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 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;
- At the point of graduation;
- Through the Development and Alumni Relations Office’s website (https://www.ulster.ac.uk/alumniandsupporters) online update forms;
- From details that you provide on other University online and paper donation forms;
- From registration for University events;
- As the result of phone calls with members of University staff and with official student callers during fundraising campaigns;
- From alumni update cards; andFrom information that you provide within emails 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.
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 research;
- Update you on our fundraising activities and how you can support our current students; and
- Tell you about programmes and courses that may be of interest.
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 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 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 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 home or parental address, plus your email address(es) and phone number(s);
- Your former school and/or university;
- 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:
- 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 logged in to https://www.ulster.ac.uk/alumniandsupporters.
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.
5. 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 direct mail communications relating to our fundraising appeals;
- To maintain your contact details so that we can keep in touch by letter, email or phone; and
- To assess your ability to support the University with a gift.
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.
6. 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 this instance, we will remove the majority of your personal data from our records, but will maintain a skeleton record that will ensure that we do not inadvertently create a new record for some reason in the future.
7. 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, or if you no longer want to hear from us at all:
8. What should you do if you wish to make a complaint about the way in which your data is being gathered, stored or used?
Please contact the University Secretary in the first instance:
c.jamison@ulster.ac.uk
(0044) +28 7012 3502.
Version 1.2 August 2020