Enquirers Privacy Notice (pre-application)

We take your privacy seriously. Our records may include:

• Contact details including names, email and postal addresses and telephone information so that we can reply to you effectively;
• A record of your contact consent and preferences for subsequent communications;
• Details of your subject interests, intended level of study, expected year of entry and campus so that we can personalise the information we provide to you;
• Any information you choose to give us about your personal circumstances that may be relevant to your enquiry which may include sensitive personal data;
• Any special requirements you have for communication methods, buildings access or parking for events so that we can meet your individual needs;
• Text, notes or recordings of previous contact with the University relating to student recruitment, so that we can avoid repetition and improve our service to you;
• We may not record every single contact you make with us.

This data will be gathered from our Enquiry Form online, from information you supply by email and/or by telephone or any other contact channel you have used. We store the data in an enquiry system. If you submit an application, you will be sent new information and a request to update your contact preferences via our Admissions portal. This information will then be stored in our Student Record System and will over-ride the pre-application data in our enquiry system. If you do not submit an application, the preferences in our enquiry system will continue to apply and you will be able to update them via our Enquiry Form.

If you visit our website we may use cookies to store information about your visit to recognise your preferences, track progress through online applications and make content and our online advertisements more relevant to you. More information about our use of cookies is here.

We will use the information you have provided to respond to your enquiry. Where we think that we can help you further and would like to keep in touch to tell you more about being a student at Exeter, we will ask for your consent to do this. Your consent will be the legal basis for processing your personal data. We will ask for this consent on our Enquiry Form, when responding to email and phone contacts, when you register for open days and events, or when we collect it at recruitment fairs or during school visits. We do not currently record data supplied through our social media channels.

If you give consent we will provide you with details on courses, open days, funding opportunities, and campus or virtual student recruitment events. We may also provide you with news about the University and details of our research activities, where this is relevant to your subject interests.

We may also contact you in relation to relevant market research; such as asking why you are considering applying to the University. If you no longer want to receive this information, you can update your preferences by unsubscribing from emails or by recoding new preferences on our Enquiry Form. We will not use your data to promote products or services which are unconnected to the study experience at Exeter; for example commercial events such as theatre or sports performances.

We will not share the data you provide with any third parties unconnected with admission to Exeter. We may transfer your data to third parties under the following circumstances:

(a) We have University staff based in offices in India and China. If the data you provide shows that you reside in one of these countries we may share your data securely with these staff so that they can offer information and advice in your country. Our direct representatives will not charge you for their help and we do not pay them commission. Appropriate contracts are in place between the University and the representatives (and/or their own direct employers). These contracts refer specifically to data protection, confidentiality, privacy and information security.

(b) We sometimes collaborate with education agents at recruitment events overseas. If your enquiry was collected at one of these events we may pass your name, contact details and areas of interest to the agents so that they can give you further information about the University and the support they can offer. We have contracts with a number of education agents who we authorise and pay commission to advise and recruit students on our behalf. These agents may charge you fees for their services. You do not need an agent to apply to Exeter.

(c) To monitor and research the impact of our widening participation activities we may submit limited personal information to a partner for evaluation purposes. You will not be contacted by these partners.

(d) If you are considering a research programme of study we may need to share your details with potential supervisors or training partners. As some of our research programmes are offered in partnership with other universities or educational providers, this will sometimes mean that your personal information is available to staff working for that research consortium as well as for Exeter specifically.  

(e) In order to provide you with relevant, personalised communications, we may share your data with third parties service providers who send SMS, direct mail or other communications on behalf of the University, event booking management or survey tools for gathering customer feedback. Our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database and web content management system are also hosted externally. Social media channels including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter may hold your personal data if you contact us through that medium but you can update your preferences at any time through your account profile.

If you choose to employ an agent to help you with your university research and applications, it is your responsibility to ensure that you know how your personal data will be used and stored. We train our authorised agents in the legislation that applies to privacy and data protection and the standards we expect them to apply in protecting you. However, we cannot be responsible for how these agents use your personal data once you have provided it to them. If you want us to stop liaising with an agent, please email us at: exeteragentcommissions@exeter.ac.uk

We will keep your personal data for six years after the year in which you first enquire, in case you decide to apply to us. If you do not want us to store your data in this way, please tell us using the information in the ‘Contact us’ section below; please note we will retain your information for up to 60 days before deletion so that we can answer your questions and any further follow-up.

Your data is held securely on the University’s enquiry system. The database is accessible to a limited number of University staff. All staff who access the database have completed the University’s data protection training. Additional protection is applied to ‘special category’ data such as criminal convictions or health information.

The legal basis for processing your personal data is primarily that by enquiring about the University, we consider that you are contemplating entering into a contract. In addition, there are some tasks which are carried out under the University’s legitimate interest, such as conducting market research.

Where you have opted in to receiving marketing materials, the legal basis for processing your personal data at the enquiry/pre-application stage is consent. You may withdraw this consent at any time by updating your preferences, by unsubscribing from emails, or by recoding new preferences on our Enquiry Form. Please get in touch using the ‘Contact Us’ details provided below if you have any questions about this.

When we process your ‘special category’ data, we will only do so with your explicit consent.

You have the right to:

• Ask us to see, correct or delete the data we hold about you
• Object to specific data uses, as described above
• Object to receiving communications
• Object to the transfer of your data electronically to a third party.

Please contact us using the details below about any of these rights or for further information please see our Data Protection Webpages.

The University’s Data Protection Officer is responsible for monitoring compliance with relevant legislation in relation to personal data and can be contacted at dataprotection@exeter.ac.uk. You can also contact the DPO if you have any queries or concerns about the University’s processing of your personal data. You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

You can contact us about any aspect of our use of your personal data or to tell us to stop one or more forms of contact by emailing admissions@exeter.ac.uk. You can also phone us on 0300 555 60 60 (UK callers) or +44 (0)1392 723044 (International).