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Institute of Technology Tralee

Student Data Privacy Statement

Version 2
17th July 2019

Background

This privacy notice explains how the Institute collects, uses and shares your personal data, and your rights in relation to the personal data we hold. This privacy notice concerns our processing of personal data of past, present and prospective students of the Institute.

The Institute is the data controller for all personal data that it holds and processes and is subject to the Data Protection Acts 1998 and 2003 and to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) from 25 May 2018

Types of Information Collected

The Institute may obtain, hold and process the personal data of students including personal details, family and social circumstances, education and training records, employment information, financial details, and services provided.  It may obtain, hold and process the sensitive personal data and special category data of students including racial or ethnic origin, and physical or mental health related information.

The following types of personal data may be collected

  • Name, contact information (address, email address, telephone numbers), date of birth, PPS number, passport number, nationality and country of residence
  • Information relating to education and training records
  • Information relating to family and social circumstances
  • Sensitive personal data and special category data including data relating to physical or mental health, racial or ethnic origin
  • Certain criminal history (The National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 to 2016 provide a statutory basis for mandatory vetting of persons who wish to undertake a work placement and/or activities that bring them into contact with children and/or vulnerable adults. Some programmes at Institute of Technology Tralee (ITT) require students to undertake mandatory placements with external agencies, which will bring them into contact with children and/or vulnerable adults and in which they will assume positions of public trust. The Institute is committed to ensuring that candidates on relevant programmes are Garda vetted in line with Institute policy.

How we Collect Information

Personal data and sensitive personal data/special category data held by the Institute relating to students is obtained directly from the student or applicant, or in some cases from a third party organisation involved in the services provided by the Institute that has obtained the information in the first instance (for example CAO and SOLAS).

Personal data may be collected in a number of ways as follows;

  • Directly from information you provide to us expressing an interest in becoming a student, and/or through the application or registration processes.
  • Directly from the Central Applications Office (CAO) which processes applications for undergraduate courses in Irish Higher Education Institutions.
  • Directly from SOLAS which manages the National Apprentice System.
  • Directly from AMS Springboard Portal

Purpose of Collecting and Use of Information collected

The Institute holds the personal data and sensitive personal data/special category data of its students in order to implement and manage all services and processes relating to students, including student recruitment, admission, registration, teaching and learning, examination, graduation and other services such as accommodation, student support and careers.  Only information required for these purposes is obtained and processed, and without it the Institute may not be able to provide its services.  Information is passed between various sections of the Institute for operational reasons as is necessary and proportionate for intended purposes.

We may use information collected for the following purposes;

  • Student Recruitment
  • Admission and Registration
  • Academic Affairs – teaching and learning, assessment, examination, graduation, attendance, management of grievance and disciplinary issues
  • Provision of T Card services
  • Provision of IT Services
  • Provision of Library Services
  • Provision of student support services (Student Services, Access, Disability, Learning Support, Careers and Counselling, Medical Centre)
  • Administration function (school and department admin function)
  • Finance (fees, financial supports, scholarships, prizes and bursaries)
  • Research and Statistical Analysis
  • Safety and wellbeing of students
  • To monitor and evaluate the student experience
  • To enable effective communication with you
  • To provide information to organisations such as the HEA in line with legislative and government requirements
  • To comply with statutory reporting requirements
  • To administer voluntary surveys of student opinion about your experience and the performance of the Institute
  • To create and publish print & electronic material (e.g. prospectus, brochures, website, etc.) for promotional and archival purposes
  • To assist with law enforcement or where required or authorised by law
  • To confirm the details of your academic achievements, and for statistical and historical purposes, a core record of your studies is retained indefinitely
  • To enable our continued contact with you after you complete your studies (e.g. survey of graduate work/career destinations, alumni networks, marketing, etc.)
  • To respond to requests for information made under data protection legislation
  • Sporting and Society Organisations who may require student data (e.g. Date of birth, confirmation they are in full-time education) prior to the student representing the Institute informal events/competitions

Basis for Processing Information

The processing of personal data is necessary for the performance of the contract under which we provide services to you or to progress expressions of interest and enquiries.

The Institute may disclose student’s personal data and sensitive personal data/special category data to external agencies to which it has obligations or a legitimate reason including the following;

  • Higher Education Authority (HEA) – See Appendix
  • Technological Higher Education Authority (THEA) – See Appendix 2
  • Department of Social Protection
  • Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI)
  • Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) for grant eligibility purposes
  • Irish Survey of Student Engagement (ISSE)
  • Revenue Commissioners
  • Professional and regulatory bodies where programmes are accredited by such bodies
  • Work placement providers
  • Employers where students are studying as an apprentice
  • Employers where students are upskilling with the support of the employer
  • Other higher education institutions, partners or research organisations to which a student transfers or pursues an exchange programme or where a student’s programme is being run collaboratively
  • Software providers or service providers performing administrative functions on behalf of ITT (e.g. IT services, clinical tools, carpark management, etc.)
  • ITT Students’ Union to facilitate student elections
  • External examiners
  • United States Federal Aid Programme (where applicable)
  • Direct mail agencies/printing companies to facilitate the delivery of mailshots
  • Sponsors funding student prizes and awards
  • Plagiarism detection service providers (e.g. Turnitin) to ensure academic standards
  • Insurance companies in respect of accidents occurring within the Institute
  • Institute legal advisors
  • An Garda Síochána to assist in the prevention or detection of crime
  • Auditors

This is not an exhaustive list and any other disclosures to third parties not listed here are made only where there is legitimate reason to do so and in accordance with the law.

Students with Disabilities

Download and read the following document: Disability Services Student Privacy Statement

Irish Survey of Student Engagement

During your studies, you will be invited to participate in StudentSurvey.ie (Irish Survey of Student Engagement). Some of your information will be sent to the survey company to ensure that the survey is offered only to relevant target groups. Your information will be matched to your survey responses in order to allow for anonymous analysis of results, for example, by gender or full-time/ part-time. Your responses will be treated confidentially and no individual student will be identifiable in any reports or results generated as a result of this survey.

INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

Individuals whose personal data and sensitive personal data/special category data is held by the Institute have the following rights regarding their data

  • The right to be informed of how data is obtained, what it is used for and how data is processed
  • The right to request access to their personal data held by the Institute
  • The right to rectification – to have inaccurate or incomplete personal data rectified
  • The right to erasure of personal data – this will only apply where there is no legitimate reason for the Institute to continue to process the personal data.  If you exercise your right to erasure, we will retain a core set of personal data which, for alumni, will include: name, programme of study, modules studied, graduation details, date of birth and unique identification number (T number) so that we do not contact you inadvertently in future, and to maintain your education details for archive purposes. We may also need to retain some financial records about you
  • The right to restrict the processing of personal data – individuals have the right to block the processing of their personal data by the Institute in specific situations
  • The right to data portability – students have the right to request provision of some elements of their information (for example academic progress details) in digital form in order to provide it to other organisations, employers etc.
  • The right to object – students can object to the processing of their personal data by the Institute in certain circumstances, including the sending and receipt of direct marketing material
  • The right to object to automated decision making and profiling – individuals have the right to object to decisions taken by automatic means without human intervention in some circumstances

Where the processing of personal data or sensitive personal data/special category data is based on the consent of the student, they have the right to withdraw their consent at any time by contacting the department or service who obtained that consent or the Institute’s Data Protection Officer.

If a student is unhappy with the Institute’s handling of their personal data, or believes that the requirements of the Data Protection Acts or GDPR may not be fully complied with, they should contact the Institute’s Data Protection Officer in the first instance.  The Institute’s formal complaint procedure can be invoked if appropriate, and the student also have the right to submit a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner.

DATA RETENTION

We will hold your data indefinitely in support of your lifelong relationship with the Institute, or until you ask us to do otherwise.  If you exercise your right to erasure, we will retain a core set of personal data which, for graduates, will include: name, programme/ module(s) studied, graduation details, date of birth and unique identification number so that we do not contact you inadvertently in future, and to maintain your education details for archive purposes.

We may also need to retain some financial records about you for statutory purposes.

We will always respect a request by you to stop contact by any or all methods of communication, or for any specific purpose.

Appendix 1

HEA Student Data Collection Notice

Appendix 2

Technological Higher Education Association (THEA)

The Institute will share some non-sensitive student data with the Technological Higher Education Association (THEA) for statistical research. THEA is the representative body for the Institutes of Technology and Technological Universities. THEA works on the institutes behalf to support the Institutes aims and objectives by using collated data to undertake research and to promote our activities. No individual student will be identifiable in any reports or produced by THEA using anonymised collated data.