Privacy Notice: Postgraduate Teaching Experience Survey (PTES)

Information you need to know

The School of Education is part of the University of Leicester, who are the Data Controller for your information. The Data Protection Office can be contacted by email: dpo@leicester.ac.uk 

This Privacy Notice provides information about how the University of Leicester collects and uses your personal information.

What is ‘personal information’?

‘Personal information’ means any information which relates to or identifies you as an individual.

What information are we collecting or using?

We will collect and process the following personal information:

• Your student number.
• Your University of Leicester email address.

This information will be shared with Jisc Online Surveys, a survey platform that has been security assessed and approved for use by the University.

Jisc will not be able to identify you from this information. We will also provide demographic information (such as age, gender, or other relevant characteristics). However, neither Jisc nor Advance HE will be able to link this information to you as an individual.

Why are we processing your data?

The Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) is delivered by the University of Leicester in partnership with Advance HE and Jisc.

The survey collects your views about your postgraduate taught experience at the University of Leicester. Apart from your student number and University email address, no personal information will be collected.

Your demographic information will be shared with Advance HE in an anonymous form. This allows survey results to be compared across different demographic groups and with other universities.

When the University analyses the survey results, your responses will not be linked to you.

If fewer than five people are included in any demographic group, those results will be removed from reports. This protects the identity of individual participants.

The University of Leicester’s legal basis for collecting this data is: 

The University processes your personal data because it is necessary to perform a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority, in accordance with Article 6(1)(e) of the UK GDPR.

Who will my personal information be shared with?

The anonymised survey results will be included in benchmarking reports that compare results across the higher education sector.

No information that could identify you will be shared outside the School of Education research team.

How long will the University of Leicester keep my data?

Your personal data will be securely deleted no later than six months after the survey has ended.

What rights do I have regarding my data?

You have the right to access, correct, or delete your personal data, to object to or restrict how it is used, to request its transfer to another organisation, and to avoid decisions made solely by automated processes.

Some of the above rights are not absolute. If you want to exercise any of the rights described above, please contact the University’s Information Assurance Team via on the email at the end of this notice. 

We will do our best to respond quickly and within the timeframes set out by data protection law. To help us handle your request and improve our services, we may keep a record of our communications with you. 

Complaints to the University

If you are dissatisfied with the way the University have used your information, you should complain to the University’s Information Assurance Team via the email at the end of this notice.

Complaints to the ICO

If you are not satisfied with the way the University has handled your complaint, you also have the right to raise your concerns with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is an independent authority which oversees how personal data is used. Guidance on how to contact the ICO can be found at www.ico.org.uk  

Changes to this privacy notice

This privacy notice was published in July 2026. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or if you would like to access any of your rights, please contact Information Assurance Services: ias@leicester.ac.uk