Student privacy notice

Information you need to know

Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) needs to obtain and process a range of information about its students in order to exercise its responsibilities and fulfils its education, training and support obligations to you and to carry out other essential university activities.

LJMU is the Data Controller.

Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted at DPO@ljmu.ac.uk

LJMU takes your privacy very seriously. This privacy notice explains how we use your personal information and your rights regarding that information. We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use your data and to meeting our data protection obligations.

What information are we collecting?

We collect a range of information about you - for recruitment, enrolment and admission, to deliver and administer your education and to support you through your student journey.

We will hold your application, your funding arrangements, details of your program of study and academic achievement.

As you progress through your course, we will collect attendance, supervisory, assessment and graduation information about you.

When you engage with University services, we will collect details necessary to provide that service to you e.g. for advise and wellbeing support, pastoral services.

We will also collect information so that we can comply with our health and safety and management duties as well as for research, statistical and archival purposes.

In all cases, we will hold your name, contact details, date of birth, nationality and immigration status, contact details and emergency contact details.

At registration, we ask you to upload a photograph of yourself via MyPhoto so that we can create your Student ID card. Your photograph will also be used as your profile picture associated with your student account to help staff to be able to easily identify you. You can change or remove the photo at any time.

Your student email account is the primary way you will be contacted by LJMU. The University will use this email account to send you emails about important academic information or information/advice that we feel may be of benefit to your studies.

At registration, you will also be asked for your contact preferences for emails related to student recruitment and other offers and opportunities that LJMU may want to send to you. Such emails will only be sent to you with your consent.

This list is not exhaustive and you will be given specific information when using a particular service e.g. using counselling services or where we need to tell you about something that is not already covered elsewhere. More information can be found in and our other privacy notices created for users of specific services.

Staff within your subjects school/faculty may be required to process your personal data to resolve complaints locally under Stage 1 of the Students Complaints Procedure. In some schools, complaints of harassment, bullying and inappropriate behaviour may be resolved by an Inclusion Ambassadors Network of staff. In these cases, records of the complaint and outcome may be kept by the EDI coordinator for the purpose of analysis. Personal data related to these complaints will be kept for two years after resolution of the complaint.

Please do not hesitate to ask us about any specific circumstances where your data has been collected.

Where do we get your information from?

Depending on your route of entry to LJMU we will have obtained your details from a number of sources.

If you applied to your course at LJMU via UCAS (Universities and Collages Admission Service) your details will have been shared directly and securely with us.

You may have applied for your course directly by completing an application form and providing your contact information to our admissions teams.

You may have had help from an international study agency who will have passed information to us with your permission.

You may have had your details passed to us directly by your employer, or another higher education institution that partner with LJMU to provide study opportunities.

All students provide LJMU directly with personal data at registration. Students are asked to verify and update this information at the beginning of each year of study on their program.

Students can amend information such as their contact details at any time during their study by accessing “MY LJMU” on our website, contacting our Academic Registry team or via telephone on 0151 231 3289.

Why are we collecting your data and what is the legal basis for this?

We need to collect personal data from you for several reasons. For example, we need to keep proper records, provide support and guidance, to monitor your attendance and academic progress and provide appropriate learning and teaching support.

We hold financial, sponsorship and fees data so that we can invoice you correctly and record payments.

We collect information about your health and disability so that we can properly support you during your time at the University.

We will use your data to keep in touch with you after graduation and for alumni relations.

We also need to collect date so that we can run the business and activities of the University and in order to fulfil our legal obligations.

At all times we will do so in compliance with the principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and for one of the legal basis set out in Article 6 of the Regulation.

In some cases, we will use your personal data because it is necessary to fulfil our contract with you or where we have a legal obligation to so do.

In other cases, we will use your data to perform the tasks we carry out in the public interest such as the provision of higher education and research.

Sometimes we will use your data on the basis of our legitimate interests. Where we do this we will only do so because we believe our interests are not overridden by any harm to your data protection rights.

In other cases we may feel it is appropriate to only use your personal data with your full consent. Where we do this you will be given full details of what you are consenting to and how you can withdraw that consent.

Who has access to this data?

Your personal data will only be processed by relevant LJMU staff where the data is necessary for them to undertake their designated role.

Examples of relevant staff may include:

  • Your Academic Tutor
  • Academic Registry staff and Administrators in your facility
  • Student Advice and Wellbeing
  • Student Governance
  • Alumni Services and other teams that you engage with
  • IT Services

We may also be required to share your information with some external parties.

Examples of external parties include:

  • Local Authorities (e.g. council tax and other benefit purposes, including fraudulent claims)
  • Relevant government departments and other public bodies to which the University has a statutory obligation to release information including the Student Loan Company, The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and or other equivalent bodies from other countries
  • The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Details on how HESA processes your personal data are set out in the HESA Student Data Collection Notice.
  • Police and other law enforcement agencies when they make a request for the purposes of detecting or preventing crime or the apprehension and prosecution of offenders
  • Providers of software we use or organisers of events for a strict purpose
  • Providers of our managed print services
  • As a Tier 4 licensed sponsor, we may be required to give information to the UK Visas and Immigration Agency (UKVI) about students with visas to study - our sponsorship duties include informing the UKVI if a student fails to register, withdraws, or fails to attend classes and hand in work
  • External examiners and assessors
  • John Moores Student Union in order to facilitate your membership of this and associated clubs and societies
  • Your employer, where LJMU is delivering training on their behalf. This includes learners on our Community Justice Program who are Trainee Probation Officers. This data will be limited to your education outcomes, and the outcomes of any academic misconduct investigations that relate to you

We will not share your data with parents without your consent other than in very serious emergency circumstances. All necessary information will be issued to you, the student, directly. It is then your responsibility to pass relevant information onto your parents or sponsors.

In some particular cases, the University may ask you to sign an agreement to seek your permission to provide information directly to a sponsor, e.g. an employer. In this event you are giving your permission for the University to provide this information directly to the sponsor.

Student email addresses are published in the University’s Outlook Address Book. This is for internal access only. You should not pass on anybody’s email address without their express permission.

How does the University protect your data?

The University takes data protection very seriously. The information we collect is stored safely and securely and processed in accordance with GDPR.

Your personal data will be handled in line with the University’s Data Protection and Information Security Policies.

For how long does the University keep your data?

Your personal data will only be kept as long as necessary.

Our Records Retention Schedule contains details of each types of record held across the organisation, who has responsibility for them and how long they should be held for.

Your rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

  • access and obtain a copy of your data on request
  • ask the University to correct inaccurate or incomplete data
  • ask the University to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary or legally required for the purposes of processing
  • object to processing where we are relying on a legitimate interest
  • request transfer of your data to another party

If your personal data has been provided by consent, you have a right to withdraw that consent at any time.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer DPO@ljmu.ac.uk

What if you do not provide data?

We do require certain information from you to enable us to provide you with an education. You will engage with some of our teams on an optional basis, such as Student Advice and Wellbeing and Alumni Services. These teams will only be able to assist you or keep you informed if you choose to provide your information to them.

Transfers of data outside the UK

Generally, we do not send your personal data outside the UK. However, in some specific cases we may transfer the personal data we collect to countries outside the UK in order to perform our contract with you/or a contract with another organisation that requires your personal data i.e. a collaboration agreement with a university based outside of the UK. Where we do this, we will ensure that your personal information is protected by way of an ‘adequacy regulation’ with the UK or by putting alternative appropriate measures in place to ensure that your personal information is treated by those third parties in a way that is consistent with and which respects the UK laws on data protection. For example, model contractual clauses, data sharing/data processing agreement and binding corporate rules (where applicable).

Automated decision making

We will not make any decisions about you automatically using a computer, based on your personal data. All decisions affecting you will be taken by a human.

How to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office?

You have the right to complain to The Information Commissioner if you believe that our processing of your personal data does not meet our data protection obligations. The Information Commissioner can be contacted:

Post: Information Commissioners Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK95AF.
Telephone: 0303 123 1113.
Email: contact can be made by accessing The ICO website.