Next Steps South West Participants
Next Steps South West (NSSW) is part of the Uni Connect programme, which aims to increase the number of young people entering higher education by providing information, advice and guidance and support to students. As part of the project, participants will be invited to participate in activities and sessions that will talk about higher education. These may be aimed at explaining more about post-18 options, targeting specific skills, or raising confidence or aspiration. Participants will also be asked to complete a survey about HE, and evaluation surveys after activities.
Participant Privacy Policy
The Next Steps South West project is part of the University of Plymouth, which is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office Z7546246. Next Steps South West is responsible for the use of the personal data provided by participants. You may provide us with information directly, but we may also receive it from authorised third parties including but not exclusive to:
- Your school or college
- External partners who have your consent to share your data
This privacy notice explains how we use your data in relation to the Next Steps South West project.
What personal data will be processed?
When you take part in Next Steps South West activities, such as a workshop relating to higher education or post-16 study, we require some of your personal details. We use these to provide evidence of your attendance to our funding body, and to monitor the impact of Next Steps South West.
Personal details we ask for may include, but are not exclusive to:
- your first name and last name
- your date of birth
- your home postcode
- the name of your school or college
- your year group
- your predicted or achieved attainment
- your gender
- a contact email address
As part of our long-term monitoring framework, we will also enter your details into our secure Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) database. We use this database to keep a record of your participation in the project, including:
- details of your engagement with individual Next Steps South West activities
- HE progression data (further study post-18)
As part of the evaluation framework of Next Steps South West, we may also ask you to complete individual evaluation of activities, such as pre- and post-event surveys and focus groups. These are hosted on JISC Online Surveys which operates in the UK, is governed by UK law, is GDPR compliant and meets the ISO/IEC 270001 information security standard. This data will then be anonymised and will not be linked to any other records we hold relating to you, such as event attendance data.
How we use your data
This data will be used to confirm your attendance at Next Steps South West activities and may be used to monitor the impact of NSSW activities on your attainment scores, which may include marking by an external examiner.
We will also process your data (provided by you or by a third party, such as your school or college) for the following purposes:
- To ensure that we are working with students who are targeted by the Uni Connect programme that we are part of, funded by the Office for Students.
- To communicate with you by email regarding your experience of the project, when you consent for us to do so.
- To compile statistics and conduct research for reporting purposes to our funding body the Office for Students.
- To comply with any relevant statutory obligations.
We will also process your data to fulfil and monitor our legal responsibilities as part of the Uni Connect programme.
What is the legal basis of the processing?
We process targeting data provided to us by schools to ensure that we are working with the students identified by the Office for Students. In so doing we are carrying out a ‘public task’, as we are funded as part of the Uni Connect programme by the Office for Students.
Once you participate in a Next Steps South West activity, we will process your data as a ‘public task’ to provide evidence to our funding body that we have worked with students. We also process this data to evaluate the impact of our project on you and other young people that we work with.
Who will your personal data be shared with?
Within Next Steps South West, your data is shared with only those Next Steps South West staff who need access for the processing purposes set out in this policy.
We will also share your personal details to match your survey answers with other data held by other organisations, so that we can track your progress over time. These organisations are:
- The Office for Students
- HESA (the Higher Education Statistics Agency)
- UCAS (the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service), including their STROBE service
- HEAT (Higher Education Access Tracker)
- NSSW Higher Education Institution delivery partners
- NPD (the National Pupil Database)
- CFE Research
- Behavioural Insights Team
- Education and Skills Funding Agency
- Department for Education
- The University of Plymouth
- External Examiners
We always have contracts in place before sharing your data with any other data controllers or contractors.
Sometimes your personal data is processed by these organisations outside the European Economic Area (e.g., because they use a cloud-based system with servers based outside the EEA), and if so, appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure the confidentiality and security of your personal data.
We do not share your data with external organisations for marketing their products or services. We do not sell your personal data to third parties under any circumstances or permit third parties to sell on the data we have shared with them.
How long is your data kept?
Your personal details will be retained by Next Steps South West within a secure database until the end of the Uni Connect programme.
If you engage in activities delivered by Next Steps South West your personal details will be retained on the HEAT database for 15 years from the year you are eligible to enter Higher Education. This will allow HEAT to build a picture of HE access, continuation, attainment, graduation, and employment outcomes.
However, if upon reviewing your student records one year after completing Year 13 or FE Level 3 Year 2 education, it is found that you have not participated in any Next Steps South West activities, we will ensure your personal details are removed from the HEAT database.
Controlling your personal information
If you have completed a student baseline survey and wish to withdraw your data, you will need to contact CFE Research by email or telephone using the following contact details:
Email: ncop@cfe.org.uk
Telephone: 0116 229 3300
If you are concerned the personal information we hold on you is not accurate and wish to have it corrected or, you no longer wish to be part of the NSSW project please get in contact. You can write, email, or call us to discuss this further using the following contact details:
Mailing address:
Next Steps South West
The University of Plymouth
Drake Circus
Plymouth University
Devon
PL4 8AA
Email: nextstepssw@plymouth.ac.uk
Telephone: 01752 587505
Please be aware that if you do decide to withdraw from CFE Research or the Next Steps South West project, any data that has already been committed to research publications cannot be destroyed.
For enquiries about Subject Access Requests or if you have a Data Protection query or complaint, please email dpo@plymouth.ac.uk
You also have the right to lodge a complaint about the processing of your personal data with the Information Commissioner’s Office who can be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
This document is effective from 25th January 2024. It is reviewed and updated when necessary