Succeed at Leicester

Succeed at Leicester privacy notice

1. Introduction

Because we are using information about you, which is known as your “Personal Data”, we need to give you this privacy notice. It is written into law that we provide this information to you.

The University of Leicester (UoL) and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) are being funded by Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO) to conduct research on the effectiveness of sign posting to student transition support services for new students.

All these organisations are working together to protect your personal data throughout the project. We have also completed a risk assessment together for all uses of personal data in the project. UoL and TASO are the independent data controllers and NIESR is acting on behalf of TASO as its data processor.

Your personal data will help us understand the effectiveness of a set of communications you receive from the University of Leicester and to your performance as a student. The sets of communications are about the support provided by the university to new students transitioning from high school to university.

The rest of this document explains everything you need to know about how your personal data will be used if you decide to take part and you can always email us at data@taso.org.uk if you have any questions.

2. Information about providing your personal data

All new students for the year of 2025 will be sent an invitation to attend UoL student support services school to university ‘transition sessions’. The invitation will be sent by UoL.

Then, a set of students selected at random (known as randomisation) will receive more communications about the transition sessions than the others. This is known as randomised encouragement design. The communications are designed to encourage you to attend one of the sessions.

After the transition sessions are complete UoL will send a survey to all students which will ask about your level of confidence around transitioning from school to university.

UoL will match the list of students who received the enhanced encouragement communications with their survey answers, information on whether they attended a session and what session and their academic module attainment and continuation at the university.

Once matched, UoL will anonymise this data and securely share it with NIESR who will conduct their evaluation of the data so they can write a report based on their findings. No personal data is contained in the report.

You may also be asked by UoL to have an interview with them about the sessions and also your opinion about the way the research as a whole was conducted. This is part of another report being written by UoL about how best to conduct research on enhanced communications and the whole concept of the transitions program. Don’t worry, anything you tell UoL researchers will be confidential and have no effect on your time at UoL.

3. Information about lawful use of your personal data

The table below is an outline of all uses of your personal data and the basis in law for our use of your personal data.

Purpose Lawful basis 
 To continuously enhance the Student experience throughout their time with UoL which this research embodies. This also includes the provision and analysis of the effectiveness of student support services and how UoL promotes these services.

Further information about this can be found on the UoL website.		 The lawful basis we shall be relying on is for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest by a data controller in accordance with UK GDPR Article 6.1(e), also known as “Public Task”.
For UoL to send you a student academic experience survey which will be used within this project and form part of the analysis we are conducting.

The privacy notice for the Student academic experience survey, as it is used generally by UoL can be found on UoL’s website.
 The lawful basis we shall be relying on is for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest by a data controller in accordance with UK GDPR Article 6.1(e), also known as “Public Task”.
For UoL to use your student ID to match your data with the surveys, transition session attendance (or not), whether you received the enhanced encouragement communications (or not), with data about your university attendance, your academic progress and whether you continue into the following year.
 The lawful basis we shall be relying on is for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest by a data controller in accordance with UK GDPR Article 6.1(e), also known as “Public Task”.
As part of evaluating how the research was conducted UoL may contact you to invite you to participate in interviews, meetings or workshops which may be recorded and transcribed. UoL will also gather your informed consent for your participation in any interviews, meetings or workshops.
 The lawful basis we shall be relying on is for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest by a data controller in accordance with UK GDPR Article 6.1(e), also known as “Public Task”. 
To evaluate the effectiveness to student continuation, attainment, and re-enrolment from an enhanced set of encouragement communications encouraging students to attend UoL’s student support service programme. A report will be written as the output of the evaluation (no personal data will be contained in the report without your permission).
 UoL:
The lawful basis we shall be relying on is for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest by a data controller in accordance with UK GDPR Article 6.1(e), also known as “Public Task”.

NIESR and TASO:
The lawful basis we will be relying on is the legitimate interest of the Data Controller. (UK GDPR Article 6.1 (f) Legitimate interests.)

And,

UK GDPR Article 9.2 (j) Archiving, research and statistics for use of ethnicity and any health or other sensitive data about you.

To identify personal data and take relevant action upon submission of a data subject rights request.

Compliance with a legal obligation under UK GDPR Article 6.1(c). The legal obligation is the UK General Data Protection Regulation to uphold your data protection rights.

Special categories of personal data used for the purpose of Substantial Public Interest (preventing or detecting unlawful acts; Protecting the public; Regulatory requirements) under UK GDPR Article 9.2(g).
To be able to assess any impact on individuals of a data breach involving personal data held on relevant systems or on third party systems.

Compliance with a legal obligation under UK GDPR Article 6.1(c). The legal obligation is the UK General Data Protection Regulation to uphold your data protection rights.

Special categories of personal data used for the purpose of Substantial Public Interest (preventing or detecting unlawful acts; Protecting the public; Regulatory requirements) under UK GDPR Article 9.2(g).

To help protect an individual from neglect or physical, mental or emotional harm, or protect the physical, mental or emotional well-being of an individual.

Use of the personal data is necessary to protect the vital interests of an individual or individuals in accordance with UK GDPR Article 6.1(d).

Special categories of personal data used for the purpose of Substantial Public Interest (Preventing or detecting unlawful acts; Protecting the public; Regulatory requirements) under UK GDPR Article 9.2(g).

4. Sharing your data

Your personal data will be shared with the NIESR researchers and if there is a requirement or issue being experienced, it will be shared with TASO. This is done safely with online platforms and stored in the UK, the EU. We have a contract with the online platforms to make sure your personal data is kept safe.

We might have to share your personal information with law enforcement or public authorities if it’s needed by law. We will only share your information when the law says we have to.

Any interviews you have with UoL are not shared with NIESR or TASO.

5. How long will we keep your data?

We will keep your personal data for at least 2 years after the project ends in case there are any issues or complaints with the project, or UoL wants the project to run longer than one year.

We will never reuse or retain your data unless there is a legal reason for us to do so.

6. How will we protect your data?

We use secure IT systems, staff training, and contracts to make sure your data is protected at all times. We review the systems often.
We store all information on very secure computers and only the people working on the project have access. We use passwords and devices to limit access.

We won’t be making any decisions with your personal information or using a computer to make any either.

7. Your rights and options

This is a list of your data protection rights.

  • You can see your personal data and can request copies of it and details about how we use it.
  • You can ask us to fix or change your personal data if it is wrong or incomplete
  • You can take back your consent for us to use your personal data at any time
  • You can say no to us using your personal information if we use it for our own purposes

Additionally:

  • We never use your personal data for marketing.
  • You can ask us to limit how we use your personal data if:
    o it is not correct,
    o it has been used against the law but you do not want us to delete it,
    o we do not need it anymore, but you want us to keep it for legal reasons
    o if you have already asked us to stop using it but you are waiting for us to confirm.
  • In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your personal data and request a copy in a format that can be used by other services.
  • You have the right not to have decisions made about you by a computer, if those decisions significantly affect you (e.g. legally).

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to use any of the other rights). However, we might charge a fair fee if your request is unreasonable or too much. Also, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

To do any of these things, please contact us at data@taso.org.uk

8. How to complain

If you are not happy with the way your data is being handled, you can complain to us and we will initiate our complaints procedure. You can do this by sending an email to data@taso.org.uk and letting us know what you want to complain about.

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your complaint you can take your complaint along with our response to your complaint to:
Information Commission, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

Information Commission website: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

9. Contact us

If you have any questions, or wish to use any of your rights, then you can contact:

Project: Succeed at Leicester Project (SAL)

Organisation: University of Leicester
Address: University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH
Email: DPO@le.ac.uk

Organisation: Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO)
Address: 58 Victoria Embankment, Temple, London EC4Y 0DS
Email: data@taso.org.uk

Organisation: National Institute of Economic and Social Research
Address: 4 Millbank, London, England, SW1P 3JA
Email: dataprotectionofficer@niesr.ac.uk

10. Changes to this privacy notice

We may update this document. We will tell you about the changes if necessary.

Last modified July 2025

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