HESA Student and Staff Data Collection Notices
HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited) and Jisc merged on Tuesday 4 October 2022. As a result of the merger, Jisc became the Designated Data Body (DDB) for England under the Higher Education Research Act 2017. Therefore all data-sharing that was previously carried out with HESA will now be continued with JISC and JISC now assumes the role of data controller from HESA, meaning JISC determine the purpose and the manner of the processing.
Like other universities, King’s routinely passes certain personal data about students and staff to JISC. JISC are the official agency for the collection, analysis and dissemination of quantitative information about higher education in the UK. It has taken over this role from HESA who were previously set up by agreement between government departments, the higher education funding councils, and universities and colleges.
JISC collects and analyses data for its various statutory customers, which are government departments and agencies like the Office for Students (OfS). It also publishes statistics and may supply data in anonymised form to third parties. The provision of data to JISC is required by law and as a condition of the funding which the College receives from the OfS.
The information passed to JISC includes student and staff records which are normally updated annually. About six months after graduation, the College will also contact students on JISC’s behalf for the Graduate Outcomes survey, the data on which is sent to JISC. In some cases, we may be required to pass students’ contact details to JISC, organisations acting on behalf of JISC or organisations acting on behalf of JISC’s statutory customers so that they can administer surveys, including the National Student Survey, longitudinal follow-ups to the Graduate Outcomes survey, and surveys of student finances.
To support JISC in its statutory purpose, the College may share your data with organisations contracted by JISC to assist it in undertaking surveys including the Student Income and Expenditure survey. You can find out more information about the surveys JISC run in their privacy notice (links below).
The university also participates in the Data Futures programme, sharing student data with JISC to allow the sector-wide development of a more efficient system for HE providers to submit and quality assure their data. You can find out more about this processing on the Data Futures part of the JISC/HESA website.
JISC has provided the following statements on the collection and use of personal data: