Continuing Education Office privacy notice

We hold and process personal data about:

• FEPS short course participants
• Training managers responsible for sending people on courses
• Participating lecturers
• Applicants and students undertaking the Electronic Engineering via Short Courses MSc.

The personal data we hold about you consists of:

• Title
• Name
• Address
• Contact number
• Contact email
• Course(s) you are interested/attending
• Dietary requirements
• How you found out about our courses
• Amount being paid by you or your organisation
• Name and contact details of training manager (where relevant).

We receive this data from you when you:

• Enquire about a FEPS short course
• Take part in an event
• Fill in a course questionnaire
• Apply for an MSc.

We may receive this information on your behalf from your training manager or administrator or through a registration form or credit card registration form or purchase order.

The University collects only the data we need and we keep the data up to date and only for as long as it is needed.

We collect your personal data in order to:

• Provide you with information regarding a course or courses
• Register you on a course
• Send you course material (if applicable)
• Contacting you after a course if you have opted in to receive further information
• Process your application for an MSc course
• Provide you with a parking permit
• Meet your dietary requirements if stated.

We take our obligations for data handling very seriously and it is therefore important for you to know the lawful basis for us processing your information. We process data to:

• Ensure that we can carry out our public role as an educational and research establishment, meeting legal, moral and contractual obligations as laid out in the University’s Charter (PDF).
• Meet our statutory and legal requirements, specifically for making the HESA returns at the end of the year. The data in this case is anonymised.
• Meet our contractual duties to you and provide you with services as laid out in our contract with you.

We also process data in our legitimate interests in relation to the business of running short courses at the University of Surrey. These legitimate interests are determined through an assessment made by weighing our requirements against the impact of the processing on you. Our legitimate interests will never override your right to privacy and the freedoms that require the protection of your personal data. If you are interested in learning more about this legitimate interest assessment, please contact Data Protection.

We process data because you give us your consent, specifically to provide you with the information needed to attend a short course and maintain a continuing business relationship with you and your company.

The University processes personal data and special category data in accordance with data protection legislation and Our Data Policy Statement (PDF) (incorporating Information Security Policy).

We combine the data you provide with data obtained from student data/HR/other third parties to keep a record of your student journey/employment summary.

We use special category data relating to ethnicity and disability at a statistical level for our Athena Swan/Race Equality Charter submission.

We analyse the effectiveness of our service at an aggregate level so that no individuals are identified from the data.

We collate the responses you make to this survey so that we only use the data in a way that can’t identify individuals and do not use the individual responses you make to the survey.

We keep your personal data in accordance with the University’s retention schedules. This means that your data is kept for two years and then destroyed. In the case of MSc students, this information is kept for seven years after completion of the MSc.

All relevant safeguards are met in relation to this historical research which you can read on the Archives and Special Collections Privacy notice.

Internally, we share your personal data with:

• Lecturers on the courses where relevant. We do not pass on your details without permission from you
• The Finance Office in the case of invoicing and credit card payments
• The Admissions Office and Student Records in the case of assessment and dialogue with MSc via short course students.

We do this in order to:

• Inform lecturers prior to a course re an attendee’s expectations and requirements
• Ensure the smooth processing of payments
• Ensure a smooth processing of information as the student continues his/her journey from application to completion of the MSc.

We share your personal data externally with the following third parties:

• External lecturers involved in courses when prior permission has been obtained from the attendee
• HESA – this data is anonymised
• Training managers where an attendance record has been requested.

We do this in order to:

• Inform lecturers prior to a course such as an attendees expectations and requirements
  • In the case of HESA, this is an obligatory statutory return.

As an individual whose data we process (a data subject), you have certain rights in relation to the processing. Find detailed information about your rights as a data subject.

You have the right to:

• Withdraw your consent for us to process your personal data where we have relied on that consent as our basis for processing your data.
• Ask us to confirm that your personal data is being processed and to access (i.e. have a copy) of that data as well as to be provided with supplemental information about the processing.
• Request that we rectify any inaccuracies where the data we hold on you is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Have your data erased by us, although in certain circumstances we may not be able to do this. The circumstances where this applies can be found in the guide to data subject rights information.
• Restrict the processing of your personal data in certain ways.
• Obtain your personal data for reuse.
• Object to certain processing of your personal data.

If you would like to exercise any of your rights please visit our make a privacy request section.

Make a complaint

If you have any concerns about the way that we have handled your personal data please email the Data Protection team as we would like to have the opportunity to resolve your concerns.

If you’re still unhappy, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (an independent body set up to advise on information rights for the UK) about the way in which we process your personal data.