Your Data
GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that was passed in 2016 became enforceable on 25 May 2018. The legislation strengthens the use of data and its security in order to enhance your privacy rights. This page attempts to provide a brief overview of some of the processes UNIQ adopts to ensure your data is used appropriately.
Your Data
When you make an application to UNIQ you enter an agreement with the University of Oxford and UNIQ to use your data for the purposes of activity selection and reporting. The exact agreement you entered into is determined by the year you made an application, as this changes depending on the circumstances at the time, and how we wish to use the data. For more information please see the privacy policy here
Data Retention
Under principle 5 of the Information Standards Principles, we only store data where it is a) required for the selection of applicants to a UNIQ activity, or b) to enable us to accurately track applicants for research purposes. The length of time we retain data for depends on its use for selection or research. We hold no data longer than 10 years, and the majority of an applicants data is removed completely within 5 years or less. We review our data retention policies every four months.
Understanding how we use your data
In simply terms, we will hold more data about you if you are successful to a UNIQ related activity , than if you are not. Some of this information is necessary for the successful running of the activity (ie dietary requirements) but other information is retained for a specific length of time that enables us to accurately track you through the higher education process. (ie. your address or email).
Why do you track individuals?
UNIQ is a programme with yearly operating costs of over £1,000,000 and we must determine if it is the correct way to spend this money by carefully evaluating impact and whether it is meeting our intended targets. To do this we track applicants and participants through a higher education application cycle. In the first instance we need to know how many students apply and how successful they are in their application, then we look at data for each applicant to determine common trends that can then impact how we run future opportunities, or assist us with adapting our selection criteria. An example of this took place during 2016 when we changed our selection methodology. By using data from previous years, we were able to determine risks and benefits to lowering the academic criteria. We would not have able to achieve this without the necessary tracking in place.