Lancaster University Widening Participation (WP) Privacy Notice
This Privacy Notice explains how we will collect, use and protect your personal data.
The Notice applies to both young people participating in widening participation projects, activities and events with Lancaster University and their parents, guardians, and schools/colleges.
The University will process your personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
Children and Young People’s Partnership (C&YPP) - Primary
The Children and Young People’s Partnership (C&YPP) work with several primary schools to deliver widening participation activities for primary-aged children. In these circumstances, non-identifiable data is requested from the school on a whole cohort basis i.e. information about the class. This includes:
Year group
Number of males, females or individuals identifying as non-binary or prefer not to say
Number of children from different ethnic minority backgrounds
Number of children who have a disability or long-term health condition
Number of children eligible for Free School Meals
Number of children registered with SEN
Number of children entitled to Pupil Premium
Please note: To ensure that data remains non-identifiable i.e. not attributable to an individual within a class. Schools are asked to indicate 0-5, if there are five or fewer young people that meet a particular criterion to ensure appropriate suppression. No identifiable HEAT data is collected (please see below for further information).
Medical, accessibility or dietary requirements
Lancaster University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. Prior to the delivery of widening participation events or activities with primary school children, we ask schools to make us aware of any medical conditions, accessibility requirements or dietary considerations (that directly impact on a young person’s participation) so that reasonable adjustments can be made in advance. This information is required for event planning purposes so that young people can fully participate in activities, and catering is suitable for those with specific dietary requirements, allergies and intolerances.
Pre-16 WP activity – secondary school selection (Years 7-11)
If a young person is nominated for a specific WP activity by their secondary school, they will be asked by a teacher if they wish to participate. Their parents or guardians will also be given a copy of the Pre-16 WP Student/Parent Privacy Guidance and Information Sheet, so they can discuss it with their young person and object on their behalf. Informed consent is obtained on a per activity basis. For example, if a young person is invited to take part in another activity, they will be asked to give their consent again.
Anonymous data
As part of the sign-up process, we will ask the secondary school to provide the following information about young people taking part in a widening access project or activity, on a whole cohort basis:
Number of males, females or individuals who identify as non-binary or prefer not to say
Number of young people from specified ethnic minority backgrounds
Please note: This data (including any special category data) is anonymised, and individuals will not be identifiable. In cases where there are a small number of young people that meet a particular criterion, the school will be asked to select the 0-5 option.
Identifiable data
We will also ask the school to provide five pieces of identifiable information about young people taking part in a widening access project or activity:
First name
Surname
Date of birth
Home postcode
School
This information is collected for the purpose of HEAT monitoring and tracking as described below.
Medical, accessibility or dietary requirements
Lancaster University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. Prior to the delivery of widening participation events or activities with young people, we ask secondary schools to make us aware of any medical conditions, accessibility requirements or dietary considerations (that directly impact on a young person’s participation) so that reasonable adjustments can be made in advance. This information is required for event planning purposes so that young people can fully participate in activities, and catering is suitable for those with specific dietary requirements, allergies and intolerances.
Post-16 WP self-selection (Year 12 and 13)
We collect personal information from you as part of the application process for widening participation projects and activities, this may include (but is not limited to): your contact details, school/college, identified gender, predicated educational attainment and applicable widening participation criteria as outlined on the LU website: Eligibility Criteria - Lancaster University.
We may also hold special category data such as your racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, and physical or mental health.
When you have confirmed that you wish to take part in a WP project or activity, we also collect further information about you including:
Your academic school record and predicted grades (through your teacher or school)
Information about your support needs e.g. disabilities and long-term medical conditions
Individual consent for photography and video for LU promotional purposes
Information related to the provision of IT services, such as IP addresses, usernames, email addresses and other network data
For more information about the data that we collect and how it is used/stored, please see the Post-16 WP Student Privacy Guidance and Information Sheet.
There are several collection points to obtain your information:
Directly when you register an interest in taking part in a programme, event or activity
Directly from you when you apply to join a widening participation programme, event or activity (self-selection)
Directly from your school when you start a widening participation programme, event or activity (school selection)
From your parents/guardians during any application process (as required)
From your school/college during any application or school reference process
From surveys/questionnaires e.g. evaluation and feedback surveys
If you have declared a disability or long-term medical condition, we will collect further information about any additional support needs or accessibility requirements so that we can make appropriate, reasonable adjustments
Lancaster’s IT infrastructure collects information for the purposes of systems administration, this information is required to provide you with digital services, and to audit the use of our systems. We only use this information to identify individuals in situations affecting the security of systems or university data, or where it is necessary to enforce compliance with the University's terms of use
We will only use your personal data where legally permitted and where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, and where your interests and rights do not override those interests, or where we need to comply with legal or regulatory obligations. The lawful basis for collecting your personal data is: Article 6(f) of the GDPR – Legitimate Interest.
We use your personal data to process programme or event self-select applications/school selection invitations and inform the decision-making processes for the allocation of places (where appropriate) i.e. to confirm your eligibility to take part in WP activities or events.
We will use follow-up information to inform event planning and delivery to make any reasonable adjustments required. Your information will also be used to monitor and evaluate Lancaster's widening participation activities, programmes and events.
We will share your information with university staff when there is a justifiable operational need to do so, this information will be shared so that we can provide you with appropriate support to participate in widening participation programmes.
The University will share your personal data with several organisations including:
Office for Students (OfS)
Your school or college
The Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) Please see the HEAT section below, where applicable.
The University will ensure that any data sharing is in line with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). In many cases, the University does not need to seek your consent to share this information. For example, when there is a legal or statutory obligation to provide the information, or where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
In emergency situations (i.e. a life-or-death situation, or in the event of a safeguarding concern), the University may share your personal data, including sensitive personal data with organisations/individuals such as a medical professional, Social Services or the Police Service.
Lancaster University uses the Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT). HEAT is used by universities to track what happens to young people who take part in widening participation activities in the future. Specifically, if they go to university and if they do, which university they choose. To do this, we will share five pieces of information about you (first name, surname, date of birth, postcode and school), and we will add the applicable widening participation characteristics to your student profile within HEAT.
Your information will be used for monitoring and tracking purposes, and will also be used to monitor your progress, (including from school to university and to other destinations such as postgraduate study and employment destinations). The information will be used in several reports, including both Lancaster University reports and HEAT reports at a national level. However, the information will be anonymised and individuals will not be identifiable in these reports.
In addition, information will be shared with key personnel and the supplier which maintains the HEAT database. HEAT may also share your data with official custodians of education data including the Higher Education Statistics Agency, UCAS, the Department for Education, the Office for Students, the National Pupil Database and other agencies for research purposes only, (as agreed by HEAT governance and steering groups). HEAT will only share your data if they are required by law or directed by a court or similar body to do so.
Use of HEAT will help us to evaluate the success of Lancaster's widening participation programmes and make a difference to somebody else’s future. This information will help us, and other universities find out if widening access initiatives help more people go to university.
Please note: If you would like to object to your data (or your child’s data) being entered into HEAT, please email: outreach@lancaster.ac.uk.
Post-16 online events are delivered via Microsoft Teams for live, real-time engagement and collaboration. Microsoft Teams will also be used in conjunction with the University website and some activities will also make use of Lancaster’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), OpenLearning.
Microsoft Teams is a platform designed for online collaboration. We use this platform for online, live stream events and sessions using audio and video feeds. When participating in online events, students will be invited to join the MS system and relevant event ‘Team’ as an external guest user. To complete this process, we will we use the email address provided at the time of application.
Participant email addresses and names will be visible to other attendees and Lancaster University staff whilst using Microsoft Teams, it is not possible to remove this information. By agreeing to use Microsoft Teams, you are agreeing for this information to be visible to others whilst taking part in online events.
All live events facilitated through the Teams system will be recorded by the event organisers for the sole purpose of safeguarding, child protection and behaviour monitoring. These recordings will be stored securely within the system and will only be accessible to nominated staff members for a specified period, (three years). Sessions that involve you using video or audio functions to interact will not be shared unless your explicit consent is obtained.
Sometimes we may need to share your personal data with other organisations based within or outside the European Economic Area (EEA) or UK.
When it is necessary to share your data with organisations outside of the EEA, we will ensure that there are appropriate safeguards in place, thereby offering a comparable level of data protection to that within the EEA.
As part of the evaluation process to improve our activities and monitor their impact, we would like to contact you in the future to discuss your experiences and the impact that this has had on your applications, decision-making and progression to university. Towards the end of the programme, we will contact you (or your school) to request your consent to do this, and then contact you by email in the future.
If you wish to opt out (after initially giving your consent) or have any questions, please email: outreach@lancaster.ac.uk.
The University has robust Information Security Policies in place to protect your information. All staff in the University have a responsibility to make sure that your data is handled securely.
Your record of participation in widening participation activities, events/programmes and associated information will be retained for a maximum of 10 years, and only as long as is necessary.
For further information, please refer to the University’s Retention Schedule.
If you are not accepted on a programme/event/activity or decide not to complete it, we will delete all identifiable information that we hold about you by the end of the academic year. We will only retain a record of the number of young people that applied or did not complete the programme from each school/college, according to year group.
You have the following rights regarding your personal data:
To have access to your personal data. For further information, see the Subject Access page
To have inaccurate or incomplete personal data amended
To have your personal data deleted. This will only apply when there is no legitimate reason for the University to continue to use your personal data
To restrict the use of your personal data
To request personal information in a digital form so that you can provide this to other organisations
To object to automated decision making and profiling
To object to the processing of your data using HEAT
To withdraw consent when we have used consent as the basis for using your information.
If you wish to exercise your rights, you are first advised to read this information as there are some exceptions to using your rights. For example, it is a statutory duty for the University to send some of your information to HESA each year. In this case, you could not apply to restrict this use of your information.
Any requests to exercise your rights over your personal data should be made to the University’s designated Data Protection Officer.
You are required to read this Privacy Notice when it is presented to you, during your application to a WP programme or when invited to participate by your school. It is important that you do this, so you understand how we use your personal information and your rights.
Please assist the University in keeping your student record up to date e.g. phone number/email address. This can be done by contacting: outreach@lancaster.ac.uk.
Lancaster University’s designated Data Protection Officer is:
Please contact Mike if you have any concerns or complaints about this Notice, or about the way your personal data is being used.
Lancaster University is the Data Controller for the personal data that it holds about you. The University’s contact details are:
Lancaster University, Bailrigg, Lancaster LA1 4YW United Kingdom
If you are not happy with the way the University has handled your concern or complaint, then you may submit a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
This Notice has been developed to be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). This Notice is regularly reviewed and updated. It is important that you check for updates to this Notice. If we make significant changes, we will contact you to inform you of this. This notice was most recently updated in November 2023.
