Privacy policy

Alumni and supporters privacy notice

This Alumni and Supporters Privacy Notice explains how the University collects, stores, uses and protects personal information to support the alumni and supporters programmes. Oxford Brookes University is the Data Controller of any personal data that you supply. Your privacy is important to us, so if there is anything you are uncertain about you can contact Oxford Brookes University's Information Management Team by emailing info.sec@brookes.ac.uk.

About our alumni and supporters programme

Our aim is to enable alumni, supporters and friends of Brookes to stay engaged with the University and with each other, as well as to provide opportunities for alumni and others to support the University. We do this by offering a range of services including events, networking, publications and communications, mentoring, employment advice and volunteer opportunities. We also fundraise to support the University’s students and programmes.

Processing personal data

We shall process personal data in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 (GDPR). Oxford Brookes University makes an ongoing commitment to its students to support them after they graduate and, therefore, a legitimate interest to process personal data to support this commitment.

The University may also process personal data where you have provided your consent to do so.

Processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject. We may use information about you to check that we are applying equality laws fairly, as it is authorised by Union or Member State law or a collective agreement pursuant to Member State law providing for appropriate safeguards for the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, Article 9(2)(B)

Processing is necessary for the purposes of identifying or keeping under review the existence or absence of equality of opportunity or treatment between groups of people specified in relation to that category with a view to enabling such equality to be promoted or maintained in accordance with the DPA 18 Schedule 1, Part 2, Para 8.

How we use personal data / Personal data we hold

Engagement

to promote and manage University services and benefits that may be interest to you
to manage event invitations and participation
to facilitate connections between Alumni
to promote and manage volunteer programmes
to communicate news from the University and the wider University and alumni community.

Fundraising

to solicit support for University students and programmes
to share with donors information on the impact of their gift
to carry out research to assess your interest and willingness to makes gifts to the university and to avoid making inappropriate requests for support.

Personal data we hold

In order to continue to engage with alumni and supporters we may hold a wide range of personal data. While this will differ from individual to individual, the types of data include:

biographical details including name, date of birth, gender and students ID(s)
contact details including address, telephone, email and social media
educational details including subject, degree, grade and dates of study
career details including employer, job titles and dates of service
awards, honours received and media articles
participation whilst a student at the University within societies, sports teams and interest groups
participation whilst an alumni at the University within alumni programmes including volunteering
event participation
membership of University committees, boards, councils and other groups
gifts made to the University and Gift Aid status for UK taxpayers
pledges of potential future gifts to the University including information in relation to a legacy in your will
details about your family as well as connections you may have with other alumni, supporters or staff members
information about your interest and capacity to make donations to the University including assessments of wealth and willingness to support University campaigns
communications to and from you
website activity including the use of cookies
Collection of personal data
For alumni of the University your personal data is transferred from the student record system to the alumni and supporters database.

Collection of personal data

For alumni of the University your personal data is transferred from the student record system to the alumni and supporters database.

For supporters and alumni, your personal data is gathered when you engage with us. This may be through event registrations, donations, participation in our programmes, updating your details or contact directly with university staff members.

We continuously review records of our alumni and supporters to ensure your data is as accurate as possible. To do so we may obtain information from publicly available sources such as the Royal Mail National Change of Address database, the internet, social network posts and public registers including Companies House and the Charity Commission.

Protecting personal data

Your personal information is held securely by the University and will be processed in accordance with UK Data Protection law. However, the University may use external suppliers to conduct work or deliver services on our behalf which may mean sharing personal information with them. Where this is the case we will always have agreements in place to ensure these external suppliers use personal data only for the purposes contracted, hold the data securely and keep the data only for as long as necessary. Also, should it be necessary for the data to be held outside the UK and the European Union the University will ensure the appropriate safeguards are in place.

Below are listed those external suppliers who may hold personal data on behalf of the University.

We are required by Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) to share with HESA accurate contact details of alumni as part of the Graduate Outcome Survey which takes place around 15 months after a student graduates.

Your rights

Under data protection law you have the following rights concerning your personal data:

you have the right to be informed
you have the right of access to your data
you have the right to correct data if it is wrong
you have the right to ask for your data to be deleted
you have the right to restrict use of the data we hold
you have the right to data portability
you have the right to object to the University using your data
you have rights in relation to using your data automated decision making and profiling.

Your rights will depend on the legal ground used to process your data.

How long will Oxford Brookes keep your information for?

Oxford Brookes will keep your data for as long as is necessary, or in line with the University procedures. There is a retention schedule.

Accuracy of personal data

You can update your information, including contact details and communication preferences, at any time by going to your online profile or by emailing us at alumni@brookes.ac.uk.

Privacy notice updates

We keep our privacy notice under review and will place any updates on this webpage. This notice was last updated on 22 November 2022.

Whom can you contact if you have concerns about how this information is used?

You can contact:

the Information Security Management Team via info.sec@brookes.ac.uk if you have a concern about Data Protection matters or if you want to exercise your rights under Data Protection or Freedom of Information law
Oxford Brookes‘ Data Protection Officer via BrookesDPO@brookes.ac.uk who ensures that Data Protection provisions are applied lawfully in Oxford Brookes if you are concerned about the use of your data
the information Commissioner via the website for the Information Commissioner's Office who is the national regulator for Data Protection or Freedom of Information matters.