Current Students Privacy Notice

When you applied to become a student, you were told in the Student Applicant Privacy Notice how the University would use your personal data to process your application. This referred you to this Student Privacy Notice which explains how we use your personal data while you are a student at the University.

In addition to the information set out here, when you use specific services and facilities offered by the University, you will be told about any other uses of your personal data and may be directed to a webpage or privacy notice for more detailed information, for example, if you engage with the Counselling & Wellbeing, Learning Support, and Accessibility Services.

After you graduate, our Development and Alumni Relations Office may process data about you, and details of how they process alumni data are explained in the Alumni Privacy Notice

Sometimes another organisation will also be a data controller of your personal data if your programme is delivered in collaboration with, or on behalf of, another organisation. That organisation should explain this to you as well as how it uses your data.

The details provided to us when you applied to the University form the basis of your core student record, which is the high-level record retained by the Student Records Team. Your core student record also includes data you provide on registration, annual re-registration or through the My Falmouth portal and information collected and entered by the University during your studies, including:

1. Your personal details, such as your name, home address and other contact details, age and date of birth, gender, nationality, country of birth, your dependents, whether you are a care leaver
2. Information about your area of study
3. Tuition and other fee charges, funding and payments
4. Information about your sponsor
5. If you are an international applicant, details about your visa and immigration status
6. Details of incoming or outgoing student exchanges
7. Leave of absence, authorised absence, or exclusion data
8. Attendance information in line with our Student Attendance Policy
9. Summaries of the outcomes of academic appeals
10. Information about extracurricular activities which are recorded on your transcript
11. Data about your examinations, assessments and results, the qualification awarded
12. Your leaving date and the reason for leaving
13. If you are from a low income household
14. If anyone from your family has been to university
15. If you are from a military family

The School or department in which you study will also keep records about you, including:

1. Details of your engagement with procedures (including academic appeals, Extenuating Circumstances, Fitness to Practise, leave of absence, plagiarism, misconduct procedures)
2. Attendance and absence records
3. Information relating to modules, placements, examinations (including scripts) and assessments
4. Information about reasonable adjustments (if relevant to you)
5. Your interactions with course and programme staff
6. Visa and immigration data
7. General correspondence and administration.

Library Services will also keep records about you, including:

1. Your borrowing history
2. Fines
3. Notes relating to interactions with library staff
4. Inter Library Loans
5. Reservations
6. Attendance at library training or workshop events

The University will also keep records about your use of the academic and non-academic facilities and services that we offer and processes and procedures with which you engage (for example, if you are a student representative or you raise a concern or complaint) or which you are subject to (such as misconduct proceedings).

We may also need to process some data about you that is classed as 'special category' or sensitive personal data. This data includes data about your ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious beliefs or health/disability data. We only use this information to offer you support or reasonable adjustments and for statistical, research and monitoring purposes. Access to, and the sharing of, your special category personal data are controlled very carefully.

Criminal convictions: The University may hold and process data about criminal offences and criminal convictions if you have disclosed this on your application or if it is appropriate, given the nature of your programme (for example, if a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is needed for your programme). We will use information about criminal convictions and offences in the following ways:

1. To consider your suitability to become a member of the University or to continue to be a member of the University or to decide if any support or measures need to be put in place
2. To comply with regulatory requirements to decide your suitability to study on a regulated programme or to practise in a regulated profession
3. Consideration of safeguarding issues

We will only use information relating to criminal convictions where the law allows us to do so and in line with our Data Protection Policy. Personal data relating to criminal convictions will be retained confidentially and securely and access to that data will be strictly controlled.

Information about you is created, stored and transmitted securely in a variety of paper and electronic formats, including databases. Only those staff who need access for the purpose of administering the admissions process and allocating accommodation will be able to access your personal data.

The University needs to process this personal data for a number of reasons in order to support you through your chosen programme of study. Specifically we will process your data:

1. To deliver and administer your education, record the details of your studies (including any placements with external organisations), and determine/confirm your academic achievements (for example, results, prizes). This includes your engagement with procedures relating to your studies or research, such as academic appeals, extenuating circumstances, leave of absence procedures
2. When relevant, to monitor, evaluate and support your research activity
3. To administer the financial aspects of your relationship with us and any funders
4. To deliver services and facilities to you such as IT, sport, libraries, accommodation, careers, etc
5. To enable you to take part in events such as graduation, functions etc
6. To communicate effectively with you by post, email, phone or other electronic media, including the distribution of relevant newsletters and information, and invitations to take part in research activities
7. To operate security, CCTV, governance, disciplinary, complaint, audit and quality assurance processes and arrangements
8. To support your training, medical, safety, wellbeing, welfare and religious requirements
9. To compile statistics and conduct research statutory reporting purposes
10. To manage and develop the University's business
11. To enable us to contact others in the event of an emergency (we will assume that you have obtained consent from those individuals before you supply their contact details to us)
12. To identify students eligible for our Raising Aspirations programme as part of our commitment to Widening Participation
13. To fulfil and monitor our legal responsibilities, for example, under equalities, immigration and public safety legislation

We consider the processing of your personal data for these purposes to be necessary for:

1. The performance of our contractual obligations with you
2. Compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation
3. The performance of tasks we carry out in the public interest
4. The pursuit of the legitimate interests of the University or external organisations
5. Archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes

If we require your consent 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.

We do not use your personal data to carry out any wholly automated decision-making that affects you.

Within the University, your data is shared with only those University staff who need access for the purpose of delivering our academic and non-academic services and facilities.

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:

1. Higher Education Statistics Agency. This will include reporting special category data you provided on registration or re-registration (for example, relating to your ethnicity, sexuality, disability etc. (HESA is a non-Governmental organisation which is the designated data body for England for collecting, processing, and publishing data about higher education in the UK. HESA explains how it will use your personal data in its statement published on the HESA website
2. Your funders and/or sponsors (for example, as relevant, the Student Loans Company, Research Councils, the funders of any awards or prizes). Unless you have agreed otherwise with your sponsor, we only share with them information about your academic progress
3. The providers of any external or collaborative learning and training placements or fieldwork opportunities (and we will explain to you how and when this will be shared when we collect the data from you)
4. External examiners and assessors, and external individuals involved in relevant University committees or procedures
5. Relevant Government Departments (for example, the Home Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Department of Health)
6. Relevant executive agencies or non-departmental public bodies (for example, UK Visas and Immigration, HM Revenue and Customs, the Health and Safety Executive)
7. Relevant Higher Education bodies (for example, the Office for Students, UK Research and Innovation, Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, Office for Fair Access, Office of the Independent Adjudicator, the organisation(s) running the National Student Survey and other student and leaver surveys)
8. Our partner accommodation providers, if you apply for accommodation
9. SU (Students' Union), in order to facilitate your membership of the Union and access to their services (we provide them with your name, gender, date of birth, nationality, ethnicity, residency for fees, student ID number, contact details, programme details, year of study, your school). Occasionally we share data to implement measures and sanctions arising in relation to misconduct proceedings
10. Local authorities, including for Council Tax purposes
11. Occasionally and when necessary, the police and other law enforcement agencies, for the prevention or detection of crime
12. Occasionally and when necessary internal and external auditors or regulators
13. In the year you leave the University, your details (name, gender, contact details, information about your programme and award and registration status, emergency contact details, details of other universities attended, nationality, and secondary school details) will be shared with the Alumni Relations department while you are still a student so that you can be added to the alumni database. The University considers it is in the legitimate interests of the University to do so, as alumni are very important supporters of and ambassadors for the University, and that it is in the legitimate interests of alumni to do so, to develop their social and professional networks and help alumni achieve positions of success and influence. Information about how alumni personal data is used by the University is set out in the Alumni Privacy Notice; you will receive more details at the relevant time
14. The Department for Education (DfE) - if we should add this under 'Relevant Government Departments'
15. Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) - if we should add this under 'Relevant Higher Education bodies'
16. The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) - if we should add this under 'Relevant Higher Education bodies'
17. Their current school, academy or college - if we should add this under 'Relevant Higher Education bodies'

We ensure we have appropriate data sharing agreements in place before sharing your personal data with any other data controllers.

We will normally confirm details of the degree awarded to external enquirers or organisations, and at your request we will provide references to third parties.

Your name and the type of degree awarded, including classification for those gaining a First, and Merit or Distinction for postgraduate students, will be published in the relevant congregation programme. This information may also be published in newspapers and will be made publicly available.

Your University email account will be included on the University general email list which is used for contacting you about University business and activities.

Sometimes, we may have to send your personal data outside the European Economic Area (for example, so you can take part in an exchange visit or so we can report to an overseas funding provider). This is usually necessary to meet our contractual obligations with you, or your contractual obligations with a third party, and we make sure that appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure the confidentiality and security of your personal data.

Your personal data is shared as is necessary, on a considered and confidential basis, with several external organisations which assist with processing your information. Where this is the case, we will have formal agreements in place with any 3rd party organisation and they will be acting in accordance with our instructions and do not process your data for any other purposes other than what we have asked them to do. Sometimes your personal data is processed by these organisations outside the European Economic Area (usually because they use cloud systems provided by companies such as Microsoft or Google). If this is the case then we always ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure the confidentiality and security of your personal data.

We will never share your personal data with external organisations for marketing their products or services. We do not sell your personal data and never will, to anyone, under any circumstances.

After you leave the University, we will retain most personal data we hold about you for 7 years. We do this so we can respond to any queries you or third parties may have about your studies, qualifications or student experience, to prepare references, to respond to any concerns or complaints and as part of our assessment of any future application you make for further studies at the University. We are required by law to retain some data for longer, for example records of exposure to hazardous materials. Some data is kept for less than 7 years including assessments or examination scripts which are retained for 1 year (unless you submit an appeal or you are subject to an examination irregularity investigation in relation to that script); we will tell you when data is kept for periods other than 7 years from the date you leave the University.

The core record of your studies is retained indefinitely so that the details of your academic achievements can be confirmed. The University will also use your data, together with data about other current and former students, to carry out statistical analysis in relation to its student population or for historical or research purposes (but not to make decisions about you).

The University is sometimes required to take part in surveys or research conducted by or on behalf of Government departments, executive agencies, non-departmental public bodies or Higher Education bodies relating to individuals who have graduated from or left the University. If so, your contact details will be shared with the organisation carrying out the survey or research on behalf of the University.

HEAT records are kept until the individual is 30, or if they go to university 15 years after graduation. This is because it's about impact of progression, so we may work with, and record details, of any student from Year 7 upwards to identify if/when they enrol in HE or their progression after graduation.