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Data Protection

Wessex Inspiration Network Privacy Policy

This is our formal notice, required under data protection rules, which gives full details of how we will process (collect and use) your data.

General Data Protection Regulations 2018 - Last Updated – February 20^th, 2024.

The Wessex Inspiration Network (WIN) is 1 of 29 partnerships across the UK that form the Uni Connect Programme that is funded by the Office for Students (OfS). The aim of the partnership is to improve Higher Education progression rates of learners from Underrepresented Groups OFS Access and Participation Glossary.

The University of Bath is the lead institution for WIN for the purposes of administration of data and the WIN central team. The WIN central team are all University of Bath members of staff and therefore abide by the University of Bath’s data protection University of Bath Privacy Notice

Section 1 – Why are we collecting your data?

We are required by the OfS to gather and report on evidence showing the effectiveness of individual activities we run as well as our whole programme of outreach. We therefore use the data we collect pertaining to those students who take part in our outreach activities, to demonstrate this and as we can be require us to follow up with students we have worked with, to see whether they go on to study in HE.

Under data protection law we can process this data because it is necessary for a task carried out in the public interest. We collect the following data from individuals either directly, or via schools and colleges, for evaluation and monitoring purposes:

The amount of data we collect is dependent on the type of activity the individual engages with.

You can withdraw your consent to us processing this data at any time by sending us an e-mail to: win@bath.ac.uk. Your consent will not impact upon your involvement in the WIN outreach activities.

How we store your information?

The privacy of participants is important to us, and The WIN takes care to safeguard it. Information will be used and stored in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018, as well as all legislation enacted in the UK in respect of the protection of personal data ("Data Protection Legislation").

Data will be stored on a secure database (the Higher Education Access Tracker - HEAT) and used to administer participation in outreach activities and projects. For evaluation and monitoring purposes only, this data may also be shared back with your school or college, with The WIN Impact and Evaluation team, with government and funding bodies* and our collaborative partners** to help run and evaluate the effectiveness of this activity. The project and its partners will not use your record in a way that would affect you individually and we will not release data to anyone who is unauthorised. The WIN does not, and will not, sell personal data to third party organisations.

*Government and funding bodies include: Office for Students and Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)

HESA and HEAT may share your data as detailed in their own privacy notices, which are accessible at the links provided:

• Privacy notice for HESA

**Our collaborative partners include: Universities, Schools and Colleges from The WIN Partnership, Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) and Careerpilot.

• Privacy notice for HEAT

How long do we hold your data?

We keep participant data for extended periods of time to enable us to determine the impact of our work. We will retain records securely in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018, as well as all legislation enacted in the UK in respect of the protection of personal data ("Data Protection Legislation").

All the data we collect is stored in the HEAT database, and the HEAT data retention policy is outlined below:

Under the terms of this Schedule the following is applied to personal data:

1. Where an outreach participant has supplied a first name, last name, date of birth, and postcode and has not withdrawn or denied permission for their data to be included in research, their record is considered expired and should not be retained for longer than 15 years from:

a) the year in which they might be expected to enter HE, or

b) the date their record was created, or

c) when they last engaged in outreach activity, whichever of these conditions is most recent.

Once expired, according to the criteria above, the record will appear in the Retention Filter to be reviewed by the collecting member organisation.

2. Where personal data is considered incomplete, i.e., the following has not been captured:

a) any or all of first name, last name, date of birth, postcode

b) and/or the data subject’s permission for inclusion in tracking research,

it will be considered expired after 7 years from the date the record was created. It will appear in the Retention Filter, except where a data subject has taken part in an activity within the last 7 academic years.

The WIN has a number of staff who are employed by partner organisations. The data they hold within their employing institutions is for the purposes of WIN. Therefore, comes under this agreement with University of Bath as a lead institution. Details of how, why and who is using the data is outlined in the data sharing agreements with each of our partner organisations.

Your rights as a data subject

You have a number of rights under data protection law:

• The 'right to object' to your data being processed.
• The right to request for your data to be removed from our system.
• The right to request a copy of the data we hold about you.

If you have a query, complaint or would like a copy of the data you have supplied to us, please contact our Widening Participation team via email win@bath.ac.uk

We may need to change this privacy notice from time to time. This privacy notice was published on 20.02.2024.