Privacy notice: alumni, donors and supporters
Please see below for the University's alumni, donor and supporter privacy notice.
For more details please contact the Information Governance Manager.
This privacy notice tells you what to expect us to do with your personal information when you complete and pass your University course and become one of our alumni, donate to, or support the University. Personal information (or personal data) is any information which relates to and identifies you. Data protection legislation (the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018) set out how we should handle your personal information.
In most instances, when you become an alumnus, donor or supporter of the University, the External Relations office will collect data directly when engaging with you; or when you provide it to us via our sign-up form, face to face meeting, letter, online updates or email.
The University of Lancashire (formerly the University of Central Lancashire) is the controller for the personal information we process, unless otherwise stated. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and our registration number is Z5512420.
There are many ways you can contact us, including by phone, email, social media and post. You can also contact the alumni team directly by email or phone; update your contact details or communication preferences; or tell us that you no longer want to hear from us, all via our dedicated web pages.
The University's Information Governance Manager and Data Protection Officer can be contacted via email. Further information and contact details can be found on our data protection pages.
When you complete and pass your course, you automatically become a member of the University’s Alumni Network and will be provided with information about our services. To offer you an alumni service we will use information about you from your student record such as name, contact details, course information, etc. as well as information you provide directly to us. This information will be added to our CRM system to enable us to provide our alumni service, which is offered to all graduates of the University of Central Lancashire, Lancashire Polytechnic, Preston Polytechnic, Harris College and the Harris Institute.
The information we will process about you will include the following:
- Name(s); title; gender; preferred pronoun; nationality; date of birth; name changes.
- Contact details including any email addresses we have for you; postal address (home or parental); telephone number; mobile number; and links to social media accounts.
- Information about your time at the University and other academic institutions, including other qualifications or courses studied as well as membership of clubs and societies, and class medals, or awards.
- Your occupation and professional details.
- Records of donations and Gift Aid status (where applicable).
- Records of communications sent to you by the alumni team.
- Information on the engagement you have had with the University e.g. events attended; networks involved in; volunteering (e.g. mentoring, masterclasses, providing placements etc.); donations made; fundraising activities.
- Information about how you use our online services, such as when you use third party apps like Facebook, Google or LinkedIn to log in to our Alumni Portal. These apps validate your personal email address against one that we already hold to enable you to log in.
- Publicly available information such as that available on the internet. For example, we may search for you to obtain your professional contact details if we no longer have a valid email address for you.
- Case study information and associated images, along with a record of the consent you have given us to use this information.
- Up-to-date business information and contact details shared through other activities such as the Careers Service and Centre for SME Development.
Donors and supporters play an important role in the life of the University. The External Relations office is here to support our alumni, donors and supporters, keeping you informed as to what is happening at the University and beyond: engaging with you on relevant activities which we hope will be of interest to you. This includes sharing University, alumni and supporter news and activities, events, fundraising campaigns, networking, and volunteering opportunities.
The information we will process about you may include the following:
- Biographical information such as name, title, preferred pronoun, date of birth and gender;
- Contact details including address(es), email address(es) and phone number(s);
- Professional activities; current interests and preferences;
- Business and career details including your philanthropic propensity and capacity to aid meaningful fundraising;
- Records of donations and Gift Aid status (where applicable).
- Records of communications sent to you by the External Relations office;
- Information on the engagement you have had with the University e.g. events attended; networks involved in; volunteering (e.g. mentoring, masterclasses, providing placements etc); donations made; fundraising activities.
- Publicly available information such as that available on the internet. For example, we may search for you to obtain your professional contact details if we no longer have a valid email address for you.
We use information about you to offer you an alumni service which includes keeping you informed about University news, publications and events, career opportunities, business start-up support and academic and professional development opportunities. We also use information about you to process gifts or donations you have given us and to manage and administer the many services we make available to our alumni, such as free use of the University Library and the Alumni Portal. To find out more about the available services, please see our web pages.
We will also use your information to support our fundraising and charitable programmes. We do not undertake ‘wealth screening’ but we will analyse the information we hold about you in our CRM system to help us to decide which of our alumni to contact about particular opportunities to contribute to our fundraising activities e.g. by selecting alumni who live in a particular area, work in a specific industry or have listed specific interests. We will also use your information to send you messages about our fundraising events and charitable programmes.
We will use your information to communicate effectively with you via post, email, telephone, text (SMS), social media or other methods as appropriate, obtaining your prior consent to do so by asking you to opt in to communications, where required. You can opt out of receiving communications which are considered to be marketing (including fundraising communications) by updating your communication preferences via our web pages. Not all of the communications we send are marketing so you cannot opt out of everything we send to you.
We also use your information to compile statistics and for research, surveys and market research to help with corporate planning, reporting and University administration. We use your information in this way to help improve our alumni service, to enhance the the University experience for current and prospective students and to generally make the University a great place to study.
The External Relations office exists to communicate the University's activities, institutional views, latest news and points of excellence with staff, stakeholders, students, alumni, donors, and current and past supporters of the University, and to raise philanthropic funds. We will use your information to carry out all of these activities.
We will also use your information to support our fundraising and charitable programmes. We do not undertake ‘wealth screening’ but we will analyse the information we hold about you in our CRM system to help us to decide which of our donors and supporters to contact about particular opportunities to contribute to our fundraising activities e.g. by selecting donors and supporters who live in a particular area, work in a specific industry or have listed specific interests.
We will also use your information to keep you informed as to what is happening at the University and beyond: engaging with you on relevant activities which we hope will be of interest to you. This includes sharing University, alumni and supporter news and activities, events, fundraising campaigns, networking, and volunteering, including via email.
The University relies on the following lawful bases from the UK GDPR to process information about you for the purposes set out in this notice:
Article 6(1)(e), which allows us to process personal data where it is necessary to perform a task in the public interest. Research and some internal reporting and monitoring is carried out as part of our public tasks. We may also rely on this lawful basis to process personal data where it is necessary for the public tasks of other organisations, such as when we disclose information to HESA for the Graduate Outcomes Survey (see ‘Who will my personal information be shared with?’ for further information).
Article 6(1)(f), which allows us to process personal data where it is in our, or someone else’s, legitimate interests to do so and it does not unduly prejudice your rights and freedoms. We rely on this lawful basis for the majority of our alumni, donor and supporter activities including, among other things:
- Communicating marketing messages to you (unless you opt out). It is in the University’s legitimate interests to carry out fundraising activities and to promote its services, courses and events to those who may be interested.
- Delivering services and facilities to you associated with your status as an alumnus, such as the Careers Service and the alumni network. For example, it is in the interests of you, our alumnus, to have access to careers advice to help you plan for your future and secure employment, and to be provided with other beneficial alumni services to help you get the most out of your time at the University and beyond.
- Analysing the data we hold about our alumni, donors and supporters to determine who to contact about specific fundraising activities or charitable programmes, or other activities and events associated with the University.
- Produce some internal reports, research and statistics. It is in our legitimate interests to use these to evaluate, plan and assess how the alumni and fundraising service and the wider University is operating and make any changes we think are appropriate and will benefit alumni and current and future students.
We also process some information only if you provide your consent, for example case studies and images. In this case, Article 6(1)(a) applies, and Article 9(2)(a) applies where the information is special category data (special category data is information about your race, ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data used for ID purposes, health, sex life or sexual orientation). It will be clear where we are relying on your consent to collect and use your information because consent will be requested at the time you provide the information. When you are asked for consent, we will explain why we are asking for the information and how we will use it if you choose to provide it. Consent can be withdrawn at any time and we will explain how you can do this in each individual case.
Where we process special category data for the purposes set out in this notice, we rely on the following lawful bases from the UK GDPR and DPA:
Article 9(2)(g) UK GDPR, which allows us to process special category data if the processing is necessary in the substantial public interest and there is a basis to do so in law. The law which allows us to rely on this basis is section 10 DPA by virtue of Schedule 1 DPA. Further information about the lawful bases from Schedule 1 DPA on which we rely to process this type of personal data can be found in the policy Data Protection: Processing special category data and criminal convictions data.
Article 9(2)(j) UK GDPR, which allows us to process special category data for archiving, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes, where there is a basis to do so in law. The law which allows us to rely on this basis is section 10 DPA by virtue of Schedule 1(4) DPA.
We will share your information with external organisations and bodies, some of which are processing personal data on our behalf. We only share your personal data with another person or organisation where the law requires or allows us to and we consider it to be appropriate under the circumstances. The external parties we will share information with include the following:
- HESA (the Higher Education and Statistics Agency). From 2017/18 onwards, we will share some graduate data with HESA for the Graduate Outcomes Survey. For more information please see HESA’s Graduate Outcomes website.
- Companies or organisations acting on our behalf: We use processors who are third parties who provide elements of services for us, such as the company that provides our CRM system. We have contracts in place with our processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct.
Occasionally we may need to send your personal information outside the EEA e.g. to obtain a service from a processor. Any such transfers will be carried out in compliance with data protection legislation and with appropriate safeguards in place to protect your information and ensure it remains secure.
We consider our relationship with our alumni, donors and supporters to be lifelong so all records are retained indefinitely and continually updated.
Under data protection law, you have rights we need to make you aware of. The rights available to you depend on our reason for processing your information. Further information about each of these rights can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website. To make a request to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Information Governance Manager & Data Protection Officer on DPFOIA@uclan.ac.uk.
Your right of access
You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. This right always applies. There are some exemptions, which means you may not always receive all the information we process. For further information or to make a request, please see the data protection pages of our website.
Your right to rectification
You have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete. This right always applies.
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 information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing
You have the right to object to any processing we carry out, if we carry it out on the basis that it forms part of our public task or is in our legitimate interests. You also have the right to object to your personal information being used for direct marketing purposes.
Your right to data portability
This only applies to information you have given us. You have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us from one organisation to another or give it to you. The right only applies if we are processing information because we have your consent or because you have a contract with us and it is necessary for the performance of that contract, and the processing is automated.
Your right to complain
We work to high standards when it comes to processing your personal information. If you have queries or concerns, please contact the alumni team, or the Information Governance Manager & Data Protection Officer, and we will respond.
If you remain dissatisfied, you can make a complaint about the way we process your personal information to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is the UK supervisory authority for data protection. Further information can be found on the data protection pages of our website.
We work to high standards when it comes to processing your personal information. If you have queries or concerns, please contact the alumni team, or the Information Governance Manager & Data Protection Officer, and we will respond.
If you remain dissatisfied, you can make a complaint about the way we process your personal information to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is the UK supervisory authority for data protection. Further information can be found on the data protection pages of our website.