Processing Statement for Students

The University's Regulations, Rules, Codes, Conditions and Policies ('Regulations’)

Various of the University's Regulations apply to enrolled students.  The Student Guide to Regulations is a reference guide to the Regulations and is available on the University’s web site at  http://www.uclan.ac.uk/information/services/sas/quality/student_regulations.php or from the University’s Student Affairs Service.  Students should familiarise themselves with the Regulations which pertain to students and with any and all changes which are made from time to time to the Regulations.  The Guide covers academic and non-academic matters such as data protection, discipline, copyright and the use of the Library and Learning Resource Services and computing facilities.  Also included are details of a student's right to opt out of membership of the Students' Union, the Students' Union's position in relation to the law governing charities, the University's Code of Practice as required by section 22(3) Education Act 1994 and the University's Code of Practice to Ensure Freedom of Speech.  Should you wish to consult the full set of Academic Regulations or access other regulations, these are available for reference in LIS and in the Schools and Services concerned.

Data Protection Act

All of the personal information obtained from you and other sources in connection with your studies at the University will be held in secure conditions and will be used by the University both during your course and after you leave the University for a variety of purposes including the administration of all academic records and student and welfare support services (including counselling) and careers services also the operation of the University’s Codes of Practice and Procedures.  In addition the information will be used by the University for Research, the compilation of statistics and Alumni administration.  The University may also supply this information to outside organisations for a variety of purposes including fraud prevention or detection, or in connection with immigration and nationality, the Police; the Home Office; Local Authorities; the Department of Works and Pensions and its Agencies; the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA); Examination Boards; other educational establishments or Awarding Bodies and selected plagiarism services including the JISC plagiarism service (for which some information is transferred overseas to America).  The University may also disclose some or all of your personal information to a variety of recipients for the purpose of administering academic provision and associated functions such as careers services.  These recipients include: Partner Colleges of the University; organisations that provide funding and bursaries to students; the Students’ Union (for membership purposes); Local Councils; Councils (for purposes connected with your student status that may include the purpose of including your name on the Electoral Register.  Any queries about this inclusion must be addressed to the relevant Local Authority); student sponsors (including the Student Loans Company and other agencies private, public and voluntary that provide student support and individuals or organisations with whom you have entered into an agreement to provide some or all of the costs of study); relevant external professional bodies, (including those to whom you apply for membership and to whom the course regulations require that we provide information – see details in course handbooks); education/training establishments; potential employers and placement providers (some of whom may be situated outside the EEA); government funding bodies; UCAS; Local and Area Health Authorities; UK Banks; University insurers and HESA. 

We will send some of the information we hold about you to HESA.  This forms your HESA record, which contains details of your ethnic group and any disabilities you have.  HESA will pass your record, or parts of it, to any of the following organisations that need it to carry out their statutory functions connected with funding higher education:

• Department for Innovation
• Universities and Skills (DIUS)
• Welsh Assembly Government (WAG)
• Scottish Executive (SE)
• Scottish Government (SG)
• Department for Employment and Learning,
• Northern Ireland (DEL(NI))
• Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)
• Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW)
• Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council (SFC)
• Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA)
• Department of Health (DH)
• Research Councils (RCs)
• Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)

HESA and the organisations listed above will use the information mainly to produce statistics.   This may result in information being published and released to other approved users, including academic researchers and commercial organisations.  Your record will not be used in a way that could affect you personally and the organisations will take precautions to reduce the risk of you being identified from the information once it is published and released. 

While you are a student, we will need to keep your contact details.  These do not form part of your HESA record, so HESA and the organisations listed above cannot use this record to contact you. 

Towards the end of your studies, we will pass your contact details to the organisation that has been contracted to carry out the National Student Survey.  That organisation will use your details only for that purpose, and will then delete them. 

About six months after you graduate, we will contact you to ask you to fill in the HESA ‘Destinations of Leavers from HE’ survey. We will not give your contact details to HESA.  You might be included in a sample of leavers who are surveyed again a few years after they graduate.  If so, we will pass your contact details to the organisation that has been contracted to carry out that survey.  That organisation will use your details only for that purpose, and will then delete them.  (If you do not want to take part in this second survey, please let us know.) 

Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you have the right to a copy of the information HESA holds about you.  You will have to pay a small fee for this.  If you have any concerns about your information being used for these purposes, please contact HESA,

HESA
95 Promenade
Cheltenham
GL50 1HZ

Website: http://www.hesa.ac.uk/.

Other Research

From time to time the University may collaborate with other Government Funding Agencies to conduct research into the Student Experience.  Any organisation that conducts research on behalf of the University and/or these Agencies will use your details only for the purpose stated and will then delete them. 

The University publishes examination results on University notice-boards and in the awards brochure.  Full details of this procedure (and how to notify any concerns about this process) can be obtained from school/departmental offices.  If you would like a more detailed explanation of the University’s policy on the use and disclosure of personal information, please contact the Data Protection Liaison Officer, Strategic Development Service, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE. 

You agree that the University may hold and use the information which you supply to it, for the purposes to which this form relates.  Unless you tell us that you object (please see below) you also agree that the University may retain and use such information for the purposes of research, compiling statistics and administration, and may contact you (directly or through its agents and contractors) by post, telephone, e-mail, and short messaging service with details of its other courses and of its services and products, and of the products and services of third parties that have been selected by the University. 

You may tell the University at any time by post to the Student Affairs Service, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE, or e-mail to TI@uclan.ac.uk if you no longer wish to be contacted by the University with information about its courses and services, or about the products and services of third parties.

Disability - Please note: The University uses the information you provide for the purposes of administering the support that may be relevant for your disability.  It also passes the information to third parties (including HESA for monitoring purposes) as described in its Data Protection notification detailed above.  If you have any concerns or objections to the use of this data for these reasons or if you require further details about any disability matters please contact the Disability Advisory Service.