Student Data Collection Notice

This page provides information about how King’s College London (“we”, “our”, or “us”) processes student data through the student lifecycle. Student data here means personal data collected from the point of expression of interest, application, enrolment, and/or registration to study at King’s College London right through to after your studies with us have ended.

Any data-processing and sharing by King’s College London will be carried out in compliance with the College’s data protection policy and procedure.

The Student Data Collection Notice is intended to be read alongside the university’s Core Privacy Notice (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/terms/privacy.aspx) and the Supplementary Notices linked to below.

The Supplementary Notices provide more detail on key areas of the university’s processing of student data and are designed to make it easy for students to find out more about specific processing activities.

Supplementary Notices

Before you start with us…

While you are a registered student...

After you leave…

Alumni and supporters

What information do we hold about you?

The university keeps a record of the information provided by you on application and enrolment. From the moment you contact us a record is created in your name. We will also maintain records about your studies at King’s, and about your use of academic and non-academic facilities and services that we offer.

The personal data we process about you includes (but is not limited to):

Name
Contact details
Date of birth
Details of emergency contacts and next of kin
Ethnic origin
Nationality
Student ID number and username
Gender
Pronouns
Passport (or national identity card) number
NI number
Previous criminal convictions
Religious and philosophical beliefs
Sexual orientation
Academic background and qualifications
Academic record at King’s, including attendance and details of degrees awarded
Disabilities that you have disclosed to us
Medical information, such as information held by the Counselling Service
Funding information, Fee Invoice and payment records
Sponsorship Details
Use of university facilities, such as the Library
Disciplinary action taken against you
Digital photograph of you used to produce your student ID
Your image, which may be caught on CCTV footage whilst on King’s premises
Use of online services, such as KEATS, Library catalogues, e-journals, wi-fi and other electronic resources supplied by the university (including IP addresses of users of university systems)
Use of your ID card to swipe in and out of buildings
Beneficiary Bank Details for payments of Scholarship/ Stipends / Expenses /Tuition or Residence Fee overpayments
Data including special category data related to Widening Participation activities. For example, if you are a forced migrant, asylum seeker or refugee, care leaver status, disability status and/or ethnicity.

How do we use your information, what is the legal basis, and who do we share it with?

Fundamentally, the University’s student data processing is carried out to facilitate, support, and improve the student experience. The interests of our student body are at the heart of everything we do with your information.

Our provision of an integrated and effective student service at King’s includes multiple internal teams in addition to our central student service teams. Your personal information will be shared by us internally within King’s on a need-to-know basis and in compliance with the King’s Data Protection Policy and Procedure. We may share your special category data with relevant teams within the University on the grounds of substantial public interest, where that applies.

Under the below subheadings you will find a high-level overview of the main processing activities the university carries out, how your personal information will be used by the University, what our lawful justifications are and details of external parties we share your information with, in regard to such activities. The processing activities are listed under subheadings representing the overall purpose of the processing activities carried out by the university.

Legally enforceable data sharing agreements are put in place with third-party suppliers in compliance with our Data Protection Policy

It is not possible to provide an exhaustive list of all the specific activities where we use your personal information in one document and you should refer to the supplementary privacy notices for more information or contact Information Compliance at info-compliance@kcl.ac.uk

Providing Student Education and Facilities

Purpose:

To deliver, administer, and support your education, record the details of your studies (including any placements with external organisations or study abroad programmes), and determine/ confirm your academic achievements.
To deliver facilities and services to you (e.g. IT, sport, libraries, accommodation, careers, and student support services).
To enable your participation at events (e.g. graduation, functions).
To communicate effectively with you by post, email, and phone, including the distribution of relevant newsletters and circulars.
To obtain feedback on students’ learning experience.
To facilitate your membership of the Students’ Union and student clubs and societies
To provide references about you where you have given the university (or an individual at the university) as a referee
To stay in touch with you as an alumnus/alumna and keep you up to date with news, events and fundraising campaigns
To support the educational objectives of the university, the university has an opt-out Lecture Capture and recording of other educational activities policy. In practice, this means all timetabled lectures will be automatically recorded and shared on the Virtual Learning Environment KEATS unless an opt-out request has been received from the individual leading the lecture. Please see https://www.kcl.ac.uk/policyhub/digital-education-policy. Students wishing to opt-out of recordings should speak first to the person(s) responsible for recording the educational activity, e.g. the module or programme leader, who will attempt to find a suitable solution.
If you have come to King’s as a visiting, exchange or fee-paying semester, full-year or summer student, we may need to share information about you with your home institution or third party provider to enable it to carry out its administrative functions and responsibilities towards students. This information may include but is not limited to sharing your module results and transcript.

Lawful basis:

To provide your education and deliver university services and events we need to process your data to fulfil our public task as a university and perform our contract with you. Digital education tools are used in pursuance of our legitimate interests.

In limited cases and where appropriate, this processing will be based on consent that you have provided to us.

Who we share your data with:

Boundless Learning help deliver some of our online learning programmes.
Providers of any external/ collaborative learning and training placements or fieldwork opportunities.
External examiners and assessors.
External individuals involved in relevant university committees or procedures.
KCLSU (you may opt-out of your membership of KCLSU by contacting them). Information about the services a student who opts-out will be entitled to receive can be found in the Education Act Code of Practice.
Prospective employers/ educational institutions.
Third party service providers, agents, subcontractors, and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf.

Governance, Compliance, Safeguarding and Welfare

Purpose:

To effectively manage governance, disciplinary (including plagiarism and academic misconduct), complaint, audit, and quality assurance processes.
To support your training, medical, safety, welfare and religious requirements.
To fulfil and monitor our responsibilities under equalities (Equality Act 2010), immigration, health and safety (Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974) and safeguarding legislation (Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006).
To enable us to contact you or others in the event of an emergency.
To maintain a secure environment across university property (including operating CCTV)
To assist with the administration of students’ exemption from council tax and electoral registration, or the investigation of benefit fraud.
To administer the financial aspects of your relationship with us and any funders
To monitor your engagement and attendance throughout the duration of your studies in accordance with the Student Attendance and Engagement Policy.

Lawful basis

To perform our contract with you, to comply with legal obligations, to fulfil our public task as a university and, in limited cases, in pursuance of our and or your legitimate interests or to protect your vital interests.

Who we share your data with:

Regulatory and audit bodies such as The Office of the Independent adjudicator (OIA), the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA), General Medical Council (GMC), General Dental Council (GDC) or the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
Relevant government departments/agencies such as the Department for Education, Home Office, Department of Health, UK Visas and Immigration, Health and Safety Executive, and the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). For further details of data-sharing in regard to safeguarding and visa compliance please see the Student Services and Visa and Compliance supplementary notices.
External solicitors/legal firms engaged by the university.
The University may use appropriately qualified external providers to perform investigations on its behalf.
Emergency services, your emergency contact, friends and family.
Law enforcement agencies where necessary for the prevention, detection or investigation of crime.
KCLSU for areas where they have operational responsibility (e.g. CCTV)
Your local authority.
Third party service providers, agents, subcontractors, and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf. For example, your contact details are shared by the University with CriticalArc (or 'SafeZone') to support us in contacting staff/students in event of an emergency. For more information on SafeZone and to download the app please see the SafeZone information pages.
Information could be shared in relation to disciplinary cases in certain circumstances, in line with data protection legislation and wider University governance.
Please see the Fees and Funding sub notice: https://self-service.kcl.ac.uk/article/KA-02058/en-us for details of external data sharing relating to these activities
Please note the University's Occupational Health providers are separate data controllers. You can find information about them here https://www.kcl.ac.uk/professional-services/safety/occupational-health

Analytics and Reporting

Purpose:

To compile statistics and conduct research for internal and statutory reporting purposes
To obtain feedback on student experience for the purpose of better understanding student needs and improving our products or services (also known as market research)

Lawful basis:

To comply with legal obligations and to fulfil our public task as a university. Where we are processing for a legitimate reason other than performing our tasks as a public authority, in pursuance of our and/or your legitimate interests

Who we share your data with:

Please see Schedule 1 for details about the University’s reporting commitments.

Third party service providers, agents, subcontractors, and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf.

Research

Purpose:

Necessary for research purposes, primarily with the aim to seek to improve education and student services at King’s but also education provision more broadly. Where student data is used for research purposes, each project is considered on a case-by-case basis and with clearance from the Research Ethics Sub-Committee. Non-anonymised student data is not routinely used for research.

Lawful basis:

Under the Data Protection Act 2018, Research is designated compatible secondary purpose for data processing.

Who we share your data with:

You will be contacted and your (ethical) consent sought prior to any third-party information sharing.

Schedule 1: Further details about third-party data-sharing

Purposes	Type of students this affects	Legal basis	External recipients
Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) and Record of Agreed Results (ROAR) The university will provide data about taught students to Gradintel (part of the Tribal Group) for the purposes of setting up a Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) and an online Record of Agreed Results (ROAR). The HEAR provides detailed information about a student’s learning and achievement to supplement the traditional degree classification and standard transcript. The ROAR serves as an interim transcript and proof of results earned prior to a student’s final award or transcript. Eligible students can register with Gradintel to access their HEAR and ROAR and to share these with third parties such as potential employers and universities.	Undergraduate and postgraduate taught students	To perform our contract with you	Gradintel
HESA student record and Graduate Outcomes survey The university is required by law to send information about students to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) now JISC, where it forms part of the student’s HESA record and is used for statistical analysis. Data may also be passed by JISC to various government departments and agencies to enable them to carry out their statutory functions. After you graduate you will receive emails from the university notifying you about the Graduate Outcomes Survey, you can opt out of receiving these emails (this is not opting out of the survey itself). The university is required to pass on your contact details (e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and postal address if UK resident and uncontactable by email or phone) to JISC about fifteen months after you completed your programme. JISC or its contractors will then contact you to complete the Graduate Outcomes Survey, which is designed to gather data about your career and other activities at the time, and the relevance of the course which you took. You can opt-out of the Graduate Outcomes Survey by contacting JISC on info@graduateoutcomes.ac.uk. See https://www.hesa.ac.uk/about/regulation/data-protection/notices for further details.	All students (HESA/JISC record) Graduates (Graduate Outcomes Survey)	To comply with legal obligations	Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) now JISC King's Careers and Employability/SED may act under the direction of King's University London as a processor to help compile the Graduate Outcomes Survey data.
National Student Survey (NSS) This is an annual survey of final year undergraduate students, carried out to gather students’ views on the quality of the teaching, assessment and support which they have experienced. The survey is commissioned by the Office for Students (OfS) on behalf of other government agencies. The university will pass contact details of eligible students to the organisation contracted by OfS to carry out the NSS. Further information is available on the NSS website.	Final year undergraduates	To comply with legal obligations	Office for Students (OfS)
GMC registration We will share your information with the General Medical Council (GMC) to register you after graduation to practise medicine. We will also share your information with the GMC in order to assist in its statutory functions. This will include: Registration: In your final year we will share information with the GMC to grant you provisional registration. This may include information about Fitness to Practise incidents which the university investigated while you were a student. Research: We will share information about applicants and students which will help the GMC to conduct research into medical education, through the UK Medical Education Database (UKMED). This may include demographic data, attainment and exam data, and fitness to practise information. This information will not be used for other purposes by the GMC, will not be used to make decisions about you, and will not be published in a way which could identify you.	Students on medical courses	To perform our contract with you	General Medical Council (GMC)
Postgraduate Taught Enhancement Survey (PTES) King's takes part in this survey on an annual basis, asking final year postgraduate students on Taught courses to gather their views on the quality of the teaching, assessment and support which they have experienced. The survey is organised by the charity organisation AdvanceHE, who benchmark King's results alongside other institutions. The university will contact eligible students directly and use the Online Surveys system to carry out the PTES. Data is shared with AdvanceHE for the purposes of benchmarking on a wider scale, but otherwise kept within the institution. It is presented to academics and staff in a way that prevents individual respondents from being identified, and comments are checked to preserve anonymity.	Final year taught postgraduates	In pursuance of our legitimate interests	Data is hosted by Jisc and analysed by Advance HE
Postgraduate Research Enhancement Survey (PRES) King's takes part in this survey every two years, asking all postgraduate students on research courses to gather their views on the quality of the learning, supervision and support which they have experienced. The survey is organised by the charity organisation AdvanceHE, who benchmark King's results alongside other institutions. The university will contact eligible students directly and use the Online Surveys system to carry out the PRES. Data is shared with AdvanceHE for the purposes of benchmarking on a wider scale, but otherwise kept within the institution. It is presented to academics and staff in a way that prevents individual respondents from being identified, and comments are checked to preserve anonymity.	All Postgraduate research students who have been at King's for more than three months.	To comply with legal obligations	Data is hosted by Jisc and analysed by Advance HE

How long do we keep your information for?

Unless otherwise stated, we will keep your information based on the retention periods or criteria specified in the university’s Records Retention Schedule.

What are your rights and who can you contact if you have a concern?

To find out more about how the university deals with your personal information, including your rights and who to contact if you have a concern, please see the university’s core privacy notice at https://www.kcl.ac.uk/terms/privacy.aspx.