Student privacy notice

What personal information do we hold about you?

Loughborough University uses customer relationship management systems to collect, manage and process the personal information of individuals that have expressed an interest in studying at the University, or want to find out more about opportunities to study here.

Typically, we collect this information when you request a prospectus or book to attend a recruitment event (e.g. Open Day).

Alternatively, we sometimes receive data from third parties subscription sites (pages you may visit when you want to find out more about universities), who collect your information when you make an enquiry about Loughborough. Where appropriate, we will add this data to our customer relationship management systems.

Typically, the University collects your name, contact details (including address, email address and phone numbers) and details of what programmes(s) you are interested in. We also collect the details of any mobility or access requirements that you may have provided when booking onto an event.

Why do we collect your information?

We use the data that we collect to

• Provide the information that you have requested (i.e. send a prospectus or other information to the postal or email address that you provided when you made your enquiry)
• Make you aware of and invite you to future recruitment events
• Send you additional information that we think will help you make an informed decision about whether you would like to apply to study here (e.g. updates about the University or further information about the opportunities we offer here).

Who has access to your data at the University?

Access to your data is restricted to University staff that work in student recruitment and manage the processes and events that are associated with this (Open Days etc.).  

Who do we share your data with outside the University?

With your consent, we may share your information with third parties for the purpose of targeted communications about what the University has to offer prospective students.

Please note: more information can be found about how we use the data of Enquirers in the additional Student CRM Privacy Notice.

What personal information do we hold about you?

If you are applying for an undergraduate programme, or a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), you will complete an online application with the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). UCAS will share the information collected with Loughborough University so that we can make a decision on your application.

If you are applying for a postgraduate taught programme, postgraduate research programme, or further education programme (Art and Design Foundation), you will do so via our online application portal. If you are a visiting student, or an exchange student, you will apply using an electronic application form.

The data that you provide during the application process may include your name, date of birth, contact details, communication preferences, gender, nationality, permanent residence, details of your education, your qualifications, work experience, course choices, whether you have been in care, health and disability information, if you have a criminal conviction, ethnicity, religious belief, and parent or guardian’s education and occupational background. We will also receive any Personal Statement that you complete to support your application and references written by others to support your application. If you apply and live outside the European Union we may collect personal information about your visa, passport details, and about your residency patterns.

Why do we collect your information?

If you make an application to study at Loughborough University, we will use the information you provide to judge your eligibility for study here. Your data will also be used to assess whether we will be able to provide you with immigration sponsorship to enable you to study in the UK, and to determine if you should be classed as UK/EU or International for the purpose of tuition fees. Your data may also be used to make an initial assessment of whether you are eligible for financial support from the University through a scholarship or bursary funding scheme.

Data about your gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs, and parent or guardians education and occupational background is collected for equal opportunities monitoring purposes only. Disability information, date of birth, and information about time in care is collected for equal opportunities monitoring and also enables us to follow up with you promptly regarding any adjustments or support you may require if we make you an offer of a place. Criminal conviction information is collected for safeguarding purposes; please see our Admissions Policy for further details.

Once received, the information related to your application is held in the Loughborough University Student Information system. Your information will also be held in a customer relationship management system. If your application is successful, we will inform you of any developments and information that we think you will need to know ahead of starting your studies. If you opt in to marketing communication you may receive additional, non-essential updates and postal communications.

Who has access to your data at the University?

Your data is accessed and assessed by staff working in the Admissions Office, Student Services, and by academic staff connected to the programme you have applied to study.

If you go on to become a student at Loughborough University your data will be treated as set out in the section below regarding students.

Who do we share your data with outside the University?

If you are applying for an undergraduate or teacher training programme, the University will keep UCAS informed on the progress of your application. This will enable UCAS to communicate with you at relevant stages of the application process.

If you are applying for a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funded research studentship, the University is required by UKRI to provide aggregated statistics from its post-graduate recruitment process on an annual basis, for equity, diversity, and inclusion monitoring purposes. This will involve sharing de-identified sensitive personal data (if you choose to provide it as part of your application), for example, statistics on the race and ethnicity and disability status of applicants. We use substantial public interest as the condition for providing this data. You may provide notice in writing to the University, if you require it to stop processing your data for this purpose.

If you have given permission for us to disclose information about your application to a nominated contact, such as a parent, teacher or agent, we may share information about the progress of your application with them on request.

We may pass applicant details, where appropriate, to a partner institution for the purpose of providing information on foundation or pre-masters programmes as an alternative route to studying at the Loughborough East Midlands campus.

With your consent, we may share your information with third parties for the purpose of targeted communications about what the University has to offer prospective students.

If you require immigration sponsorship to study in the UK, the University will share relevant elements of your data with the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) division of the Home Office so that we can issue your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS).

What personal information do we hold about you?

Once you have accepted your place to study at Loughborough University, we will create a full record for you in our Loughborough University Student Information system.

Your initial record is created using the data that we collected when you made your application to us. However, approximately six weeks prior to the start of your programme, we will ask you to register with the University, using our Online Registration system.

Using Online Registration, we will request further information from you that we need to enable you to study here at Loughborough University. This information will include the address that you intend to live at whilst you are in Loughborough and the contact details of a family member (or friend) that we can contact in the event of an emergency. We also ask you to check the details that we have previously collected and let us know if they need updating. In addition to the details above, we ask you to submit a photograph of yourself in order that we can produce your Student ID Card.

If you are an international student, we will take a copy of your visa and passport so that this can also be held on your student record. We are legally obliged to do this by the United Kingdom Visas and Immigration (UKVI) division of the Home Office, as we must make sure that you have the correct paperwork/permission to enable you to study at Loughborough University, here in the UK.

Once you have registered and commenced your programme, we will then continue to collect and process your data in a variety of different ways. In many cases, we have to do this to be able to deliver your programme to you. Further details of this can be found below;

• Accommodation: Many of our students live either on campus, or in University managed accommodation off campus. We need to process the personal data of those students so that we know which room and building they have been allocated, and, in some cases, to ensure that any additional requirements (e.g. mobility) are catered for (in some cases this involves sharing information with externally managed providers of accommodation).  
• Module Registrations: We keep a record of the modules you have chosen. We use this information to create your teaching and examination timetables.
• Placement information: Many of our students undertake a placement as part of their programme. In these instances, we will keep a record of where your placement is based (in some cases, if you are a Tier 4 sponsored student, this information may need to be shared with the UKVI).
• Assessment Marks: We keep a record of the marks that you achieve in each of your assessment components. We use this information to calculate your final degree mark and will verify this information (upon request) to organisations such as employers or other education providers after you have graduated. We may use your assessment data to undertake statistical analysis to better understand patterns of performance and undertake quality management processes.
• Programme Administration: There may be occasions when we need to collect information from you to make a change to your student record (i.e. programme transfer, reassessment registration). This will be done either via an online process or by completing a paper form. This information will be shared with those individuals that need to process the change and ensure that your student record is up-to-date.   
• Registers of attendance: We keep a digital record of your physical attendance at timetabled teaching sessions. The information is collected using a mobile app which generates reports that can be accessed by staff in your School and the Academic Registry. Our teaching technologies (such as the Learn VLE and ReView) also record information about your digital participation and usage. We use this data to confirm your attendance and engagement to the Student Loans Company (if you have borrowed money for either maintenance or tuition fees) or the UKVI (if you are studying in the UK under the conditions of a Tier 4 Visa). We also use this information to ensure that students are engaged with their programmes and may contact them if we are concerned that they are not participating in enough teaching sessions and/or we have concerns about their well-being.
• The University uses a data collection tool to keep a record of the day-to-day contact that you have with the staff in your School and some University services. This will include details of your attendance (see above), any meetings that you may have had with your tutors and/or supervisors, or, other information that staff feel would be useful for future reference when supporting you with your studies.
• Support Services: Provision and administration of university support services for students, including access study support for example, library services, careers advice and health and wellbeing services.
• In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we may use data from students’ timetables, our digital records of physical attendance at teaching sessions and supervisory meetings together with records of building access and student contact details, to provide information about recent close contacts of any students who have received a positive diagnosis. This information will be limited to ‘name’ and ‘contact information’ following government guidance, and may be shared with Public Health England, and other statutory bodies, to support NHS contact tracing activities. This processing will cease once Covid-19 is declared as no longer posing a threat to public health.
• Disability data: If you declare a disability (either at the time you make an application to study here, or at the point of registration), then we will process this data in order that the University can put in place any additional support that you might need (i.e. accessibility to buildings, extra time in examinations etc.). This is sensitive information, and we control it so that only the staff that need to be aware of it can access it.
• Billing information: We maintain a record of the financial transactions that you have with the University in a separate database. We use this to record payments that you (and in some case third parties) have made for items such as your tuition fees, or your accommodation fees. This information will often contain payment details and is kept securely on the University network.  
• Disciplinary, misconduct and complaints: If you are subject to a student disciplinary process, make a complaint, or request an academic appeal, we will process your personal data as required in order to complete this procedure.
• Data about your gender, ethnicity, religious or other beliefs, health information, and sexual orientation is collected for equal opportunities monitoring purposes, where it is necessary to perform obligations or exercise rights imposed by law, where it is necessary for a substantial public interest, for establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim, or where it is necessary to protect the vital interests of yourself or others. With your explicit consent we may also process your special category data to send you information about services or opportunities we think may be of interest to you.

If you are an undergraduate student, you will be asked to complete Online Re-Registration before the start of each subsequent academic year of your study. This is an opportunity for you to check the accuracy of details that we hold on you and let us know of any changes (e.g. new term-time address).

On some occasions, the University will ask for your permission to do additional processing to your data. This will be when we think, that by doing, so we can improve your experience of studying at Loughborough University. An example of this might be when the Careers Network want to notify you of a specific set of job recruitment opportunities. You will be able to let us know if you want this processing to stop. The University may also process your personal data as part of academic research activities in accordance with the University’s purpose of advancing education, learning and research for the public benefit. Your information will only be used by Loughborough University staff for the purpose of this research where the data has been de-identified and ethical approval from the University has been granted.

Who has access to your data at the University?

Access to your data is restricted to University staff that work in student administrative roles. In certain cases, staff in specific sections of the University (i.e. Accommodation Office) will be given access to your data to provide a service to you (i.e. process a request for accommodation).

There are other key support services that require access to your data in order to ensure that any additional support that you require is in place whilst you are studying at Loughborough.  

Who do we share your data with outside the University?

Where we have a legal obligation to do so, we will share your personal data with the following organisations:

• Statistical returns: The University provides current student data for statistical returns to organisations such as the Higher Education Statistics Agency. This is to enable government agencies to monitor the impact of higher education.
• Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA): The university will share personal data where it is required to respond to a complaint made to the OIA.
• Charnwood Borough Council: The University shares current student data with Charnwood Borough Council in order that they can maintain accurate council tax and electoral register records. This ensures that you are correctly billed for Council Tax (which, in some cases, involves a complete exemption) and that you can vote when there are elections.
• Emergency services: The University may share your information with external agencies such as the Police or other emergency services, if we have a significant concern about safety or wellbeing, where we have significant safeguarding concerns, or for the purpose of the prevention, detection, or investigation of a crime. Such sharing will only occur where we are required legally to do so or there is a lawful basis to share.
• Internal or external auditors: The University may share student data with its internal or external auditors to allow them to review compliance with regulations and to ensure our effective operations.
• Insurers: The University may share student data with its insurers for the purpose of risk mitigation, obtaining insurance cover, maintaining, and administering that cover and processing any claims that arise as a result.
• Student Loans Company (and other student finance providers): The University confirms the details of student attendance to organisations that provide finance to students. In most cases, your funding will not be released to you until your attendance has been confirmed.

We appreciate that, on occasion, you might like us to discuss your personal information with someone else (a parent, partner etc.). We will only do this if we have checked with you first, and we would ask your permission to do this on a case by case basis.

In some cases, the University will ask for your permission to share your data with other organisations. This is likely to be in those instances when we think you would benefit from us doing so (i.e. a company might want to tell you about career, or sponsorship opportunities).

If you are a Degree Apprentice, studying with us, the personal information you provided to the University is passed to the Education and Skills Funding Agency, the Higher Education Statistics Authority and the relevant Apprenticeship Assessment Organisation, for the purpose of generating national statistics, tracking your progress, confirming your eligibility for funding, or for processing your End Point Assessment. We use your information for reporting functions where we have your consent to do so and where there is a legal obligation to do so.

If you are in receipt of a UKRI studentship, the University is required by UKRI to provide anonymised aggregated statistics on an annual basis for equity, diversity, and inclusion monitoring purposes. This will involve sharing anonymised sensitive personal data (if you choose to provide it), for example, statistics on the race and ethnicity and disability status of funding recipients. We use substantial public interest as the condition for providing this data. You may provide notice in writing to the University if you require it to stop processing your data for this purpose.

Loughborough Students’ Union (LSU)

It is important that we draw your attention to our relationship with LSU. It is important to understand that Loughborough University and LSU are separate legal entities.   The University and the Loughborough Students’ Union do work very closely together and so do share data.  To further protect your privacy, these two organisations have written a Data Sharing Agreement which helps us manage the data sharing in a safe, proportionate and effective manner.

The data sharing by the University with the LSU takes place by the University providing a daily data feed to LSU which contains the personal data of students registered at the University. This facilitates such things as evening entry to the Union building (via your Student ID Card) and paying membership fees for the clubs and societies that are administered by LSU.

We ask your permission to include your personal details on this feed as part of the registration and re-registration process and will only share them with LSU if you have given us explicit consent to do so. You can withdraw your consent for this at any time by amending your data preferences at the Self-Service portal.

Please note: If you do access additional services, in connection with your health, well-being and safety, whilst at the University you will find more information about we use your data in our additional Student Services Privacy Notice.

Disciplinary, misconduct and complaints: If you are subject to a student disciplinary process, make a complaint, or request an academic appeal, we will process your personal data as required in order to complete this procedure.

What special category data do we process about you?

From time to time, the University will use special category data you provided to us, special category data is sensitive personal data relating to you, and includes your race and ethnicity, religious or other beliefs, data concerning your health (physical and mental health) and your sexual orientation. Because the nature of this data is very sensitive, the University places additional controls over its access and use to protect your data and your rights to privacy. The University uses special category data for the following purposes:

Monitoring equality and diversity

When you apply to study at Loughborough University you can choose to provide us with special category data about yourself. We use this information where there is a substantial public interest to review our performance in meeting our statutory duties outlined in the Equality Act 2010. We may also use this information to produce similar analysis across the higher education sector. This information is not used for making decisions about individuals, and you can ask us to stop processing it at any time by emailing the Data Protection: dp@lboro.ac.uk

Sending targeted communications

We would like to use the special category data you have given us to let you know about relevant opportunities, groups, and services that we think may be of interest to you. These could include careers information, placements, or work-based learning opportunities, providing health and well-being information, and making you aware of support and networking groups. We will only do this with your explicit consent and you have the right to change your mind and remove your consent for us to send these types of information at any time.

Contacting you in exceptional circumstances

In very exceptional circumstances, senior leaders in the University may need to send targeted communications to groups of students regarding very important or urgent matters where a substantial public interest exists, or if it is necessary in order to inform obligations or exercise rights imposed by law, and where a wider university-community message would not be appropriate. In such cases, authorisation will be sought from the University’s Data Protection Officer.