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Privacy Policy for Ulster University’s Development and Alumni Relations Office

This Privacy Policy is intended for Ulster University’s graduates (alumni), donors, friends and supporters. It describes how we collect, store, use and retain your personal data. It also describes how you can change the data that we hold and the ways in which your data is used. Ulster University is an Educational Charity regulated by the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. Ulster University is registered with the Fundraising Regulator.

The Data Controller is Ulster University and the Data Protection Officer for the University is the University Secretary. With the Data Controller’s permission, the Development and Alumni Relations Office of the University stores all alumni and donor information on its database. The Development and Alumni Relations Office also stores information about other friends and supporters of the University, including people who are not alumni but who support our fundraising and volunteering activities.

1. Where is your data stored?

The Development and Alumni Relations Office stores data in an industry-standard propriety database called the Raiser’s Edge NXT. The Raiser’s Edge NXT is cloud based. Access to your data is strictly limited to those members of staff who have a requirement to maintain a relationship with you on behalf of the University and is controlled through password protection and user security profiles. All University employees are trained in the requirements of the Data Protection Act and the UK General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and have a contractual responsibility to maintain confidentiality. All mobile devices (laptops and smart phones) which provide access to the Raiser’s Edge NXT database have disk encryption which means that they have an added level of security.

2. How do we collect data about you?

The data that Ulster University holds about you is collected directly from you during a number of interactions with you, in many cases over a number of years. These interactions are:
When you apply to the University;

When you register for the University;
As part of each Faculty’s record maintenance;
When you graduate;
Through the Development and Alumni Relations Office’s website (https://www.ulster.ac.uk/alumniandsupporters) online update forms and previously through UU Connects;
From details that you provide on other University online and paper alumni update and donation forms, including the online form in which you can update the ways in which the Development and Alumni Relations Office contacts you: https://daro.ulster.ac.uk/stayconnected;
From registration for University events;
From application forms which you submit when you apply for University scholarships;
As the result of phone calls with members of University staff and with official student callers during fundraising campaigns; and
From information that you provide to us.

Data about you may also be collected from other sources, such as:

Publicly accessible social media including Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook;
Other online information in the public domain, for example a news story about you;
Companies House and other business-related resources;
Publications and printed news; and Publicly accessible sources of contact detail updates including the National Change of Address File.

We may draw on data from sources outside the University to enhance and update your information. These sources may include updated contact information including your mailing address, telephone, and email address(es).

3. Why do we collect data about you?

We collect data about you in order to:

Keep in touch with University news;
Tell you about opportunities to become involved in mentoring or to volunteer in other ways;
Invite you to a range of University events including reunions, job fairs, networking and cultural events;
Invite you to participate in surveys and research;
Update you on our fundraising activities, how you can support our current students, and the impact of your support; and
Tell you about programmes and courses that may be of interest.

DARO will use your contact details to contact you by mail, email and phone (calls and texts), as well as social media and digital advertising campaigns.

We very much hope to build and maintain a long term relationship with you, whether it is because you graduated from Ulster University, because you recognise our work as being very positive, or because you support us and our activities financially or in other ways.

Using the contact details that you have provided on our donation form, the Development & Alumni Relations Office will update you on University news, career opportunities and advice, events, opportunities to support current students (including mentoring, volunteering and donating), and how donors’ support is utilised.  

Using the information that you supply – and using publicly available information including employment details and financial resources - we may use internal classifications and ratings to identify you as a potential donor. As part of this process, we may create a summary of:

Your level of engagement, created from the history that we hold of your event attendance, donation history and any other interactions with the University;
Your estimated asset worth, property value, and shareholdings;
Your estimated income and potential propensity / capacity to make a gift; and
Your philanthropic interests and gifts to other charitable organisations.

4. What is our lawful basis for processing?

The Development and Alumni Relations Office rely upon legitimate interests as the main lawful basis for processing personal data relating to the University’s graduates (alumni), donors, friends and supporters.

We may use an alternative lawful basis where it is appropriate:

On the basis of public interest the University holds personal data in order to maintain appropriate University records. 
We may process data on the basis of consent, where consent has been given.

5. What data do we hold?

If you are one of our alumni, some of the data that we hold about you is transferred to Raiser’s Edge NXT from your student record when you graduate. This data will have been provided by you by one or more of the methods described in section 2 of this Privacy Notice whilst you were a student and will include:

Your name, title, gender preference, your home address, and date of birth;
Your postal address, plus your email address(es) and phone number(s);
Your former school and/or university (where known);
Your familial relationships (where you have provided this information);
The names of any awards, prizes or scholarships that you won;
The names of clubs and societies you were a member of (where known); and
Any official roles that you held e.g. in the Students’ Union or Sports’ Union.

Some of the data that we hold about you is from your education record, including:

Your student number;
Course studied;
Mode of study (i.e. full-time, part-time, distance learning);
Academic department/faculty;
Graduation date;
Type and classification of degree; and
The campus you attended.

Some of the data we hold about you is provided by you during some of the other forms of contact described in section 2 of this Privacy Policy and may include some/all of the following:

Your bank account number, name and sort code (this information is used only for processing Direct Debits);
Gift amount, purpose, date and method of payment including cheque numbers or payment references. Please note that we do not retain payment card details if you donate, or pay for an event, using a payment card (credit or debit);
Tax status and Gift Aid Declaration information;
Your spouse/partner’s name (where known) and whether they are also an Ulster alumnus/na;
Updates to your contact details;
Record of verbal or email conversations/meetings including any personal interests; and
Web activity whilst visiting https://www.ulster.ac.uk/alumniandsupporters and https://www.ulster.ac.uk/alumniandsupporters/give, previousy through UU Connects, or when registering to attend an event.
Some of the data that we may hold about you relates to your professional history. This data may have been provided by you, or it may have been obtained from social media (e.g. LinkedIn) or publicly available sources (for example from Companies House and from online information including news articles), and may include some/all of the following:
Your employment status (part-time, full-time, retired etc.);
Your current job title and work email address;
Your previous role(s) / job title(s);
Your current and past employers’ name, address and telephone number;
The dates that you have been employed in any particular role;
Your photograph; and
Your income band.

6. Who will we share your data with?

Your personal data is shared with third party organisations in only a very limited number of cases.

For example, we are required to disclose some information regarding recent graduates to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) for the purpose of a survey of new graduates.
We may also share some of your data with third party organisations who are carrying out a contract on behalf of the University. We will only share information about you that is relevant and no more than is required for the purpose. Our partners are subject to rigorous contractual agreements which ensure that your information is always cared for and protected and will not be passed on to any other individual or organisation. We will share your data with an organisation in the following circumstances:

To send you a copy of our printed alumni magazine or other printed publications;
To enable you to join some of our online alumni opportunities, for example mentoring and networking;
To send you postal communications relating to our fundraising appeals;
To maintain your contact details so that we can keep in touch by mail, email, phone (calls and texts), social media and digital advertising campaigns;
To assess your ability to support the University with a gift; and.
To process payments that you wish to make to the University e.g. as a gift or to make a purchase.

We have robust protections such as encryption in place whenever your information is shared. The data that we hold about you will not be sold to a third party under any circumstances.

7. How long do we retain your data?

Ulster University hopes that you will be willing to have a lifelong relationship with us. We will maintain a record for you on our database until such time as you tell us that you no longer wish us to maintain contact with you In the event that you wish your record to be removed from our database, we will action your request. Please see Section 8 of this policy for contact details.

8. What are your rights in respect of your data?

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact gdpr@ulster.ac.uk in writing.

No fee usually required
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

What we may need from you
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

Right to withdraw consent
In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact gdpr@ulster.ac.uk. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

9. How can you control the way in which we use your data?

You can contact us by any of the following means to let us know how and why you want to hear from us, if you no longer want to hear from us at all:

By phone: Alumni Relations Assistant, (0044 (0)28 9536 7486)
By email: alumni@ulster.ac.uk
By post:

Development and Alumni Relations Office
Ulster University
Room BD-04-029
York Street
Belfast
BT15 1ED

10. What should you do if you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights or make a complaint about the way in which your data is being gathered, stored or used?

Please contact the Data Protection Officer in the first instance:

Eoin Coyle
c/o Ulster University, Room J308
Coleraine
BT52 1SA
02871 675525
gdpr@ulster.ac.uk

If you are unhappy with the way in which your personal data has been processed you may complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, further information can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website: https://ico.org.uk/.

Version 1.7 27 September 2024