SERC (“the College”) recognises and respects the importance of your privacy and is committed to treating your personal information responsibly and in compliance with all relevant data protection legislation.

The College is the Data Controller for International students who wish to study at SERC. These students will still be required to meet UKVI Home Office Tier 4 requirements.

The College is also the Data Controller for the recruitment of overseas student recruitment agencies, overseas training programmes or study visits (outbound/incoming). The College is a Data Processor for Erasmus+ Funding, IELTS, SAT examinations and Turing Scheme. Please click on the following links to find out how they use your personal data:

Ecorys (Erasmus+)
IELTS
US College Board (SAT)

The information you provide on will be processed in order to:

Process admission application and issue of certificate of acceptance for studies
Administer your studies
Monitor your performance and attendance
Process your IELTS and SAT registrations
Process overseas students recruitment agent applications
Erasmus+ mobilities
Turing Scheme
Complete a training programme/study visit at SERC or overseas

We also use your information to manage recruitment, admission, registration, enrolment, study, examination and graduation.

Your information will also be used to provide you with College facilities and services, to provide you with support and to process any payments made to you. We may also use your information to conduct research and surveys to identify ways to enhance learning, teaching, assessment and the broader student experience.

The College Data Protection Officer is Sian Harvey.

Lawful Basis

The College is permitted to process personal data where there is a lawful basis to do so. In relation to the information provided on this form, the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) ‘lawful basis’ for our processing will be the following:

Article 6.1 (b) – processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract e.g European Commission, commercial contract, British Council
Article 6.1 (c) - processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject. e.g Home Office legal requirements.
Article 6.1 (e) - processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller. e.g. on behalf of the Department for the Economy (DfE), our role is provide you with quality education.

Special Category Data

We are also required to collect, process and maintain special category data. Our lawful basis for processing this information is mainly:

Article 9.2(b) - processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights in the field of employment and social security and social protection law.

On occasions we may be required to process your personal data for other reasons however we will only do so where a Lawful Basis applies.

Categories of Personal Data

Personal data and special category data captured to process your enrolment may include:

Name
Date of birth
Contact details (Address/Contact number/Email)
Passport details
Biometric card
Visa Information
Biometric data (fingerprints)
Image (Photograph)
Next of Kin
Ethnicity
Gender
Marital Status
Residency
Nationality
Educational Background i.e. qualifications
Professional references
Professional memberships
Professional history
Disabilities, learning difficulties, long term medical conditions
Bank details
Vaccine status (*country specific applicable)

The College will never ask for information which is not relevant to your application.

Who will have access to my information, or who will you share it with?

Information may be passed between various sections of the College for operational reasons and may also be disclosed to external agencies to which we have obligations for example Government Agencies and associated Statutory Bodies (e.g. Department for the Economy, HMRC, PSNI), UKVI Home Office, European Commission and their agents, British Council, UKNARIC, US College Board, SERC partner organisations, travel agents, third party contractors to manage mobilities, Higher Education Statistics Agency, funding bodies, Government Survey & Research Organisations, Crime Prevention Agencies, employers who pay fees and/or allow you time off work to attend your course, Placement Providers, Examination Awarding Bodies, Social Welfare Organisations, Careers Service, debt recovery agencies and potentially other such organisations for defined purposes. We may also disclose information to legal representatives.

For full details on our Privacy Notice and your Rights, please visit our website on https://www.serc.ac.uk/customer-privacy