Confidentiality and Privacy statement

This statement applies to both prospective and current students. The term 'student' in this document includes applicants, and any student type studying with the University.

What you can expect from all services

1. Our student-facing services are committed to treating you with dignity and respect, whilst upholding a responsibility to promote safety for all students. This means that we will handle and share information with care and sensitivity.

2. We work within the terms of the Student Agreement (PDF). All students sign the Student Agreement at registration.

3. We follow the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018. Further information can be requested from the University Secretary's Office.

4. We handle information about you in line with the University’s Privacy Notices and Data Protection Policy.

5. Information is available to colleagues within the same service to effectively provide support. Supporting students through different aspects of their academic experience will sometimes involve internal information sharing, as relevant and proportionate to the circumstance

6. Some information is shared during the application process. This is to ensure support will be in place throughout this process and when you join the University.

Sharing information with third parties

7. We work with professionals outside the University such as NHS mental health teams and agencies involved in your support or funding. They have their own confidentiality policies.

8. We only share relevant information to support you, and we will tell you in advance unless we have significant welfare concerns. In some situations, these external teams or agencies may contact you directly.

9. We do not agree to requests for information from parents, guardians or other third parties (unless covered by a Data Protection exemption, for example, requests from the police). We will not confirm or deny whether you are a student unless you have given explicit (clearly stated) permission in advance.

10. We may need to share information where the law requires it, such as to detect and prevent terrorism. We may also need to share information where not doing so might affect the prevention or detection of crime.

11. All University staff are required to report safeguarding concerns to the relevant and responsible senior member of staff. Senior staff may report to external organisations, such as the police or local council. There can de different thresholds for reporting concerns about children and vulnerable adults.

12. Staff may provide information to relevant professionals as part of University processes, including to facilitate specialist assessment, such as Support to Study. This may include sharing with external professionals such as psychological assessors.

Storage of information

10. All personal information is collected, stored and managed as stated in our  Records Retention Schedule and associated Policy.

11. Records are kept and stored securely, and only accessed by relevant staff when required, in line with the University's Information Security Policies.

12. Information may be stored on systems used by various services; however, access will be limited to those that strictly require access.

Managing significant welfare concerns and emergencies

1. All students must provide us (the University) with an emergency contact when they register. The emergency contact information is held as outlined in our student Privacy Notices and used in line with the University’s Student Emergency Contact Procedure.

2. Where there is high or urgent risk, it may be necessary for us to share information with your emergency contact. This will only happen without your explicit consent if it is in your vital interests to do so.

3. You can choose to agree to ‘opt-in’ for us to share information with your emergency contact in a situation where this could:

• help reduce risk
• and/or enlist support.

Learn more about circumstances where we might use your emergency contact.

Working with you and your academic school/faculty

1. Your school provides support related to your academic studies. It may be helpful for relevant information to be shared between support services and academic schools/faculties including but not limited to:

• senior tutor
• personal tutor
• student administration manager
• school disability coordinator.

2. The Student Wellbeing Service, Residential Wellbeing Service and Disability Services are the most likely to share information with your school to coordinate appropriate support. It can be helpful to share the likely impact of wellbeing or health-related issues on your academic engagement and performance, to enable the school to support you as best they can.

3. Disability Services routinely work with your School Disability Coordinator. It can be helpful to share relevant information to enable appropriate support and reasonable adjustments. If we think it would be helpful to share more information than the fact that we are working with you, we will discuss this with you. We will usually agree with you in advance on what to share.

4. If we or your school become concerned about your wellbeing or safety, we will share specific information on the grounds of providing necessary support and managing risk. This would be on a need-to-know, proportionate basis, and personal information would not be shared unnecessarily. This information sharing is not limited to cases involving University processes such as Support to Study.

5. In the case of Support to Study processes, more detailed information may be provided to Panel members.

Multi-team meetings and data sharing

Where there are significant concerns, we may escalate to a multi-team meeting.

Multi-team meetings are intended to:

• manage complex and high or urgent-risk student cases
• enable shared decision-making
• agree actions for services to manage risk at a senior level.

Multi-team meetings are chaired by a Divisional Director (or their nominee) and staff from the following services usually attend:

• Residential Wellbeing Services
• Student Counselling Service (including the Mental Health Advisory Service
• Student Wellbeing Service
• Students' Health Service (NHS)

We will tell you that you will be discussed if it is possible and appropriate to do so and safely share your details.

If we are unable to tell you, we will inform our NHS colleagues that we are sharing information without your knowledge for safeguarding reasons.

As an NHS service, the Students’ Health Service will only share information about you with us if you have given consent. They may also share information if there are significant safeguarding concerns.

Specific requirements of individual services

• your full name
• the full name of the person acting on your behalf
• the service or query that the consent is for (e.g. fee payment, council tax, accommodation).

Careers Service

Read the privacy statement and user terms in the Careers Service terms and conditions.

The Student Counselling Service

The Student Counselling Service is a confidential service that follows the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy's Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions. It has its own confidentiality and data protection statement that explains privacy and confidentiality limitations.

The Student Counselling Service may use your mobile number to confirm or remind you about your appointment by text message. You can withdraw your consent for this at your first session or by emailing student-counselling@bristol.ac.uk at any time.

The Students' Health Service

The Students' Health Service is an NHS service and follows separate guidelines relating to medical information and clinical records.

All consultations are confidential. Information will not be given to University staff, parents or anyone else without your permission. However, information may be shared with other clinical and support staff involved in your care.

Student Visas

Read the 'About our Student Visa Advisers' section in the Student Visas statement of service.

Money Advice and Funding (MAF)

The MAF team may request relevant documentation from your school to support your application for financial assistance.

The confidentiality statement on the application form will explain what information they need.

Your rights

Under certain circumstances, you may have the following rights in relation to the data we process:

• Right to request access to your personal data;
• Right to request correction of your personal data;
• Right to request erasure of your personal data;
• Right to object to processing of your personal data;
• Right to request restriction of the processing your personal data;
• Right to request the transfer of your personal data; and
• Right to withdraw consent.

For more information on these rights please visit the University’s guidance on the Rights of Data Subjects. To exercise any of those rights please contact the Data Protection Officer via data-protection@bristol.ac.uk

Questions, comments and complaints

If you have any questions or comments regarding this notice, please contact the relevant service. You can also contact the University’s Data Protection Officer at: data-protection@bristol.ac.uk

You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your data.