Student Services - Disability & Inclusion

Introduction

The University of Chester Student Services Disability & Inclusion Service (‘We’, ‘Us’, ‘Our’, ‘the Service’) is committed to protecting the rights and freedoms of individuals as detailed in relevant data protection legislation including looking after any personal data that we collect, use, hold or disclose. Moreover, under section 98 of the Equality Act 2010 the University has a statutory “duty to make reasonable adjustments where a provision, criterion or practice, any physical feature of the education provision or the absence of an auxiliary aid or services puts disabled students at a substantial disadvantage compared with students who are not disabled” (EHRC, Nov 2012, page 91).

In order for us to comply with this duty we will need to process your personal data including that which will relate to your disability and need for reasonable adjustments. This Data Processing and Privacy Notice describes how and why we collect and use personal information about you and sets out how we will record and store information about your interactions with us. Please read this carefully. This document is issued under your right to be informed about how the University collects, uses, discloses and stores your personal data.

Data Protection Principles

We will comply with data protection legislation, which says that the personal information we hold about you must be:

• Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way
• Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes
• Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes
• Accurate and kept up to date
• Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about
• Kept securely

What personal data does the University collect?

In order to provide an effective service tailored to your individual specific needs, we will collect data relating to your name, date of birth, contact details, and your programme of study, including timetable, attendance and attainment. Data relating to any previous specific needs provision will also be collected. 

A record and copy of communications between you and us including our advisors, tutors and other university staff will be held alongside notes taken at meetings with relevant staff. 

This data will be provided by you either at the time of application to the University or during your interactions with the Service.

What Special Category Data does the University collect?

For the purposes of the Service and activity which includes monitoring, we will collect information relating to your health, including your disability and specific needs arising from your disability. We may also collect data for monitoring purposes regarding your racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical belief, gender and sexuality. This data will be provided by you either at the time of application to the University or during your interactions with the Service.

Why does the University need this data and how will the University use this data?

We provide information, advice and guidance to you and other students with a wide range of disabilities including SpLDs (such as dyslexia and dyspraxia), ASD, mental health conditions, physical disabilities and long term medical conditions. We work with a number of agencies including Educational Psychologists, funding bodies, external needs assessment and support agencies, students and colleagues to identify the most appropriate solutions to any potential barriers that may be encountered. In identifying these barriers and solutions your data will need to be shared with these agencies for the purposes of a diagnostic and needs assessment and in order to access more, specific, bespoke reasonable adjustments, implemented through an Inclusion Plan. To obtain for you any necessary physical, material or financial benefit and support we may need to liaise with external agencies such as volunteering placements, funding agencies or organisations involved in administration of the Disabled Students’ Allowances.

In order to provide the necessary reasonable adjustments as detailed in the Inclusion Plan, your personal data will need to be shared with particular departments and colleagues across the University, including but not limited to: your academic and specialist study skills tutors, University professional staff involved with activities designed to support the teaching, learning and assessment of students, other parts of Student Services and other areas or departments of the University as required by your particular specific needs in order to support your time as a student at the University.

If your programme of study involves a work, training, professional or statutory placement the provision of reasonable adjustments extends to that placement. We currently use a Reasonable Adjustment Placement Plan (RAPP) to communicate reasonable adjustments in a placement setting. As such, information relating to your specific needs and reasonable adjustments will be disclosed to the placement provider in order to ensure that you are provided with your legal entitlement. 

Wherever possible, once we receive acceptable evidence (such as Educational Psychologist or Needs Assessment reports) we will compile and disseminate your support documents on your behalf automatically. This may not always be possible however as we may need to invite you to meet us for an appointment to discuss and agree some details before we can do this.

We also need the data for the following:

Equal opportunities monitoring and the provision of reasonable adjustments or other entitlements under equality law. Special category data may also be collected for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring 

Monitoring your attendance and performance and the provision of targeted learning support

Administration of the financial aspects of your relationship with the University, sponsors or funders including collection or payment of fees and funds and any other monies

To enable effective communication with you, including providing you with information relating to the Service and products, funding and/or sponsorship opportunities

What is the legal basis for processing the data?

The University will process your data predominantly for purposes relating to our contract with you. However if you disclose a disability to any member of University staff, we have to take notice of this information. The University has a statutory responsibility to act on this knowledge, however disclosed, to ensure you are not substantially disadvantaged and that you are offered reasonable adjustments to support you whilst you are undertaking your studies including any placements. We will also process your data on one or more of the following lawful bases:

where it is necessary for the performance of a task in the public interest;

where it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation (such as the Equality Act).

We may also use your data where this is necessary to protect your vital interests, or someone else’s vital interests, typically in an emergency.

Some of the above bases for processing will overlap and there may be several grounds which justify our use of your personal information.

In the case of Special Category data we may process the data on one or more of the following additional bases where it is necessary:

for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of social protection law;

to protect the vital interests of you or of another natural person where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent;

for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims;

for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of UK law;

for reasons of public interest in the area of public health;

We may on rare occasions rely on explicit consent to share data with specified third parties i.e., parents or carers. 

For how long will the University keep this Data?

We shall retain the data for up to 6 years following your final year at the University.

Who has access to the data and with whom will the University share this data?

We may share your data with various colleagues and University staff across the University in order to ensure that you receive your specific entitlement as detailed above. If your course involves a placement in the UK or a period of study or employment overseas the University may transfer personal data to the host institution in order to support the study and/or employment placement. This may include data required in order to provide any reasonable adjustment as required by the Equality Act. 

We may share your personal information with third parties where required by any legal or regulatory obligation, where it is necessary to administer the contract with you, to protect the University’s rights, property, or the safety of our employees, students, or others, or where we have any other legitimate interest in doing so.

We may share personal data if it is required for the performance of a contract; for example, between you and a sponsor, funding body or government agency etc. 

We may also share your data with selected third parties for the purposes of diagnosing, ascertaining and assessing your particular specific needs and reasonable adjustments. 

We may also share data with relatives or guardians where appropriate. However, this will only be with your consent unless it is in your own vital interests or the vital interests of another person for us to do so.

How will the University keep this data secure?

Information will be stored securely on our SITS database and internal networks in line with the University’s information protection policies. 

Evidence will be scanned in and returned to your or shredded if left with us as we only keep electronic records which are password protected.

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes. 

What rights do you have as a data subject?

As a data subject of the University, under the Data Protection legislation, you have several rights with regards to your data, dependent upon the legal basis for its processing. As such you have the right to…

• Withdraw consent - where the University has used consent as the legal basis for processing;
• Be informed – about how the University, collects and uses your data
• Access your personal data that the University holds and process
• Rectify or correct any inaccuracies in your personal data that we hold
• Be forgotten by requesting that your details are removed from the University systems
• Restrict the processing of your data whilst it is being verified or corrected
• Port your data in a machine readable and commonly used format 
• Object to certain processing by the University including direct marketing, automated decision making, profiling, scientific/historical research and statistics

The above rights are not absolute and may only apply in some circumstances such as being dependent upon the lawful process which has been used or whether an exemption applies.

The following table details the right that accompany each lawful basis.

 

 

You may contact the University’s Data Protection Officer as necessary regarding your rights. 

Under the Equality Act you are entitled to make a confidentiality request so that the nature or existence of your disability be treated as confidential. You may do this by writing to the Head of the Disability & Inclusion service stating that you are making a confidentiality request. Should you make such a request you must understand that the University may not be able to fully implement any of the reasonable adjustments required as detailed in your inclusion plan or by your particular specific need. In such circumstances, the University accepts no responsibility for any impact caused by not providing reasonable adjustments to support you in your studies.

Who is the Data Controller and who is the Data Protection Officer?

The Data Controller is the University of Chester, Parkgate Road, Chester, CH1 4BJ. The Data Controller’s representative is Mrs Laura Gittins, University Secretary and Director of Legal Services, who may be contacted at the University address and on 01244 511000.

The University’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) is Sarah Pownall, who may also be contacted directly by email to dataprotection@chester.ac.uk for any queries relating to your privacy rights.

How to raise questions, comments, concerns, or complaints

Should you have any questions, comments, concerns or complaints regarding the use of your personal data you should contact the University’s Data Protection Officer as detailed above. 

You may also raise any concerns or complaints with the Information Commissioner’s Office who may be contacted as follows:

Information Commissioners Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.org.uk

Changes to this Notice

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.