Regent's University London (the University) is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
General information about this Privacy notice
We have certain responsibilities we need to uphold in accordance with data protection laws. In the UK, these are the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. We need to tell you about the different ways we collect, use, and share your personal data. This Privacy Notice explains when and why we collect and process personal data relating to prospective and existing students, how we use it, the conditions under which we can at times disclose it to others and how we keep it secure. Further information about how and why we use your personal data may also be provided when you use certain services offered by the University.
This Privacy Notice may be updated to reflect changes to internal processes or legislative requirements, so please review the ‘Changes to our privacy notice’ section below to understand when this Notice was last updated.
Who are we?
Regent’s University London is a private institution located in London, United Kingdom. The University has an international student body with students coming from over 140 countries. The University has its campus in Regent's Park, Central London.
The University as a Data Controller
Regent’s University London Limited (trading as Regent's University London) is the 'data controller' for all the data processing activities conducted, as defined under the UK GDPR. In simple terms, we are the decision makers who manage how your data is used, making sure it is handled legally and safely and in line with the above laws. Our registration number with the data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), is ZA778245 and we are committed to ensuring that your personal data will only be collected and processed by the University in accordance with the relevant legislation.
Any questions regarding this Notice or our privacy practices should be sent by email to [email protected] or in writing to: Governance Office, Regent's University London, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4NS.
Our commitment to securing your personal data
The University is dedicated to keeping your data safe and processing it in line with your expectations. We take reasonable measures to protect your data from being accidently lost, used, or accessed. We limit access to your data to only those who genuinely need it to carry out their work or provide services to you. We provide regular training to our teams to ensure everyone understands the importance of protecting data and we regularly review our policies and controls to stay ahead of current and potential risks.
Your data
What personal data is collected from you?
We collect personal data when we have a specific purpose to do so.
The types of personal data we collect and process include:
Full Name, including Surname;
Home address and phone number;
Mobile telephone number;
E-mail address;
IP address;
Date of birth;
Next of kin details;
Passport Number (or National Identity Card details) and visa details (where relevant);
Country of domicile and Nationality;
Photo image for ID pass;
CCTV images (when attending our site);
Financial records for payment processing and for claiming grants or bursaries (where relevant);
Educational history, work experience and other data from your CV or application form, if you provide this to us;
Attendance at and absence from classes;
Grades and academic performance;
Social media accounts;
Usage statistics (e.g. your activity within the University website and intranet);
Academic or personal references;
Academic work submitted by you during your studies; and
Whether you have been referred to us by an overseas agent.
Under certain circumstances, the University also processes some personal data that falls under ‘special category’ data. These relate to data regarding:
Gender;
Medical or health data;
Racial or ethnic origin;
Religious, political or similar beliefs;
Sexual orientation; and
Criminal convictions.
You will be able to choose whether you would like to disclose some of these special category data as guided during the application and enrolment stage.
We collect your personal data through:
the use of our enquiry form, your application to study with us and use of registration and enrolment forms;
your purchase of any of our products or services;
data that we request from you regarding your use of our service, to validate your previous academic achievements and your right to study in the UK;
third parties (e.g. UCAS, other institutions for joint programmes, Government Departments such as Home Office or the Students Loan Company). (For any instances where we obtain personal data from third parties, we make sure that the third party has a lawful basis for providing us with your personal data);
additional services provided by the University such as accommodation, career advice, financial support, student advice and welfare, and the student union;
your use of our website; and
your submission of academic work for assessment.
We also collect data about you and your visit to our website automatically using Cookies. Please see Appendix 1 for further information regarding our collection of website usage data through cookies.
Why do we collect your data?
We will process your data for a number of different purposes, depending on your relationship and interactions with us. These purposes will be reliant on a specific lawful basis defined within the UK GDPR.
We process your data in order to fulfil our obligations as an educational and research institution when you enter or intend to enter into a contract with us in relation to the provision of educational services, including:
when you make an application to join the University (we need to know your basic personal data in order to process your application, and during the time you enrol as a student, for your registration, provision of student ID card, and timetabling);
processing applications, registrations and enquiries;
provision of core teaching, learning and research activities, assessments, academic misconduct investigations and graduation;
maintaining your student record (including personal and academic details);
managing the academic processes (including teaching, exam board meetings, and awarding degrees); and
providing advice and support.
We also process your data to meet our statutory and legal obligations, which include the following:
reporting to governmental and regulatory bodies;
our obligations under equality legislation and health and safety legislation;
responding to requests from certain third parties such as law enforcement agencies (see below section on Third Parties); and
our statutory obligations requiring statutory returns and reporting to sponsors and government agencies such as HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) and the Home Office.
We also process your data for our legitimate interests, specifically for the circumstances outlined below:
to carry out statistical analysis of trends in data;
to carry out research, including research carried out by the university for monitoring and development activities or as part of the course of your studies (your data will never be published without your consent or without being anonymised); and
to contact you, should you withdraw your application, to seek your reason for doing so (and to provide support and advice where appropriate).
We also use data in aggregate form (so that no individual user is identified by name) to:
build up marketing profiles;
aid strategic development;
manage our relationship with advertisers and agents; and
audit usage of the website.
We also process your data based on your consent in the following circumstances:
Allowing you to participate in interactive features of our service and gaining feedback from you on the services provided;
Alumni development initiatives (see also the alumni privacy notice);
Conducting market research surveys and student satisfaction surveys;
Sending you information about products and services of ours which may be of interest to you;
Publication of your name and course of study in our graduation brochures; and
Using your image as part of our publications and social media posts (e.g.incidental shots of graduation ceremonies).
If you have consented to above activities, you may withdraw your consent at a later date. If you would like to withdraw your consent, 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.
We use cookies on the registration, application, and enquiry pages of our website, which may record user movements, including page scrolling, mouse clicks and text entered. The data we collect in this way helps us to identify usability issues, to improve the assistance and technical support we can provide to users. It is also used for aggregated and statistical reporting purposes. We only collect this data if you have consented on the use of analytics cookies. For more information on the use of cookies on our website, please refer to the Cookies section: Further information on the cookies used on this site.
How long will we keep your data for?
We will hold your personal data on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity and purpose it was collected for, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us. We regularly review the retention periods for personal data, and we will securely destroy data in line with our retention and destruction policy.
We retain education records on all former students indefinitely. This way we can provide you with a transcript long after the conclusion of your studies with us.
For further information about the retention of your data, you can contact us via email: [email protected].
Due to the way our IT infrastructure is set up and designed, parts of your personal data can be accessed by our parent company Galileo Global Education, which is located in France.
The University works with third party organisations and vendors, and we will share personal data with them for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services on our behalf, this includes:
Awarding bodies;
Third party IT systems/ support (such as Blackboard);
Organisations that provide anti-plagiarism software/support;
Auditors and consultants; and
Industry and academic partners, where you are undertaking a work or study placement (in the UK or abroad).
Under certain circumstances, your personal data will also be shared by the University with the third parties outlined below:
The police, or local authorities, or other public bodies, as required by law, for crime prevention/detection or anti-fraud purposes;
Home Office or other government agencies, in order to comply with our obligations as a sponsor of international students;
Present or potential employers, or other educational organisations, in order to confirm your academic qualifications;
Statutory reporting bodies and sector agencies such as the Office for Students (for the purpose of administering the national student survey) or UCAS;
The University’s agents for the purpose of administering our own surveys;
Professional bodies, where a programme of study at the University leads to a qualification recognised by them;
Student Loans Company;
Debt collection agencies acting on behalf of the University in the event that you owe money to us;
Assessment bodies;
Outsourced companies (e.g. the on-campus catering company);
Validation Bodies (e.g. the Open University and the University of Northampton for our doctoral programmes); and
Other University and Research institutions, in order to conduct research activities in partnership with them.
Each year we are required to send some of the data we hold about you to HESA (the Higher Education Statistics Agency, now part of Jisc, a not-for-profit company). HESA uses this data to publish statistics about students in higher education and to provide services and information to other organisations, and to conduct surveys such as the National Student Survey (NSS) and the Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS).
To find out more about HESA, how and why they process your data, the lawful basis for this processing, and your rights under data protection legislation, you can access HESA’s Student Collection Notice via the following link: www.hesa.ac.uk/fpn.
No third parties have access to your personal data unless we have a contractual relationship with them to deliver services on our behalf, or unless the law allows them to have access. We will not sell or rent your data to any third parties. We will not share your data with third parties for marketing purposes unless we have first obtained your explicit consent to do this.
Do we transfer your data internationally?
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.
Links to other websites
The University website contains hyperlinks to websites owned and operated by third parties. These third-party websites have their own privacy policies, and are also likely to use cookies, and therefore we recommend you to review them separately. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of such third-party websites.
Your rights in relation to your personal data
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. In such circumstances, the University may charge a ‘reasonable fee’ which may also apply, should further copies of the same data be requested. This fee will be based on the administrative cost of providing the data.
Right for rectification – The accuracy of your 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 data, you can ask us to delete or remove 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 or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing. Please note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure, particularly if there are legal reasons which require us to hold your data. If any legal reasons exist, these will be notified to you at the time of your request.
Right to object to processing –Where we are relying on legitimate interests, you have a right to object to the processing of your personal data. You can also object for any processing 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.
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. 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 – We do not carry out 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 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.
What if you do not provide personal data?
As a prospective student, you are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide us with your personal data during the application process. However, if you do not provide the necessary personal data, the organisation may not be able to process your application properly or at all.
16 or Under
We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian's permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal data.
Changes to our privacy notice
We keep our privacy notice under regular review, and we will make updates where and when it is necessary. This privacy notice was last updated in February 2024
How to contact us
Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy notice or the personal data we hold about you:
in writing to: Governance Office, Regent's University London, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4NS.
Alumni Activities
We have a separate privacy notice for our alumni activities, available at the alumni section of our website. You can access more information on how personal data is being processed under our Alumni relations here.