Student privacy notice

Information you need to know

Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) needs to obtain and process a range of information about its students in order to exercise its responsibilities, fulfil its education, training and support obligations to you, and carry out other essential university activities.

This privacy notice explains how we use your personal information and your rights regarding that information. We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use your data and to meeting our data protection obligations.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, or would like to request a hard copy of it, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

Information we are collecting

We collect a range of information about you - for recruitment, enrolment and admission, to deliver and administer your education and to support you through your student journey.

We will hold your application, your funding arrangements, details of your program of study and academic achievement.

As you progress through your course, we will collect attendance, supervisory, assessment and graduation information about you.

When you engage with University services, we will collect details necessary to provide that service to you, for example for advice and wellbeing support, academic and pastoral services.

We will also collect information so that we can comply with our health and safety and management duties as well as for research, statistical and archival purposes.

In all cases, we will hold your name, contact details, date of birth, nationality and immigration status, contact details and emergency contact details.

At registration, we ask you to upload a photograph of yourself via MyPhoto so that we can create your Student ID card. Your photograph will also be used as your profile picture associated with your student account to help staff easily identify you. You can change or remove the photo at any time.

Your student email account is the primary way you will be contacted by LJMU. The University will use this account to send you emails about important academic information or information and advice that we feel may be beneficial to your studies.

At registration, you will also be asked for your contact preferences for emails related to student recruitment and other offers and opportunities that LJMU may want to send to you. Such emails will only be sent to you with your consent.

This list is not exhaustive and you will be given specific information when using a particular service – for example using counselling services or where we need to tell you about something that is not already covered elsewhere. More information can be found in our other privacy notices created for users of specific services.

Staff within your subjects school or faculty may be required to process your personal data to resolve complaints locally under Stage 1 of the Students Complaints Procedure. In some schools, complaints of harassment, bullying and inappropriate behaviour may be resolved by an Inclusion Ambassadors Network of staff. In these cases, records of the complaint and outcome may be kept by the EDI coordinator for the purpose of analysis. Personal data related to these complaints will be kept for two years after resolution of the complaint.

Where your programme is regulated by a Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Body (PSRB), the University has obligations to ensure that students are safe, suitable and fit to practise. This may mean that information you provide to the University (including information submitted through academic, wellbeing or support processes) is shared with authorised staff involved in Fitness to Practise procedures where this is appropriate and necessary. Only the minimum relevant information will be shared, and access will be strictly limited to those with a legitimate role in the Fitness to Practise process.

Please do not hesitate to ask us if you have any questions about any specific circumstances where your data has been collected.

Where we get your information from

Depending on your route of entry to LJMU we will have obtained your details from a number of sources.

If you applied to your course at LJMU via UCAS (Universities and Collages Admission Service) your details will have been shared directly and securely with us.

You may have applied for your course directly by completing an application form and providing your contact information to our admissions teams.

You may have had help from an international study agency who will have passed information to us with your permission.

You may have had your details passed to us directly by your employer, or another higher education institution that partners with LJMU to provide study opportunities.

All students provide personal data directly to LJMU at registration. Students are asked to verify and update this information at the beginning of each year of study on their programme.

Students can amend information such as their contact details at any time during their study by accessing “MY LJMU” on our website, contacting our Academic Registry team or via telephone on 0151 231 3289.

We will also collect and receive information from students as part of their interaction with our various services.

The University operates a CCTV system for security and crime prevention purposes, to maintain a safe environment and to investigate complaints or concerns regarding safety or security. The CCTV system covers University buildings (inside and outside) and public areas across our campuses. Your images are likely to be captured by the CCTV system while you are on, in, or near University premises.

Why we are collecting your data and the legal basis for this

We need to collect personal data from you for several reasons. For example, we need to keep proper records, provide support and guidance, monitor your attendance and academic progress and provide appropriate learning and teaching support.

We hold financial, sponsorship and fees data so that we can invoice you correctly and process payments.

We collect information about health and disability so that we can properly support you during your time at the University.

We will use your data to keep in touch with you after graduation and for alumni relations.

We also need to collect data so that we can run the business and activities of the University and in order to fulfil our legal obligations.

At all times we will do so in compliance with the principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and for one of the legal bases set out in Articles 6 and 9 of the GDPR.

In some cases, we will use your personal data because it is necessary to fulfil our contract with you, or where we have a legal obligation to so do.

In other cases, we will use your data to perform the tasks we carry out in the public interest, such as the provision of higher education and research.

Sometimes we will use your data on the basis of the legitimate interests of the University or an external organisation (for example, to enable you to access external services).

In other cases we may feel it is appropriate to only use your personal data with your full consent. Where we do this, you will be given full details of what you are consenting to and how you can withdraw that consent.

CCTV footage will be used to maintain the security of the University community, enhance public safety, prevent and detect crime, and apprehend and prosecute offenders. It will also be used in the investigation of complaints and allegations made under the University’s rules, regulations, procedures and codes of practice. Further information is available in our CCTV Privacy Notice.

Who has access to this data

Your personal data will only be processed by relevant LJMU staff where the data is necessary for them to undertake their designated role.

Examples of relevant staff may include:

  • Your Academic Tutors
  • Academic Registry staff and Administrators in your facility
  • Student Advice and Wellbeing
  • Student Governance
  • Alumni Services and other teams that you engage with
  • IT Services
  • Security and Data Protection Teams

We may also be required to share your information with some external parties.

Examples of external parties include:

  • Local Authorities (for example, council tax and other benefit purposes, including fraudulent claims).
  • Relevant government departments and other public bodies to which the University has a statutory obligation to release information, including the Student Loan Company, The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and other equivalent bodies from other countries.
  • The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Details on how HESA processes your personal data are set out in the HESA Student Data Collection Notice.
  • Police and other law enforcement agencies when they make a request for the purposes of detecting or preventing crime or the apprehension and prosecution of offenders, or if there are any safeguarding concerns relating to you or other members of the LJMU community.
  • Providers of software we use or organisers of events for a strict purpose.
  • Providers of our managed print services.
  • As a Tier 4 licensed sponsor, we may be required to give information to the UK Visas and Immigration Agency (UKVI) about students with visas to study - our sponsorship duties include informing the UKVI if a student fails to register, withdraws, or fails to attend classes and hand in work.
  • External examiners and assessors.
  • Your employer, where LJMU is delivering training on their behalf. This includes learners on our Community Justice Program who are Trainee Probation Officers. This data will be limited to your education outcomes, and the outcomes of any academic misconduct investigations that relate to you.
  • The Liverpool and Wirral Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference when we consider it necessary for safeguarding purposes.
  • Accommodation providers when we consider it necessary to protect the welfare of yourself, another student or any other person or our wider LJMU community.
  • Providers of the SafeZone app to support campus safety and emergency responses.

John Moores Student Union

The University works very closely with the student union to ensure a greater level of service to our students and to support your student journey. We share personal data with JMSU to enable your membership of the student union and associated clubs and societies. If you do not wish to be a member of the student union, you can opt out at any time by either opting out on your student registration form or by visiting My Account in the My LJMU app.

We will also share personal data with JMSU in the event of safeguarding concerns, complaints or disciplinary matters, and in the event of a major incident where the sharing is necessary and there is a clear lawful basis to do so. There is a specific data sharing agreement in place between the University and JMSU.

JMSU is an independent data controller. For more information on how JMSU use your data, please see their website.

We will not share your data with parents without your consent other than in very serious emergency circumstances. All necessary information will be issued to you, the student, directly. It is then your responsibility to pass relevant information onto your parents or sponsors.

In some particular cases, the University may ask you to sign an agreement to seek your permission to provide information directly to a sponsor – for example, an employer. In this event you are giving your permission for the University to provide this information directly to the sponsor.

Student email addresses are published in the University’s Outlook Address Book. This is for internal access only. You should not pass on anybody’s email address without their express permission.

How the University protects your data

The University takes data protection very seriously. The information we collect is stored safely and securely and processed in accordance with GDPR.

Your personal data will be handled in line with the University’s Data Protection and Information Security Policies.

How long the University keeps your data

Your personal data will only be kept as long as necessary.

Our Records Retention Schedule contains details of each type of record held across the organisation, who has responsibility for them and how long they should be held for.

Your rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

  • access and obtain a copy of your data on request
  • ask the University to correct inaccurate or incomplete data
  • ask the University to delete or stop processing your data, for example, where the data is no longer necessary or legally required for the purposes of processing
  • object to processing where we are relying on a legitimate interest
  • request transfer of your data to another party

If your personal data has been provided by consent, you have a right to withdraw that consent at any time.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer at DPO@ljmu.ac.uk

If you do not provide data

We do require certain information from you to enable us to provide you with an education. You will engage with some of our teams on an optional basis, such as Student Life and Wellbeing and Alumni Services. These teams will only be able to assist you or keep you informed if you choose to provide your information to them.

Transfers of data outside the UK

Generally, we do not send your personal data outside the UK. However, in some specific cases we may transfer the personal data we collect to countries outside the UK in order to perform our contract with you, or a contract with another organisation that requires your personal data, for example a collaboration agreement with a university based outside of the UK. Where we do this, we will ensure that your personal information is protected by way of an ‘adequacy regulation’ with the UK or by putting alternative appropriate measures in place to ensure that your personal information is treated by those third parties in a way that is consistent with and which respects, the UK laws on data protection. For example, model contractual clauses, data sharing and data processing agreement and binding corporate rules (where applicable).

Automated decision-making

We will not make any decisions about you automatically using a computer, based on your personal data. All decisions affecting you will be made by a human.

How to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office

You have the right to complain to The Information Commissioner if you believe that our processing of your personal data does not meet our data protection obligations. The Information Commissioner can be contacted using the following information:

Post: Information Commissioners Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK95AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Email: contact can be made by accessing the ICO website