and marketing. This will typically be the Marketing Department, Aspire to HE or our Recruitment Department and the lawful basis they will rely on is that we have a legitimate interest to do so or for email marketing to our existing customers / students we may rely on the ‘soft opt-in’.  You will have the option to provide your consent for receiving marketing and promotional communication via post through the ‘Update your Personal Details’ page in e:Vision. You can also opt out to receiving all marketing communications through the same page.

We will not process your personal data for any other purpose other than those stated above without informing you first.

 

Information We Collect

The vast majority of information that we process about you will be provided by you. This will typically be via our website or collected from the application process. We may get additional information from your referee or employer where one is required.

Information provided by you will include details such as your full name (including former name or alias), gender, date of birth and contact details, such as address, email address and telephone number and information relating to your education and employment history.  

We will also process your national insurance number (or other tax identification number) where required for the application, as well as, your passport identification number or national identity card details, country of domicile and nationality. In addition, we will collect and process Special Category personal data such as, your religion, race and health data for equality monitoring purposes.

For specified courses we are required to collect information relating to criminal convictions. The condition we rely on for this is that there is a substantial public interest in establishing whether students have been involved in or committed criminal or dishonest acts.

 

Who We Share Your Personal Data With

Information is shared with relevant departments within the University for the purposes outlined above. In addition, specific data may be obtained from and shared with the following external parties for the purposes specified: (some of this takes place at the application stage):

 

Recipient or Source

Purpose and type of data

Lawful Basis

Student Loans Company/Other funders

To facilitate the payment of funds - Contact and payment details

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

Home Office (UKVI)

Sponsorship for Visa applications, Reporting on student circumstances and student advice – Contact & identification details, qualifications, courses, Visa status

Legal obligation & Consent

Medical and Health Practitioners including Heale’s Health

To understand health needs and make reasonable adjustments to support students – Details about your health and mobility

Legal obligation to ask but you only respond if you consent

Current Employer

Payment of fees and to support progression – Contact details, grades etc

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

Educational Institutions

Verification of qualifications – Grades and transcripts of grades achieved

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

Disclosure and Barring Service

Establish whether students have been involved in or committed criminal or dishonest acts – Identification and contact details

Contract / Substantial public interest

Professional Accrediting Bodies

To support or confirm accreditation - Contact details and progression information

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

UCAS and other application agencies

To receive applications and notify applicants of decisions  as appropriate – identification details

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

Wolverhampton Students Union

To provide students with the benefits of Students Union Service - Contact details

Legitimate interest of the Student Union and in the interest of the student to access the benefits

External Examiners

To evaluate all forms of assessment contributing to students degree results and help ensure fairness and consistency in the assessment process

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

External Statutory Reporting

Statutory returns including identifiable personal data and special category data.

 

Shared with OfS

Transparency Return

 

Shared with HESA/JISC

HESA Annual Return

Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS)

 

Shared with HESA/JISC and DfE

Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Return

 

Shared with Ipsos Mori (Joint Controller)

National Student Survey (NSS)

 

Aggregated Data Returns

Aggregate Offshore Return (AOR)

TEF/ REF

Statutory requirement

Collaborative partners in the UK and overseas

Provision of academic courses and programmes  -  All student data

Contractual requirement where courses are delivered in partnership

Virtual Learning Environment –CANVAS

Student data – in particular module registrations and results. Provision of academic courses and programmes

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

Other virtual learning aids – Panopto/Turn it in/Portfolium/Respondus/HUDL

Provision of academic courses and programmes

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

Research management system – Elements/Symplectic

To capture academic publications, feed these into the WIRE depository, provide academic profiles and used as the submission system for REF.  

Legitimate Interests

Microsoft 365

Provision of IT services and programmes

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

Placement providers (such as hospital trusts)

Course Progression – Contact Details

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

Internal Survey Providers

To provide feedback on various metrics (such as teaching quality) and plan and develop services offered by the university based on the findings

In the legitimate interest of the University for course improvement

The Black Country LEP

For funding purposes if you are enrolled on a Marches Centre of Excellence Project course at Telford.

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

BridgeU

For purposes relating to your university application

Necessary for a contract or entering into a contract

 

Your personal data may be shared when necessary with external organisations which process your data to assist with the student application and enrolment process and do not process your data for any other purpose. We ensure we have appropriate data processing agreements and contracts in place before sharing your personal data with any data processors. 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, appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure the confidentiality and security of your personal data. Details of third parties we use for assistance with the application and enrolment process can be found here.

We do not share your data with external organisations for marketing their products or services. We do not sell your personal data to third parties under any circumstances, or permit third parties to sell on the data we have shared with them.

We may also share personal details with organisations with enforcement powers such as HMRC or the Police. However, we will only do so if this is required to comply with our legal obligation to disclose information to these bodies. We will only share the minimum amount of personal data with any of the above and will always do so in accordance with the law.

 

Retention

Your full enrolment data is retained for 10 years from the end of your relationship with us for funding and regulatory purposes. A skeleton record of will be kept for a period of 99 years for enabling award verification.

 

Your Rights

As an individual, you have a number of rights available to you. To find out more about how you may exercise those rights, for example, The Right of Subject Access: obtaining a copy of your information which we may hold,  or the Right to Rectification: correcting any mistakes or completing the information we hold about you, please see our Data Protection web pages available here or the ICO website for more information. Note that because we are collecting this information on the basis that it is necessary for a  contract the Rights to Object to Processing and the Right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing will not apply, but you will still have the right to request human intervention from the University and, to express your point of view and to contest any decision in this way.

 

How to Complain

If you have any queries, concerns or believe that your Personal Data is being handled in a manner which is contrary to statutory requirements, you may wish to contact the University of Wolverhampton’s Data Protection Officer via dataprotection@wlv.ac.uk or complain to the ICO via www.ico.org.uk

 

Changes to Privacy Notice

We regularly review our privacy notice and will review it at least annually. This privacy notice was last updated on 9 November 2023.