Alumni Relations Privacy Policy

At the time of graduation, your relevant student data is duplicated from the student records system to the alumni database. For all alumni, we maintain a basic record of your details as transferred from our student database when you complete your studies, which includes your name, date of birth, gender, nationality, course of study, dates of study and final award and contact data (postal address, email, phone number). We also retain the following data, if you have provided it:

• Occupational data (e.g. your job sector and employer);
• Hobbies and interests (e.g. to organise student/alumni sports events);
• Your relationships with others within the University network;
• Media coverage of you and content created by and about you, including social media postings;
• Photographs submitted to us by you for use in alumni relations activities such as events, alumni publications, social media and other promotional materials; and
• Allergies/dietary requirements for only and not beyond specific events you wish to attend.

Most of the personal data used by the alumni team comes from you or already exists within the University’s databases (e.g. via the student records system). We also gather data from public sources (e.g. LinkedIn) to understand the companies and industries our alumni network work in. We use research to update data held on you and your ability and willingness to volunteer with the University.

We also keep records on:

• Any communications we have exchanged with you;
• Your engagement with the University at meetings, events, clubs, campus visits, as well as volunteering and networking opportunities (e.g. registration and attendance details, notes of conversations between our team and you about future alumni projects or activities);
• Your use of the University’s services (e.g. use of our online careers platform, Handshake, or the alumni networking platform, Re:Connect). Operational data on engagement with University services (i.e. careers appointments, logins, resources accessed, job applications) are retained within these platforms and subject to deletion in line with the University’s retention policies. 
• Web analytics about your use of the University’s online properties, such as:
• IP address, location and browser type;
• Navigation data and referral source;
• Length of visit and page views;
• Donation and wealth history, such as:
  • Your history of donations made to the University and previous Gift Aid declarations (we keep these records for up to 7 years as required by HMRC); and
  • Historical wealth and historical giving potential to the University.

The University is fully PCI-DSS compliant and does not store credit/debit card details. Bank details used for processing Direct Debits are stored by a trusted third-party, under the Direct Debit Guarantee scheme.

In order to provide you with a bespoke alumni service, we use a secure database which tracks your interactions with the University over time. Access to this database is restricted to members of staff who need to view the data to undertake their duties. This includes all members of the Alumni Community Team, IT services and the Careers team. At times, your data can be shared internally with other departments/staff who work closely with the Alumni Community Team, including academic staff.

We use your data on the basis of consent, more specifically implied consent. This means, from the context of our relationship, we understand that being part of our alumni activities would be of interest to you. However, you can update your communication preferences or simply opt out from our alumni activities at any time by contacting us here. We will use your data for the following purposes unless you change your communication preferences or opt out:

• Sending you communications and updates about the University;
• Inviting you to events (e.g. alumni reunions);
• Promoting volunteering engagements (e.g. mentoring opportunities);
• Offering you benefits, discounts and services (e.g. careers support, Regent’s Clubs, postgraduate, or executive programmes);
• Building an engaged alumni community to support the University’s educational mission and its strategic and operational aims (e.g. by advisory boards); 
• For administrative purposes (e.g. processing your access card application);
• Conducting research (e.g. what University alumni go on to do); and
• Internal and external reporting (e.g. board meetings and publications). 

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected.  Some of your personal data will be retained in perpetuity (or until or your consent is withdrawn), where it is understood to be accurate and relevant to our purpose of supporting and promoting the alumni community. Data collected to fulfil a specific and time-limited purpose (e.g. testimonials) is securely destroyed in line with our retention and destruction policy.

For further details about the retention periods for all our activities, please contact [email protected].

We can at times share data with third party suppliers to provide services on our behalf. This includes email marketing services to send communications or web services (e.g. online forms) to update your details. 

Your data can also be shared with third parties engaged in providing additional benefits to alumni (e.g. e-mentoring and events via our platform Re:Connect). 

We will only share data with external service providers using appropriate safeguards. They will only process your personal data in line with our policies.

We will not sell your personal data to any third party.

All your personal data is processed by our staff in the UK. However, for the purposes of IT hosting and maintenance, this data is stored on servers within the European Union (“EU”), as permitted under UK adequacy regulations, and the United States (“US”). Where data is stored in the US, we have taken steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this notice. If you would like to learn about the safeguards in place for these transfers, you can contact us by email to [email protected] or in writing to: Governance Office, Regent's University London, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4NS.

You have a number of rights in relation to the processing of your data which you can exercise under certain circumstances. These rights are:

• Right to access your personal data – You have the right to obtain confirmation that your data is being processed lawfully and to access your own personal data. There is no charge for this unless the request is considered manifestly unfounded or excessive, particularly where it is repetitive. We may charge a ‘reasonable fee’ which may also apply should further copies of the same personal data be requested. This fee will be based on the administrative cost of providing the personal data.
• Right for rectification – The accuracy of your personal data is important to us. You can request to have any incomplete or inaccurate personal data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new personal data you provide to us.
• Right for deletion – If you decide that you no longer wish the University to hold your personal data, you can ask us to delete your personal data where there is no legitimate reason for the University to continue to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing. 
• Right to object to processing – You have a right to object to the processing of your personal data in relation to direct marketing purposes. 
• Right to restrict processing – You can ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data for the below reasons:
• You are challenging the accuracy of your data, and you don’t want us to process your data until the accuracy of the data is confirmed;
• Where we process your data unlawfully, but you do not want us to erase it; and
• We no longer need your personal data but you require us to retain your data in order to exercise or defend legal claims. 
• Request to transfers your data (data portability) – You can ask us to transfer your data to a third party.  Please note that this right only applies to automated personal data which you initially provided consent for us to use.  
• Right to withdraw consent – Where we are processing your data on the basis of your consent, you have a right at any time to withdraw your consent and we will stop processing your data if you do so. Please note that where you decide to withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide you with certain services linked to this consent. 
• Rights related to automated decision-making including profiling – Our alumni activities do not involve automated decision making including profiling.

If you want to exercise any of these rights, please contact us by email to [email protected] or in writing to: Governance Office, Regent's University London, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4NS.

Once your identity has been verified, we will fulfil your request to exercise any of the rights within one month of receiving it. However, this period may be extended up to a further two months where requests are complex or numerous. You will be informed of this within one month of the request being received with an explanation of why an extension is necessary.

If you are not satisfied with our response to your request to exercise any of these rights or believe we are processing your data unlawfully, please let us know. If you remain unsatisfied, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office for guidance on your options: https://ico.org.uk.

Please contact us if you have any question about our privacy notice or the personal data we hold about you:

• by email at: [email protected]; or
• in writing to: Governance Office, Regent's University London, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4NS.

This Notice is subject to change to meet new legislative requirements or new processing activities, so please check this page occasionally to ensure you are informed of any changes. We will reach out to inform you if there are any significant changes made. This privacy notice was last updated in February 2024.