Privacy notice: enquirers

This privacy notice tells you what to expect us to do with your personal information when you register your interest in studying at UCLan. Personal information (or personal data) is any information which relates to and identifies you. Data protection legislation (the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018) set out how we should handle your personal information.

The University of Central Lancashire Higher Education Corporation is the data controller for the personal information we process, unless otherwise stated. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and our registration number is Z5512420.

There are many ways you can contact us, including by phone, email, social media and post. 

UCLan’s Information Governance Manager & Data Protection Officer can be contacted on DPFOIA@uclan.ac.uk. View further information and contact details.

The University uses information you provide when you register your interest in studying at UCLan. We collect this information when you book on and/or attend events; when you make enquiries by phone, email, live chat, social media or other similar methods; when you request a prospectus; when you visit our stand at an exhibition or fair or when you make enquiries via an International Agent who has an agreement with us.

When you make an enquiry about studying at UCLan, we will use your information to answer your enquiry and to communicate effectively with you via email, post, telephone, text (SMS), social media or other methods, as appropriate. We like to keep in touch with our enquirers and will also use your information to send you messages about University events such as open days, and to keep you updated about a variety of things which may be helpful if you are considering applying to study here. You can opt out of receiving communications from us by indicating this when making your enquiry or at any time after that by contacting Course Enquiries: cenquiries@uclan.ac.uk.

If you book on and/or attend a physical or virtual event such as an open day or campus tour, we will use your information to administer the event and provide you with information about the University’s courses and services that you are interested in. For virtual events, we will use your information to create an account in our ‘virtual experience’ platform so you can attend the event, chat with us online, and save information you are interested in. You can delete your account at any time using the ‘forget me’ option in your account profile.

We may also use your information for research purposes, including conducting surveys and market research, compiling statistics and for internal reporting purposes, to help us with corporate planning and to improve our customer service.

The University relies on the following legal bases from the UK GDPR to process information about you for the purposes set out in this notice:

Article 6(1)(a), which allows us to process personal data where you have provided your consent. Where we rely on consent, we will ensure your consent is freely given, fully informed and that you can withdraw it at any time. We rely on your consent to send some types of messages which inform you about University events, services and products.

Article 6(1)(f), which allows us to process personal data where it is in our, or someone else’s, legitimate interests to do so and it does not unduly prejudice your rights and freedoms. We rely on this condition to, among other things:

• respond to your enquiry and keep records of your enquiry and our response.
• communicate some types of messages to you which inform you about University events, services and products (unless you opt out). It is in the University’s legitimate interests to promote its services, courses and events to those who may be interested.
• produce some internal reports, research and statistics. It is in our legitimate interests to use these to evaluate, plan and assess how the University is operating and make any changes we think are appropriate and will benefit current and future students.
• Administer and operate our physical and virtual events e.g. open days. It is in our legitimate interests to enable prospective students to see what life at UCLan would be like, and to promote our courses and services to those who are interested.

If you make an enquiry, we may sometimes share your information with external organisations and bodies, some of which are processing personal data on our behalf. We only share your personal data with another person or organisation where the law allows us to and we consider it to be appropriate under the circumstances. The external parties we may share information with include the following:

• Companies or organisations acting on our behalf: We use data processors who are third parties who provide elements of services for us, such as UniBuddy and Revolution Viewing. We have contracts in place with our data processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct.
• International agents who have an agreement with us and with whom you have given your details so that they can pass on your enquiry to us.

Occasionally we may need to send your personal information outside the EEA e.g. to obtain a service from a data processor. If you are an international applicant, we may transfer your information i.e. your enquiry details to our colleagues in Africa, India or China if they are best-placed to answer your queries. These transfers are usually carried out with your consent or because they are necessary steps in order to provide you with the information you need to decide whether or not to enter into a student contract with us. All transfers are carried out with appropriate safeguards in place to protect your information and ensure it remains secure.

We will retain your information until the autumn of your intended year of study. If you do not provide an intended year of study when you make your enquiry, we will retain your information for three years from the date we receive your enquiry.

Under data protection law, you have rights we need to make you aware of. The rights available to you depend on our reason for processing your information. Further information about each of these rights can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

Your right of access

You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. This right always applies. There are some exemptions, which means you may not always receive all the information we process. For further information or to make a request, please see our Data Protection web page.

Your right to rectification

You have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete. This right always applies.

Your right to erasure

You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to restriction of processing

You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances.

Your right to object to processing

You have the right to object to any processing we carry out, if we carry it out on the basis that it forms part of our public task or is in our legitimate interests. You also have the right to object to your personal information being used for direct marketing purposes.

Your right to data portability

This only applies to information you have given us. You have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us from one organisation to another or give it to you. The right only applies if we are processing information because we have your consent or because you have a contract with us and it is necessary for the performance of that contract, and the processing is automated.

We work to high standards when it comes to processing your personal information. If you have queries or concerns, please contact External Relations, or the Information Governance Manager & Data Protection Officer, and we will respond.

If you remain dissatisfied, you can make a complaint about the way we process your personal information to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is the UK supervisory authority for data protection. Further information can be found on our Data Protection webpage.