Your Personal Information
Personal Information and Confidentiality
The University aims to collect personal information solely in order to meet specifically planned, agreed and necessary purposes and to retain that information only for as long as those purposes remain valid.
The University will not normally pass on details of its individual past or present students or staff to any third party, save where required by law or statutory obligations. Information may be passed to third parties, e.g. sponsors or partner institutions, with the express consent of the individual concerned.
Staff and students may access their own current records; the University will, at regular intervals, provide current staff and students with information held within their own records; they are encouraged to correct any factual inaccuracies contained therein.
In order to carry out its statutory, academic and administrative functions the University needs to collect and process personal information relating to many categories of people, which include its students, staff, suppliers and people who are studied as part of a research project. The University takes the confidentiality of all personal information very seriously and consequently takes all reasonable steps to comply with the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998. Any questions regarding the University´s data protection policy should be addressed to the Academic Information Manager in CiCS.
Where a student asks that information given to a member of staff be treated as confidential, this request will be respected. However, there may be exceptional and rare circumstances when, following careful consideration, the normal boundaries of confidentiality may have to be changed (for example where there is a legal obligation or where there is a clear, significant and specific risk of harm to the student or to others). In such circumstances the staff member will, if appropriate, explain the reasons to the student and seek their permission to change the confidentiality boundaries. Where absolute confidentiality cannot be maintained, staff will seek to limit the negative consequences for the student.