Privacy notice for prospective University of West London students

1. Introduction

This notice is for prospective University of West London (UWL) students and visitors to websites operated by UWL to explain the purposes for which we hold information about you (your personal data).

If you are a current enrolled student at the University you can find details of how we use the information you provide in our Privacy Notice for Students.

Your data will be held in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (2018).

UWL is registered as a Data Controller with the Information Commissioner (University registration number: Z4666761). The University Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer is the Data Protection Officer. If you wish to obtain further information about the University's approach to Data Protection please see our Privacy and Data Protection pages on the website.

All data is held and processed in line with the University’s Data Protection Policy which can be accessed here. All data which we receive from you is kept securely and only used for legitimate purposes.

2. What data we collect and why

2.1 If you are a prospective student and attend an event such as an open day

When you book to attend one of our events for prospective students, either through the UWL website or Eventbrite, we will ask you to provide your name, address, email address, contact telephone number and date of birth. We may also ask about the subject that you are interested in studying, and when you hope to start your studies. You may also be able to choose to tell us about the qualifications that you already hold and the school or college you are currently studying at.

We will use this information to keep you informed about the event that you have booked to attend and, if you opt in to receiving further communications from us, to send you information that is relevant to you.

If you attend an event without having booked in advance, we will ask you to register on the day and provide your name, email address and date of birth. We may also ask about the subject that you are interested in studying, and when you hope to start your studies.

When you attend an event, we may ask you to provide information about your ethnicity, whether you receive free school meals, whether you have lived in local authority care or have caring responsibilities, whether your parents/carers have been to university, whether you are a refugee or asylum seeker and whether you have a disability. This data is collected for the purposes of monitoring and evaluation to help us improve our outreach programmes with the aim of making higher education fair and accessible to all, regardless of background.

You can also opt in to receive further information from the University, in which case we will send you occasional information that may be of interest to you, such as details of other events or news about the University.

2.2 If you apply to or participate in an outreach (Widening Participation) activity

If you register to participate in an outreach (Widening Participation) activity, we will ask you to provide your name, date of birth, postcode, gender, ethnicity, whether you receive free school meals, whether you have been living in local authority care or have caring responsibilities, whether you have a disability, whether your parents have attended university, and whether you are a refugee or asylum seeker.

This information will be stored on the Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) database and used to evaluate the effectiveness of our widening participation programmes. Find out more information about HEAT.

We may ask for additional information to enable us to administer participation in our activities including details of emergency contacts and whether you give permission for us to use photos of you for marketing purposes.

You may also be able to opt in to receive further information from the University, in which case we will send you occasional information that may be of interest to you, such as details of other events or news about the University.

2.3 If you request information from the University, such as course information

When you request information via phone, email or an online form on our website, such as a prospectus or other course information, we will ask you for details such as your name and contact details. We may also ask about the subject that you are interested in studying, and when you hope to start your studies. We will record and use this information to provide you with the information that you have requested.

You can also opt in to receive further information from the University, in which case we will send you occasional information that may be of interest to you, such as details of events or news about the University.

2.4 If you are a prospective student and provide us with your details at an external event such as a UCAS exhibition or HE fair

If you attend an event such as a UCAS exhibition or HE fair we will ask you if you would like to receive information that may be of interest to you from the University, such as details of events or news from the University.

If you consent to receiving this information we will ask you to provide your name, email address, details about the course or courses you are thinking about studying and date of birth.

2.5 If you make an application to the University of West London

We collect your personal information so we can manage and support your application to higher and further education. To do this, we collect the information detailed below.

• If you register to apply online: your name, title, date of birth, UWL ID, email address and chosen password.
• If you complete and submit an application: your name, date of birth, contact details, nationality and permanent residence. We ask for details of the school(s) or college(s) or university(s) you have attended and qualifications you have or are likely to achieve. We also request details of your previous employment, including paid, unpaid or voluntary work. You will be asked to complete a personal statement to support your application. We may also collect sensitive personal information as described in the 'Special category data' section below.
• To support your application: information about you provided by your referee(s).
• If you complete and submit an application and live outside of the UK: your visa and passport details, so the providers where you apply can check your identity and confirm you are able to study in the UK.
• When we correspond with you: any personal information you may provide as a result.
• Telling you about any changes to your application, our services or this privacy policy: your name and preferred contact details.
• To confirm your subject grades: educational qualifications provided to us by third party examining and awarding bodies.

We will also keep you informed about events, news and other information to support you with the application process. You can opt out of receiving this additional information at any time by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ link on the bottom of the emails that we send to you.

2.6 Special Category data

To support your application to the University, we may ask you to provide the following special category data as detailed below.

• To assist UWL in monitoring their compliance with the Equality Act 2010, we give you the option to tell us your ethnicity, sexual orientation and religious belief.
• For the purposes of making sure that we can meet any specific needs you may have, we ask you to provide information about whether you have an impairment, special needs, or a medical condition, or if you have been in care.
• Once you have been given an offer, we ask you to provide us with information about any relevant unspent criminal convictions. 
• If you are applying for a course which leads to professional registration such as nursing, midwifery or social work, you will be required to declare all criminal convictions during the application stage.

The special category data we collect varies depending on which admissions scheme you apply through. Please make sure you read and understand the relevant declaration when you submit your application. This will confirm the special category data we need to collect and why.

We also collect some special category data (ethnicity and disability information) at some of our events for the purposes of monitoring and evaluation to help us improve our outreach programmes with the aim of making higher education fair and accessible to all, regardless of background.

We will use your personal information to ensure you receive communications and information that best meet your interests and needs, and to produce analysis and reports to improve our understanding of prospective students. Any statistical reports that we produce will not allow you to be identified.

3. Lawful bases for collecting data

The lawful bases that we rely on for collecting and processing your data are:

Contractual obligation: when you make an application to the University, we use your data in order to process your application before you enter into a contract with us (i.e. enrol at the University).

Legitimate interests: in specific situations, we collect and process your data in order to pursue our legitimate interests in ways which might reasonably be expected as part of our promotion and provision of our education services or to support prospective students in making their university choices. These situations include:

• Keeping prospective students informed about an event or activity that they have booked to attend 
• Keeping applicants informed of relevant news, events and other information that may be of use to you when making your university choices
• Analysis of and reporting on the student journey.

Consent: we collect and process your data with your consent when you tick a box to receive further information from us on an online or paper form.

Public task: as a public authority, we have a statutory obligation to collect data for the purposes of monitoring, tracking and evaluating the effectiveness of our outreach activities, in order to evidence the effectiveness of our Widening Participation programmes to organisations such as the Office for Students.

Where we collect special category data such as ethnicity or disability information it is on the basis of substantial public interests. This includes monitoring according to characteristics such as ethnicity or disability to ensure equality of opportunity.

4. Sharing and storing your data

When you make an application to the University, we may share the personal information we collect about you with the organisations or individuals listed below:

• Relevant professional and regulatory bodies – any enquiries relating to your fitness to practise, if this is appropriate to the course you have applied to study.
• Your nominated representative, where you have appointed one.
• Your referee(s) – we provide personal information to your referee to allow them to identify you and provide the reference. You will be notified of any additional access to your application which may be required by your referee when you nominate them.
• Your appointed agent, if you have one, to assist you with your application.
• UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), for non UK applicants.
• Government organisations or other bodies, that develop or monitor the effectiveness of government policies for higher education, have responsibilities for ensuring the effective operation of the higher education sector, or have statutory responsibilities for students. These organisations include:
  • the Higher Education Statistics Agency, that is responsible for providing information about placements in higher education to Government, to validate the information provided by providers
  • bodies responsible for the distribution of funding to providers, including the higher education funding bodies for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
  • Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).
• We only supply personal information that identifies you for these purposes if the provision of statistical analysis is not suitable and is made between UWL and those organisations under contractual terms.
• Crime prevention or government bodies, if we are required or permitted by law to disclose the information to them for the purposes of preventing or detecting crimes of any nature.

We may use the services of third party suppliers in order to provide information to you, for example: 

• software applications that enable us to deliver information to you, such as sending you an email or text message
• applications that allow you to communicate with us online
• mailing companies, for information that is delivered to you by post
• website development and hosting companies that provide technical support for our website, including online forms where we collect data
• external Occupational Health services

Some of the software companies may be based outside the European Union but we will ensure comparable levels of protection.

We will retain your personal information to produce analysis and reports in order to evaluate and improve the prospective student journey. Any statistical reports that we produce will not allow you to be identified.

If you are a prospective student and attend an event at the University, we will also store your data on the Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT), a secure online portal, for the purposes of monitoring and evaluation of our activities. Unless you participate in a Widening Participation activity, the data stored on HEAT is limited to your name, postcode, date of birth, previous school or college and, if collected, information about your ethnicity, whether you receive free school meals, whether you have been living in local authority care or have caring responsibilities, whether you have a disability, whether your parents/carers have attended university, and whether you are a refugee or asylum seeker. More information about HEAT can be found here. The lawful basis for processing this data is public task.

Your personal information will be retained as set out in the Records Retention Schedule.

5. Additional notices and guidance/policies

We also have some additional notices, guidelines and policies with further useful information about the way in which we process your personal data:

The University’s Data Protection Code of Practice – This contains a lot of useful general information on data protection and University practices see 

Our website – we use Cookies (that will collect your personal data) on our web pages. Please see our policy on the use of Cookies.

Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) – you can view more information about HEAT on our website.

6. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have a right to request a copy of your personal data held by the University. The University is required to fulfil this request within 20 working days. You also have the right to: 

• withdraw consent where that is the legal basis of our processing;
• rectify inaccuracies in personal data that we hold about you;
• request to remove some personal data we hold about you
• restrict the processing in certain ways;
• object to certain processing of your personal data by us.

Please see ICO website for further information on the above rights. You may also contact the Data Protection Officer for further information (university.secretary@uwl.ac.uk).

You have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office about the way in which we process your personal data. 

7. Changing how we communicate with you

We will from time to time communicate with you by email, post and telephone. If, at any stage, you decide you no longer want to receive these communications, you can opt out of receiving this information at any time by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ link on the bottom of the emails that we send to you.

If you are unsuccessful in unsubscribing from our communications and/or remain concerned, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

8. Your responsibilities

You have a responsibility to keep your personal details accurate and up to date and should notify the University of any changes.