1. Purpose of this Privacy Notice
This privacy notice covers personal data for employers who work with Solent University. It explains how Solent University collects, uses and shares your personal data and informs you of your rights with regard to the personal data we hold.
The University, as a registered Data Controller, has an obligation to comply with the Principles of the Data Protection Act 1998 and, from 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation.
2. Why do we collect personal data and what data do we collect?
2.1 Keeping in touch with employer contacts
In this case, we collect basic personal data in order to keep in touch with you and to provide services that you have requested. We collect your name, address, phone number, email address, website address and nature of your business. We do not, for this purpose collect any special categories of data relating, for example, to disability or ethnic background. We may contact you to promote services that may benefit your business, such as careers events, networking events, or employment opportunities. We also use the data to guide our employer engagement activities, for example, to contact you regarding opportunities you may be advertising that may be of interest to our students and/or graduates. We send a business e-newsletter to contacts: you can unsubscribe at any time using the link in the e-business newsletter.
We process your data on the basis of your consent which you may withdraw at any time using the departmental contact information in section 7.
2.2 Specific schemes or initiatives
You may participate in a particular scheme or initiative such as the Professional Mentoring programme. In that case, we would ask you to provide the required data through specific documentation, which could include an explanation of what we are collecting and why. We may collect special category data, such as ethnicity or disability, in order to support equality and diversity monitoring. Within the Professional Mentoring programme, we use data about special category data to match student mentees to business mentors.
We process the data on the basis that it is necessary for the performance of a contract you have with us or because you asked us to take action before entering a contract.
2.3 Higher and degree apprenticeships
We collect personal and financial data relating to employers. We process your data in order to support quality assurance and to meet the requirements of government agencies such as ESFA (Education Skills Funding Agency), Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), QAA (Quality Assurance Agency) and Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills). We process the data because it is necessary for the performance of a contract or to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
3. How do we collect the data?
We collect the data through our Customer Relationship Management database (CRM) or through other university systems. Our systems are secure and open to access only by authorised staff.
We also collect data through our website. Solent University's website does not capture nor store personal data except where you voluntarily choose to provide your personal details (for example through one of our forms).
Any personal data collected through this website, on forms for example, will only be used for the purpose stated on the relevant page. Where you provide Solent University with your personal details via the Internet, we will not pass the data to any other organisations or individuals without your consent.
Our web server automatically collects standard information, including your IP address, browser type, operating system and access times.
For information on cookies and how we use them, please visit our cookies page.
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ('Google'). Google Analytics uses 'cookies', which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyse how users use the site. The data generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States.
Google will use this data for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf.
Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.
This privacy notice only governs Solent University's website at solent.ac.uk. Other websites that are linked to these pages are not covered by this notice.
4. Do we share your personal data with third parties?
We do not share your data with third parties, unless the employer is engaged in a Professional Mentoring programme or an Apprenticeship programme with the University (see 2.3). For professional mentoring programmes, your contact details will be shared with mentees. For Higher and Degree Apprenticeships we are required to share personal data with government agencies such as ESFA (Education Skills Funding Agency), Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), QAA (Quality Assurance Agency) and Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills).
5. How long do we keep your personal data?
5.1 We will retain personal data in order to keep in touch with employers for as long as necessary or unless you withdraw consent or do not renew it when requested during our periodic reviews of mailing lists. We will review our mailings lists every four years.
5.2 Records of employer mentors on the Professional Mentoring scheme will be retained for six years from the expiry of the mentoring scheme.
5.3 The University is required to retain Higher and Degree Apprenticeship records for a period of seven years from the end of the apprenticeship.
6. Your rights in relation to the personal data we hold
Under the General Data Protection Regulation you have the following rights. Further data about these rights can be found on the Information Commissioner's Office website.
- The right to be informed at an appropriate time about the collection and use of the personal data we hold about you.
- The right of access to, your personal data and other supplementary data,
- The right to require correction of the personal data we hold about you if it is incorrect.
- The right, in certain circumstances, to require erasure of your personal data.
- The right, in certain circumstances, to restrict processing or your personal data.
- The right, in certain circumstances, to receive from the University the personal data you have provided to us in a reasonable format, specified by you. You may also request that we pass that personal data to another data controller.
- The right to object to certain processing of your personal data by us.
- Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.
These rights are not absolute and we may be entitled to refuse requests when there are valid exceptions; we shall explain the reasons to you in such cases.
You can find out more about your rights under Data Protection Law from the Information Commissioner's Office website.
7. Contacts
You are welcome to contact us if you have any concerns about how we process your personal data.
Information rights
Email: information.rights@solent.ac.uk
By Post:
Information Rights Office
Solent University
East Park Terrace
Southampton
SO14 0YN.
Subject Access Requests:
To request access to the personal information that we hold about you please email information.rights@solent.ac.uk.
You have the right to complain about the processing of your data to the UK regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office. The contact details are as follows:
By post:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.org.uk
8. Changes to the Privacy Notice
We regularly review this policy and will update it if there are changes in how we manage or use your data. This page will always contain the latest version of this policy.
Last updated: 16 May 2018
