QMU Prospective Students Privacy Statement

Who we are

This is the privacy statement for prospective students of Queen Margaret University. This privacy statement explains how we collect and use personal information about you.

Queen Margaret University (QMU) is a Data Controller in terms of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the UK General Data Protection Regulations. The University is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office. Our Registration Number is Z6013920.

We are a public authority under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and a Scottish public authority under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. Personal Information that we collect and hold about you is used by us for our statutory and/or public functions. Where we collect or share data it is on the basis of the exercise of official authority vested in us as a public authority, and on the basis of public interest.

Queen Margaret Students’ Union is a data controller in its own right. You can read its privacy policy here: https://www.qmusu.org.uk/

The type of personal data we collect

We collect and process the following types of personal data:

Name
Age
Gender
Contact details including email, phone number and home and address.
Proof of ID
Enrolment status
Domicile, residency status, fee status
Ethnicity and nationality
Disability, special needs and health information
Course interest
Details of previous education, training or employment
Widening participation data including socio economic background, whether you were in care as a child, if you have caring responsibilities, if you are estranged from your parents and if you are from a military/armed forces family.

How we collect your data

The personal data QMU holds about you is obtained from a variety of sources.
In most instances we collect your personal data directly from you through the following means:

Through our website
Recruitment events
Open days
An application
General enquiry

We also receive personal data indirectly through the following sources:

UCAS
Third party recruitment agencies
School tours

Why we collect and use your personal information

Legal Basis	Purposes
Performance of a contract and performance of a task in the public interest	To offer you a place at the University and for student admission purposes Enrol you as a student where you accept an offer from us Updates on any application you have made to the University
Consent	To process and answer your enquiry To give you more information about an event you have signed up for To provide information on new courses or upcoming events
Legitimate Interest	To give you information about the University or any course you have indicated an interest in To collect feedback post- event or open day feedback To improve the relevance of adverts you see using third party services
Legal Obligation	To process a visa application and provide a CAS number

Special categories of personal information

We sometimes process special category personal data. Where we process special category data or criminal conviction data we are required to identify an additional legal basis for processing. Special category data is held in the strictest confidence and only shared on a strict need to know basis. This data may be shared with other competent authorities such as HESA or Disclosure Scotland.

Type of data	Purpose and additional legal basis
Data on gender, ethnicity, religion/beliefs, disability, sexual orientation, trans status of students.	Under the UK Equality Act 2010, we need to collect sensitive personal data about our applicants and students on UK campuses to assist with monitoring equality of opportunity and eliminating unlawful discrimination You can choose whether you want to provide information for this purpose. We process this on the basis it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligation and reasons of substantial public interest.
Data relating to criminal convictions and live criminal proceedings	It is mandatory for all Universities in Scotland to collect information about relevant convictions and live criminal proceedings (charges). We collect this at the post-offer stage. This allows us to assess risk and maintain a safe and secure environment at QMU. For certain courses applicants must declare all criminal convictions and in these cases the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 does not apply. We use this information to assess suitability for certain courses. This information enables us to measure risk and ensure we are safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. We may sometimes be required to disclose this information to competent authorities. We process this data on the basis that it is necessary for performance of a task in the public interest and reasons of substantial public interest.

Type of data

Purpose and additional legal basis

Data on gender, ethnicity, religion/beliefs, disability, sexual orientation, trans status of students.

Under the UK Equality Act 2010, we need to collect sensitive personal data about our applicants and students on UK campuses to assist with monitoring equality of opportunity and eliminating unlawful discrimination You can choose whether you want to provide information for this purpose.

We process this on the basis it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligation and reasons of substantial public interest.

Data relating to criminal convictions and live criminal proceedings

It is mandatory for all Universities in Scotland to collect information about relevant convictions and live criminal proceedings (charges). We collect this at the post-offer stage. This allows us to assess risk and maintain a safe and secure environment at QMU.
For certain courses applicants must declare all criminal convictions and in these cases the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 does not apply. We use this information to assess suitability for certain courses. This information enables us to measure risk and ensure we are safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. We may sometimes be required to disclose this information to competent authorities.

We process this data on the basis that it is necessary for performance of a task in the public interest and reasons of substantial public interest.

Successful applicants may be required to provide further personal data including special category data. Details of how we process this can be found in our Student Privacy Statement.

How we store your personal data

The University will manage your information securely and will restrict access to only those who need to use it in the course of their duties. The University will put in place technical and organisational measures necessary to ensure the security of your information.

We will only retain your information as long as is reasonably necessary for the purpose it was gathered and in accordance with QMU’s Retention Schedule. We may be required to keep some of your personal information permanently for historical and archival purposes.

Sharing your personal data

The University will only disclose your information to third parties where we:

Have a legal basis to do so under the UK General Data Protection Regulation; or
Are required to under a statutory or regulatory obligation; or
Have your consent

The reasons we may share your personal data include:

With third parties who process data on our behalf and to facilitate the purposes set out in the table above.
With a third party to verify your qualifications or obtain a reference
A sponsor to confirm your attendance and progress.
If you have taken part in the Lothians Equal Access Programme for Schools (LEAPS), which provides advice and support to help eligible students to enter Higher Education, or the Scottish Wider Access Programme (SWAP) we may share limited information with these organisations about your application in order to improve the services for future participants.
With the UK Visa and Immigration office where relevant to comply with immigration laws

International data transfer

As an international organisation, the University may need to process your personal information in a country other than the one you are studying in, when this is necessary to provide you with academic and support services, meet a legal obligation, fulfil a contract with you, or where we have your consent.

Profiling or automated decision making

We do not use profiling or automated decision-making processes. Some processes are semi-automated but a human decision maker will always be involved before any decision is reached in relation to you.

Marketing and Third Party Services

We may use third party services to improve the relevance of advertisements you see. For example we might use the following services:

Google Customer Match

We might use Google Customer Match to improve the relevance of the advertisements you see. This is achieved by matching our customer data, such as email addresses, with users on Google platforms.

Use of Google Customer Match can help us to connect with you across various Google services, offering advertising that aligns with your interests and preferences.

Facebook Custom Audiences

Similarly, we might use Facebook Custom Audiences to enhance our advertising on the Facebook platform. By matching the data we have collected with Facebook user profiles, we can ensure that our advertisements are shown to an audience that is more likely to be interested in our products or services. This approach allows for a more tailored advertising experience, aligning our content with your potential interests.

Use of our website

QMU respects the privacy of every individual who visits our websites or responds to our interactive advertisements. The Privacy Statement on our website outlines the information we collect via its various web pages and how we use that information. The Statement also instructs you on what to do if you do not want your personal information collected or shared when you visit QMU's website or respond to our advertisements.

Your rights relating to your personal information

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.

Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate.

You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

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 personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to object to processing - You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

If you wish to make a rights request the relevant contact details can be found at the end of this statement.

Changes to our privacy statement

We keep this privacy statement under regular review and will place any updates on this website. We will publish any changes we make to this data protection policy on our website.

This privacy statement was created November 2023.

Contact details and further advice

If you have any queries about the processing of your personal data as described above, please contact the University’s Data Protection Officer. You can do this by

Email:

dataprotection@qmu.ac.uk

Post:

Data Protection Officer
Queen Margaret University
Queen Margaret University Drive
Musselburgh
EH21 6UU

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us by contacting the Data Protection Officer in the first instance.

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk