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Privacy Policy

Myerscough College and University Centre is committed to protecting any personal information that is made available to us when you visit our website, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and data protection legislation. This policy outlines what categories of information we retain and how we use it.  We may need to make changes to our Privacy Policy; so please check our website for updates from time to time. If there are important changes such as changes to how your personal data will be processed; we will contact you to let you know.

This version of our Privacy and Cookies Policy was last updated on 24 May 2018.

Our Privacy Notices can be viewed here:

Enquirers, Applicants and Students

Staff and Job Applicants

Governors

Sports Membership

Venue Hire

Our Data Protection Policy can be viewed and downloaded from our Policy and Procedures page.

Who we are

We are Myerscough College and University Centre, provider of Further Education, Higher Education and a range of commercial services.  We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and our registration number is Z8917574.

How to contact us

If you have any questions about our Privacy and Cookies Policy or the information we collect or use about you, please contact:

Data Protection Officer
Myerscough College
St Michaels Road
Bilsborrow, Preston
PR3 0RY

Email: dpo@myerscough.ac.uk

 

Our website

You do not have to create an account or provide us with any personal information to access our website.   We will not collect or store any personal information through your use of our website unless you specifically provide it to us, for example by completing a form.  When you do complete any form using our website, you consent for us to use this information for the purpose of your enquiry, for example

  • To register for Course Advice Mornings, Applicant Days or Taster Days;
  • To purchase tickets for our annual Open Day and Country Fair event;
  • To order a publication such as a printed prospectus;
  • If you contact us via our website contact form;
  • To book the Stumble Inn for an event;
  • To subscribe to email marketing communications such as online newsletters.

 Some of the personal data we store and process may include: 

  • Your name, title, date of birth, age and gender;
  • Your contact details including address, email address and phone number;
  • Your subject/area of interest;
  • Your current school or college, if relevant.

Any payments processed via our website are done so in full compliance with the Payment Card Industry Security Standard (PCI DSS).

 

Cookies

In addition to the collection, retention and use of directly provided personal information, Myerscough College and University Centre uses ‘cookies’ to store and retrieve anonymous information during each visit to the website.

It is important for you to understand what cookies are, what we use cookies for and how to disable them if you do not wish for them to be used whilst visiting this site.

A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your computer or device by websites that you visit. Cookies are widely used in order to enhance websites, providing a more tailored and personal experience, whilst permitting websites to review and analyse anonymous information about visitors, for example time spent on particular pages. Some of these cookies are presented by us, some of the cookies are presented by third-parties such as Google, Facebook and Twitter. A cookie does not identify the individual viewing a web page and does not give us access to your computer.

Further information about cookies can be found at www.allaboutcookies.org. If you have any queries or concerns about our use of cookies on this website, please contact marketing@myerscough.ac.uk.

All changes to our cookie policy will appear on this page.

The following cookies are used on our site:

 

Name

Domain

Purpose

Facebook

facebook.com

Used to track visitors
Features for sharing via Facebook. Does not set a cookie by itself, but if one is present it will read it.

Twitter

r.twimg.com

Used to track visitors
Features for sharing via Twitter, and viewing tweets by other people.

AddThis (social network links)

addthis.com/

Used to track visitors
AddThis state on their website: 'The __atuvc cookie is created and read by our JavaScript on the client side in order to make sure the user sees the updated count if they share a page and return to it before our share count cache is updated. No data from that cookie is sent back to AddThis and removing it when disabling cookies would cause unexpected behavior for users.'

Google Analytics

www.ucmyerscough.ac.uk

Used to track visitors
Collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited.

UNIT-e Online (Capita)

www.myerscough.ac.uk

Used to keep visitor logged in

UNIT-e Online products use session cookies only

  • Session cookies only hold a session ID
  • No user-specific information is held within any UNIT-e Online products cookie
  • All session cookies are deleted at the end of a user session
  • UNIT-e Online products do not use any persistent cookies
  • UNIT-e Online products session cookies are first-party only, no third-party cookies are used

Password protected pages and forms

www.myerscough.ac.uk

Used to keep visitor logged in
Where a page or a form requires a login (for example, 1416 applications, or Awards photography) a cookie is used for the session only, so the visitor does not have to keep logging in. This cookie does not retain or forward information about the person logging in.

 

Google Analytics 

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ('Google'). Google Analytics uses cookies to help us analyse how users use our site. The anonymous information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this anonymous information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity, including the number of visitors to the website, where they have come to the website from, the pages they visit and the length of time they have spent on the website, for ourselves and other website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. We use these reports to improve the way our website works. Google may also transfer the information collected by the Google Analytics cookie to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

Myerscough College and University Centre also uses third party vendor re-marketing tracking cookies, including the Google Adwords tracking cookie. This means we will continue to show ads to you across the internet, specifically on the Google Content Network (GCN). As always we respect your privacy and are not collecting any identifiable information through the use of Google’s or any other 3rd party remarketing system.

The third-party vendors, including Google, whose services we use will place cookies on web browsers in order to serve ads based on past visits to our website. Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to a website. This allows us to make special offers and continue to market our services to those who have shown interest in our services.

You may opt out of the DoubleClick cookie by visiting the Google advertising opt-out page or you may opt out of Google Analytics by visiting the Google Analytics opt-out page.

Google has additional information available about their Remarketing Privacy Guidelines, and Restrictions.

 

 

How to Disable Cookies

You may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org which contains further general information about cookies together with comprehensive information about how to restrict or block cookies using your browser and how to delete cookies from your computer. However, if you disable the use of cookies the website may lose some useful functionality.

 

Applying for a Course

When you apply to join a course through the ‘Apply’ tab on one of our course factsheets, you will be asked to register and create an account, this is so that we can process your application.  In order to create an account, the following personal information will be required:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Contact Number
  • Email Address
  • Gender
  • Date of Birth

Should you choose not to continue with your application at any point, your personal information will be kept for no longer than six months from the start date of the course you applied to join.

Other information we collect and use

We collect and process personal information about prospective and current students and their parents to ensure a positive teaching, learning and assessment experience and to meet our statutory obligations.    The personal information that we collect about you when you apply for a course includes: 

  • Details about yourself, including your name, date of birth and gender
  • Contact details, including your address, email address and telephone numbers
  • Details about your previous qualifications, employment and educational history
  • Your EU residential status
  • Information about medical, welfare of health conditions, including whether or not you have a learning difficulty or disability
  • Your ethnic origin
  • Any criminal convictions
  • The name of the last school that you attended (if recent)
  • If you are, or have been, in local authority care
  • Your next of kin and emergency contacts
  • Whether you are interested in applying for residential accommodation
  • Your personal statement and career aspirations, in order to assess your suitability for your chosen course of study
  • Parent/Carer contact details for those students under the age of 18 in order that we may share information in respect of academic progress

 We will only use your personal information for the purpose for which you provided it to us.

 

How we collect your information

We may collect your personal information directly from you, from a variety of sources, including: at a course advice or open day events; when you visit our website or enquire about a course; when you submit an application to join and then enrol upon a course; during the course of your studies when you become a student with us.

Why we collect and use your information

Where you have provided personal information to us, we will use this only for its intended purpose:

  • To process your registration for a Course Advice Mornings Applicant Day or Taster Day;
  • To process and issue your tickets to our annual Open Day and Country Fair event;
  • To send you a publication such as a printed prospectus;
  • To respond to a query you submitted via our website contact form;
  • To process your event booking at the Stumble Inn;
  • To send marketing communications, where we have your explicit consent to do so.

 We take your privacy very seriously and will only ever collect and use your personal information where it is necessary, fair and lawful to do so. We will collect and use your information only where: 

  • We have a lawful basis to do so; or
  • You have given us your explicit consent to do so.

 

Who we may share your information with

If you are a student, we may share your information with third parties during the course of your studies with us to fulfil our contractual and legal obligations.

These third parties include: 

  • Education Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)
  • Office for Students
  • University of Central Lancashire
  • Young Peoples Services (Local Authority)
  • Higher Education Statistics Agency
  • Student Loans Company and Student Finance
  • Pay my Student (bursary and scholarship applications)
  • The Police and other regulatory bodies when required as part of a criminal investigation or for the prevention and detection of crime
  • External Examiners
  • UK Visas and Immigration Agency (Tier 4 sponsored international students)
  • Learner Record Services
  • Professional Bodies

We will never sell or rent your personal details to someone else. Whenever we share your personal information, we will do so in line with our obligations to keep your information safe and secure.

 

Where your information is processed

All of your personal information is processed in the UK and European Economic Area (EEA).

 

How we store and protect your personal information

We take information and system security very seriously and we strive to comply with our obligations at all times. Any personal information which is collected, recorded or used in any way, whether on paper, online or any other media, will have appropriate safeguards applied in line with our data protection obligations.

Your information is protected by controls designed to minimise loss or damage through accident, negligence or deliberate actions. Our staff also protect sensitive or confidential information when storing or transmitting information electronically and must undertake annual training on this.

Our security controls are in line with industry standards and good practice; providing an environment that manages risks to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your information.

 

How long we keep your information

All personal information will only be held for as long as we are legally required to do so, or as long as is necessary to fulfil our duties as a Further and Higher Education College.   After this, we have a policy of securely disposing of, or anonymising personal information.

 

People who make a complaint to us

When we receive a complaint from a person, we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals

involved in the complaint.

We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide. We do compile statistics showing information like the number of complaints we receive, but not in a form which identifies anyone.

We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for four years from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle.

Cyber Security

  1. Network Security.

The College protects its networks from attack by defending the network perimeter, blocking unauthorised access and malicious content. Security controls are tested and monitored on a daily basis.

  1. Access Rights.

Management processes are in place to limit number of privileged accounts. User rights are set to least privilege required and user activity is monitored.  Activity and audit logs are checked regularly.

  1. Incident Management

The College has an established incident response and disaster recovery capability. Incident management plans are in place and regularly exercised.  Criminal incidents will be reported to law enforcement agencies.

  1. Monitoring.

A monitoring and reporting strategy has been established based upon supporting policies. All network systems are continuously monitored. Logs are scanned for unusual activity that could indicate an attack or inappropriate behaviour.

  1. Malware Prevention

Anti-malware defences have been deployed over the entire virtual estate.

  1. Portable Media Controls.

There are restrictions on the use of removable media. All allowed removable media is scanned for malware before allowed onto the College systems

  1. Secure Configurations

Security patches are applied promptly and all systems are based upon a secure configuration. All systems are recoded in the configuration management database.

  1. Remote Working

Data is protected both in transit and at rest. Remote and mobile workforce adhere to a mobile and remote working security policy.

  1. Use Education and Awareness

Staff will be given instruction on cyber security policies covering acceptable and secure use of systems. Staff must maintain awareness of cyber risks.

Your individual rights

You have several rights in relation to how Myerscough College and University Centre uses your information. They are:

 

Right to be informed

You have a right to receive clear and easy to understand information on what personal information we have, why and who we share it with – we do this in our Privacy Policy and Privacy Notices. 

 

Right of Access

You have the right of access to your personal information. If you wish to receive a copy of the personal information we hold on you, you may make a data subject access request (DSAR).

 

Right to request that your personal information be rectified

If your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete, you can request that it is corrected.

 

Right to request erasure

In certain circumstances, you can ask for your information to be deleted or removed if there is not a lawful basis for us to continue to process it.

 

Right to restrict processing

You can ask that we stop the processing of your personal information for certain reasons. This means that we are still permitted to keep your information – but only to ensure we don’t use it in the future for those reasons you have restricted.

 

Right to data portability

You can ask for a copy of your personal information for your own purposes to use across different services.  In certain circumstances, you may move, copy or transfer the personal information we hold to another company in a safe and secure way. For example, if you were moving to another education provider.

 

Right to object

You can object to us processing your personal information where it is based on our legitimate interests.

 

Rights related to automatic decision making including profiling

Myerscough College and University Centre does not undertake any automatic decision making

 

How to Make a Complaint

We will always strive to collect, use and safeguard your personal information in line with data protection laws. If you do not believe we have handled your information as set out in our Privacy Policy, please let us know by emailing complaints@myerscough.ac.uk.

You also have the right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the regulatory body for UK data protection, and they can be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/.