Privacy policy - information for students
How we use information about you - students
On this page:
General statement
In this policy “we” means the University of Essex and the people who work
there, and “you” means students at the University.
The information that we collect about you is used to help us administer
all the aspects of your learning, assessment, pastoral care and your access
to facilities, including car parking, library services, accommodation, email
accounts, and other ISS facilities. It is also used to help us maintain a
safe and secure campus and for statistical monitoring. Information is kept
in paper and electronic form in Registry, faculties and departments.
The University of Essex has a number of
academic partners. If you are
registered with the University of Essex but studying at one of our partner
institutions we share information about you to complete our
HEFCE return and to produce your degree
certificate when you graduate. We may also share data if it's needed to
enable you to access facilities (eg library, Sports Centre) at the
University. If you have any questions about this then please speak to your
own institution.
You can check the contact details we have for you on you MyEssex page. If
they are wrong you can change or update them at any time.
Council Tax
Each year we send names, addresses and course titles of all full time
registered students to Colchester
Borough Council and to
Southend Borough Council so that they can see who is eligible for a discount or
exemption.
If you live outside the boroughs then you'll need to ask for proof
of student status at Registry to claim your discount or redemption on
council tax.
Debt
The University works closely with a number of local private landlords to
provide accommodation for students. If you get into debt with one of these
private landlords, and if they contact us in writing, clearly telling us why
they need to know your details, then we will confirm to them that you are a
student here, and give them a forwarding address, if we have one for you.
This only applies to landlords who have our Landlord Accreditation, and
you can find out who they are on our
Student Pad website.
Discipline
We want everyone who studies, works or lives on, or visits our campuses
to feel safe and secure. A police officer attends weekly meetings at the
University where all security incidents on campus are discussed. We have an
Information
Sharing Agreement with Essex Police (.pdf)
Electoral Register
Each year we send names and addresses and nationality of registered
students living in university accommodation at Colchester and Southend
campuses to the Electoral Register.
Being registered here will not affect any registration to register you
have elsewhere (eg at your parent's address). You are not allowed to vote
twice in some elections, even though you are registered twice. It is up to
you to decide where you'd rather vote.
Councils sell on an edited version of the Register for marketing
purposes.
- If you are at Colchester you can see the Register at Rowan House, Sheepen Road, Colchester.
You will need to make an appointment to do this. Please visit the
Colchester Borough Council website
for more information.
- If you are at Southend you need to make an
appointment to see the Register at the Civic Centre,
Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea. Visit
the Southend Borough
Council website for more information.
E-mailing you
The University uses several e-mail lists so that we can quickly and
easily contact students on a range of topics. Only a few staff are allowed
to send messages to these lists.
There are two types of lists and as a registered student you are
automatically a member of both of them.
The first type of list is used to send vital information about to your
studies, regulatory procedures, and health, safety and security issues. All
students have to belong to this list type of list. This is the list we will
use if we need to contact all students quickly.
The second type of list is
for more general information about University life and University-related
activities and events. You are automatically a member of this sort of list,
but you can chose to opt out.
You can manage your list membership for the relevant lists through the
University webpage
Emergencies
If you had a bad accident or were very ill we would give your information
to the emergency services so that they could help you.
Health Centre
If you are based on the Colchester campus then we give your contact
details to the
Health
Centre at the start of each academic year so that they can check that
their records are accurate and up to date. You do not have to register with
the Health Centre. If you have not registered with them then when we send
your contact details they will simply destroy them.
HESA and HEFCE
We will send some of the information we hold about you to the Higher
Education Statistics Agency (HESA). This information forms your HESA record,
which does not include your contact details.
Your contact details may be passed to survey contractors to carry out the
National Student Survey and surveys of student finances, on behalf of the
education organisations listed below. These organisations and their
contractors will use your details only for that purpose, and will then
delete them.
About six months after you graduate, we will contact you to ask you to
fill in the HESA ‘Destinations of Leavers from HE' questionnaire. We will
not give your contact details to HESA. You might be included in a sample of
leavers who are surveyed again a few years after they graduate. If so, we
will pass your contact details to the organisation that has been contracted
to carry out that survey. That organisation will use your details only for
that purpose, and will then delete them.
If you do not want to take part in these surveys, please let us know.
The HESA record is used for three broad purposes:
-
Statutory functions
The HESA record is used by the organisations listed
below, or agents acting on their behalf, to carry out their
public functions connected with education in the UK.
- Department for Business, Innovation and
Skills
- Welsh Assembly Government
- Scottish Government
- Department for Employment and Learning,
Northern Ireland
- Higher Education Funding Council for
England
- Higher Education Funding Council for
Wales
- Scottish Further and Higher Education
Funding Council
- Training and Development Agency for
Schools
- Research Councils
- Department for Children, Schools and
Families
- Learning and Skills Council
The HESA record may also be used by the Office for
National Statistics and the National Audit Office to fulfil
their statutory functions of measuring population levels and
monitoring public expenditure.
Equivalent and Lower Qualifications - This applies only
to students enrolling at institutions in England: We and the
Higher Education Funding Council for England may compare
your data to educational records from previous years to help
determine the levels of your current qualifications. This
may in turn affect the fees you are required to pay.
Your HESA record will not otherwise be used in any way
that affects you personally.
-
HESA publications
HESA use the HESA record to produce anonymised data in
annual statistical publications. These include some National
Statistics publications and online management information
services.
-
Research, equal opportunity, journalism, other
legitimate interest/public function
HESA will also supply anonymised data to third parties
for the following purposes:
- Equal opportunities monitoring - Your
HESA record may contain details of your
ethnic group and any disabilities you have.
For students domiciled from Northern Ireland
and attending an institution in Northern
Ireland it may also contain information
about religion. This data is only used where
it is needed to promote or maintain equality
of opportunity or treatment between persons
of different racial or ethnic origins,
religious beliefs or different states of
physical or mental conditions
- Research. This may be academic research,
commercial research or other statistical
research into education where this is of
benefit to the public interest.
- Journalism, where the relevant
publication would be in the public interest
e.g. league tables
- Anonymised data for the above purposes
is supplied by HESA to the following types
of user:
- Local, regional and
national government bodies
who have an interest in
higher education
- Higher education sector
bodies
- Higher education
institutions
- Academic researchers and
students
- Commercial organisations
(eg recruitment firms,
housing providers, graduate
employers)
- Unions
- Non-governmental
organisations and charities
- Journalists
HESA will take precautions to ensure that individuals are
not identified from the anonymised data which they process.
Your rights
Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you have rights of
access to the data HESA holds about you. You will have to
pay a small fee for this. For further information about the
HESA record please see
the HESA Data Protection Information webpage or e-mail
data.protection@hesa.ac.uk
If you have any concerns about your information being used for these
purposes,
please contact HESA.
IT Facilities
Information Systems Services
logs keep records of when e-mails are sent and who they are sent to. We do
not generally look at these logs unless there is a problem.
The University has a right to monitor use of IT facilities to make sure
the Guidelines for Use of IT Facilities are being followed, for quality
control and training, for preventing and detecting criminal acts, and to
investigate unauthorised use. The University is allowed to do these thing
under the
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and
The
Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of
Communications) Regulations 2000.
Parents and sponsors
We wont tell your parents, relatives or guardians (also known as “third
parties”) about you without your agreement. If you are under 18 we will talk
to other people about you if we believe there is a child protection issue.
There is a
policy for students who are under 18 and also a
policy
on how the University deals with “third parties”.
If you have a
financial sponsor then, if asked, we may tell them some limited information
about you, such as confirming that you are still registered with us. If
possible we will ask your permission first. If you have signed an agreement
with your sponsor that they can see information about you then we will
follow that agreement.
Placements
If you are sent on a placement as part of your course then we will share
some basic information (your name, contact number, address and CRB check
status) with the employer providing the placement. This will normally be
students in HHS on placement with the local NHS.
Plagiarism and Turnitin UK
The University of Essex subscribes to the Turnitin UK plagiarism
detection service.
This service can compare work you have sent with work sent in by students
at Essex and other Universities. It can also compare your work to 8 billion
web pages.
Your name, course details, institution and email address have to be
collected and stored with your work for the service to work.
If you want to know more about plagiarism, please visit the
University's plagiarism
pages.
To find out more about Turnitin, please visit the
Plagiarism Advice
website where they have FAQs for students.
Professional Suitability
and Fitness to Practise
All students must comply with the
University's Disciplinary Regulations and other
regulations on conduct.
Students enrolled on courses that include a
practical professional placement or lead to professional qualifications (eg
some health or law courses) have extra responsibilities. If you fail to meet
them it can lead to the
Breach
of Professional Conduct and Termination of Training Procedure
being invoked.
If the University believes that your conduct or an aspect of your health
means that your professional suitability might be compromised then we will
report our concerns to your relevant professional body and your employer. We
will normally tell you when we are reporting in this way.
Professional
suitability issues are dealt with by your own department. The University
will share information about you between internal departments where there
are discipline or other issues that might affect your professional
suitability.
Your department will be able to tell you more about professional
suitability and whether it affects you.
It is likely that from 2012 the University will provide
information on nursing students to the
NMC's Student Index. This index will enable Universities
to check whether a person applying for nursing courses has
previously been dismissed from a course elsewhere on a
conduct matter. The aim of the index is to safeguard public
safety.
References
If you apply for a job or study elsewhere then if we are asked we will
confirm your attendance here and any qualifications you achieved while you
were here.
Students' Union
The Student's Union is
not part of the University and is a separate organisation.
We pass
some basic information about you and your course to the Student's Union so
that they know you are a student and can register you to use their services.
Students with visas to study
This part of the privacy policy applies only to students with visas to
study in the UK. As a Tier 4 licensed sponsor we may be required to give
information about you to the UK Border Agency. Our sponsorship duties
include informing the UK Border Agency if you fail to register, withdraw, or
fail to attend classes and hand in work. This Legislation is new from March
2009 and full details of our sponsorship duties can be found in the UKBA
Tier 4 Policy Guidance and Guidance for Sponsor applications on the
UK Border
Agency website.
We have more information about this on our
Prospective Students
pages. You can also seek advice from the
Students' Union
Advice Centre on Square 3.
Study abroad
If you are hoping to study abroad as part of your degree course it is
important to remember that you may not be able to go if you are found guilty
of academic or disciplinary offences at any time during the period before
travel.
When you complete your application to be considered for study
abroad, you will be asked to sign allowing permission for access to your
disciplinary record.
You have the right to refuse Permission for the Study Abroad Office to
see this information, but this will mean that you will not be able to study
abroad.
For more information please contact the
Study Abroad Office.
Texting you
If you have given us your mobile phone number then we might text you with
information about your studies – for example, letting you know when lectures
have been cancelled, or reminding you about exams you are due to sit. If you
are not interested in receiving texts from us then you can take your mobile
number off your MyEssex contact details. (If you want us to contact
you by mobile, but not for this reason, then put your mobile number in the
main contact number box, not in the mobile number box).
University of Essex Southend
If you are a University of Essex Southend student and you need support
(because of debt, disability or health or other welfare issues) we will pass
your details to the Student Support Service at South Essex College. This is
because the University doesn't not have its own Student Support Office in
Southend. Support is provided by the Student Support Service at South Essex
College. All information held by Student Support is treated in complete
confidence.
The library at Southend is provided by South Essex College. In order to ensure
students based at Southend have full access to library services, and the
library has accurate data on members, basic details of
students will be passed to the library each year.
When you leave
When you leave the University we keep some information about you
permanently so that we can always provide you with references or proof of
your achievements here. The University also mails former students an annual
alumni magazine and regular updates on reunions and events. Alumni can
update their contact details through the
Alumni website.
Seeing your information
You have a right to see all the information that the University keeps
about you. To find out how to do this please go to the
“making a
request” section.
Questions
If you have any questions about what we do with your information please
contact the
University Records
Manager.
University Records Manager
Created
October 2004
Last updated August 2011