Plain English Data Privacy Notice  

Who are we?  

Future Quest is a Bristol area outreach partnership of universities and colleges, that form the Uni Connect partnership for Bristol and South Gloucestershire. Funded by the Office for Students (OfS), we aim to widen access to local progression pathways through collaboration, creating a landscape of opportunities and connections from early years to adulthood, to ensure all young people in our region have access to a wide range of pathways to success. We work with various funders to deliver projects targeting specific groups of students less likely to progress into Higher Education (HE).  

Future Quest is run by the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE Bristol), and UWE Bristol is the data controller. This means that UWE Bristol will make decisions on how your data is used and why.  

Purpose of the privacy notice  

This privacy notice explains how Future Quest at UWE Bristol collects, manages, and uses personal data for the purpose of carrying out Future Quest activities. ‘Personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (the data subject).  

This privacy notice adheres to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) principle of transparency. This means it gives information about: 

how and why personal data will be used;  

your rights under GDPR;  

how to contact UWE Bristol in relation to questions, concerns or exercising your rights regarding the use of your personal data; and  

child safety notice.  

Why are we processing your personal data?  

Future Quest delivers a wide range of outreach activity in schools and colleges to help young people better understand their future educational and employment choices. As part of this, you may attend activity workshops, take part in a mentoring scheme, or be provided with information relating to other activities such as open days and school events.  

We also work directly with schools to understand if we are meeting our objectives, and how this helps students’ educational outcomes and future employment.  

As a data controller, UWE Bristol is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 (or any successor legislation) and any other legislation directly relating to privacy laws that apply (together “the Data Protection Legislation”). General information on Data Protection law is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office (https://ico.org.uk/).   

How do we use your personal data?  

We use your personal data to:  

evaluate the effectiveness of our widening participation activities;  

understand how young people feel about different progression routes, and see how our activities impact those feelings; 

evaluate activity and progression to gain a better understanding of what young people think about Higher Education and higher skills training; 

track your educational journey to measure the impact of Future Quest;  

conduct surveys for Future Quest and, where required, other delivery Partners and Organisations;  

produce reports for funders and partners as part of our contractual obligations;  

plan and run activities and keep participants safe; 

monitor and report on participation in Future Quest activities.  

We also work closely with the Widening Access team at UWE Bristol to deliver sustained and progressive programmes of targeted outreach activity.  

We will only process your personal data when the law allows us to. We will always comply with UWE Bristol’s policies and procedures in processing your personal data. Our lawful basis for using your personal data for the above activities is as follow:  

Personal data is processed under the condition of Public task. 

Where special category personal data, such as racial or ethnic origin or personal health information, is used, we rely on the lawful basis under Article 9(2)(j) in accordance with Article 89(1) of the UK GDPR and Schedule 1 part 1(4) of the Data Protection Act 2018.  

You can find out more information about lawful bases here.  

We do not use automated decision making when processing your personal data.  

What data do we collect?  

As well as the information we collect when taking part in Future Quest activities, we will also collect a range of demographic and personal data about you. This includes your name, date of birth, post code, school email address, school you attend, gender, receipt of free school meals, young carer status, care status, and your educational history. We may also collect special category sensitive data which may include disability status and racial or ethnic origin.  

We collect this data through the following channels:  

direct from your school or college;  

from you when you attend any Future Quest activities or events;  

through the completion of online surveys to support the wider goals of Future Quest and its delivery partners.  

Please note, your data is collected as part of the overall delivery aim of Future Quest as mentioned in this privacy notice even if you do not attend any of our activities.  

Who do we share your data with?  

The personal data that we process about you will be linked to your information held in national data sets so that we can see whether our activities influence your later educational and employment outcomes. Where we are required to share your information, we will ensure only the relevant and minimum data is shared. This involves anonymising your data where possible. Recipients of data include:  

The Office for Students (OfS): OfS are the national funder of Uni Connect. We share information as part of our regular reporting activities. The Office for Students' privacy notice is available. Uni Connect - Office for Students governs all processing of personal data for Uni Connect where OfS are the data controller.  

Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT): This is the secure monitoring and evaluation service we use to store your data and carry out some analysis. Use of this service is a requirement of the work we do for the Office for Students and we use the reports generated by the system to help us evaluate all areas of our work. More information on how HEAT processes your data is available on the HEAT website.  

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA/JiscISC): This organisation collects data from universities and further education colleges about who is registered on programmes of study and also surveys graduates about their future employment outcomes.  

University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS): A charity who manages University and HE applications. We share personal data with UCAS to see how many participants in Future Quest activities have gone to university and what sort of institution they’ve chosen.  

We also share information we collect with delivery partners in the following ways:  

NHS England: If you take part in the Routes into Medicine and Allied Health Professions programme, we will use your data to produce regular reports of participation. These reports may include data such as ethnicity and disability, but we will not share any information which might allow you to be identified.  

Wessex Inspiration Network (WIN): We work with the WIN as a delivery partner of the Routes into Medicine and Allied Health Professions programme. We may share some personal information with the WIN to allow us both to carry out essential work.  

Your school/college: We receive your personal data from your school/college, and we use this information to share how many young people have engaged with Future Quest.  

We may share specific information with your consent or if we are required to do so under another legal basis (see above for more information).  

We may work with other delivery partners who contribute to the aims and goal of Future Quest and this list will be updated depending on the sharing requirements.  

How do we keep your data secure?  

We take a robust approach to protecting your information with secure electronic and physical storage areas.  Access to your personal data is strictly controlled on a need to know basis and data is stored and transmitted securely using methods such as encryption and access controls for physical records where appropriate.  

Alongside these technical measures, there are comprehensive and effective policies and processes in place to ensure that those who process your personal information are aware of their obligations and responsibilities for the data they have access to.  

By default, people are only granted access to the information they require to perform their duties. Mandatory data protection and information security training is provided to staff and expert advice available if needed.  

How long do we keep your data for?  

Future Quest is using the Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) to help us link to large administrative datasets. Once the Future Quest programme has come to an end, we will retain a copy of your data in HEAT so UWE Bristol and partners of HEAT can continue to follow your progress. We will keep students’ data in accordance with HEAT’s privacy notice, for up to 15 years, or until the student turns 30, or for 15 years from the point at which the student would become eligible for higher education.  

Please see our University Records Management Policy and Records Retention Schedules for more detailed information. These are available by contacting our Data Protection Office at dataprotection@uwe.ac.uk  

Child safety notice  

Because we work with students from secondary school to college, we have strict procedures in place to make sure everyone’s personal information is kept safe. Get in touch at the address below if you would like more information.   

Your Rights and how to exercise them  

Under the Data Protection legislation, you have the following qualified rights:  

the right to access your personal data held by or on behalf of UWE Bristol;  

the right to rectification if the information is inaccurate or incomplete;  

the right to restrict processing and/or erasure of your personal data;  

the right to data portability;  

the right to object to processing;  

the right to object to automated decision making and profiling;  

the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).  

To protect your privacy and the privacy of others, we will verify your identity before giving effect to your rights. To exercise any of your rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer.  

How to contact us  

We will always respond to concerns or queries you may have. If you wish to exercise your rights or have any other general data protection queries, please contact UWE Bristol’s Data Protection Officer (dataprotection@uwe.ac.uk).  

If you have any questions about the information above, email future.quest@uwe.ac.uk.