Privacy Notice for Student Visa Holders

Privacy Notice for students requiring immigration permission to live and study in the UK

This Privacy Notice explains who we are, how and why we collect and use personal information about you as a student who requires immigration permission to live and study in the UK, what personal data is collected and held, our purposes and lawful bases for processing, who we share your personal data with, relevant retention periods, and how you can exercise your privacy rights.

This notice provides information that is in addition to information contained in the University’s Visa guide, titled ‘Your Visa, Your Responsibility’ and our Changes of Circumstances webpages’. This privacy notice and guide should be read together to gain a full understanding of the right to study process.

Introduction

Manchester Metropolitan University (Manchester Met) has a licence with the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) Agency, this permits the University to sponsor your student immigration for the purpose of study at Manchester Met only. This licence places several reporting and record-keeping duties on the University as a Tier 4 and Student Visa (General) sponsor.  We are also required to check all overseas fee assessed applicants and students’ right to study in the UK.

Please do read this notice to understand our practices and if you have any questions, please contact us using the contact details provided below.

Who we are

Throughout this notice, “University”, “we”, “our” and “us” refer to the Manchester Metropolitan University, an exempt charity under Schedule 2 to the Charities Act 1993 (amended by the Charities Act 2011). The University is the Data Controller in respect of the personal data you provide as a student visa holder/applicant. 

The University is registered as a Data Controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). We manage personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the University’s Data Protection Policy.

The personal data we process

As a student visa sponsor, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) require Manchester Met to collect and process certain data about you, including information of a sensitive nature about your immigration status in the UK. This information is commonly referred to as Appendix D documentation and can include::

• Your University student number and other examples of unique system IDs. E.g. UCAS personal ID
• Information on how you have obtained your offer, including any academic and English Language qualifications
• A valid ATAS (where applicable)
• Your personal details and contact information; including: name, term-time and holiday addresses, date of birth, gender, phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
• Your passport and Immigration information; including: passport number, passport expiry, Travel visa Number, Travel visa expiry date, Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) number, BRP Expiry date, date of entry to the UK, date and evidence of departure from the UK.
• In the absence of an in date visa, evidence that confirms you have ongoing immigration permission to remain and study in the UK.
• Certificate of Acceptance of Studies (CAS), Visa refusals, Immigration History checks.
• A history of your engagement, progression and attendance on your course of study.

The purposes of the processing

Your information will enable us:

If you contact us, we may also keep a record of that correspondence.

The recipients or categories of recipients of the personal data

The University is legally obliged to share information with the UKVI about any students requiring immigration permission to remain and study in the UK. This normally includes a copy of:

• Your passport, evidence of immigration permissions for the UK.
• Information on how you have obtained your offer, including any academic and English Language qualifications.
• A valid ATAS (where applicable).
• A list of your current and previous UK contact details
• An Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) certificate (where required)
• For students under 18, a consent letter from a parent or guardian
• Documents and information from your admissions application
• Evidence of your engagement, progression and attendance on your course of study.

All and any information is reported through your CAS number using the UKVI Sponsor Management System, or for non-student visa holders, upon receipt of the relevant data request from UKVI.

To perform our legal responsibilities, contractual and other purposes set out above, we may also, from time to time, need to share your information with:

• the Police, Home Office, Immigration compliance and enforcement with UKVI, HM Revenues and Customs, UKVI case working teams, and other governmental bodies where pursuant to the investigation of crime, national security, immigration, tax and benefit matters.
• To other educational institutions which the University partners with, to provide our teaching and educational services to you.

Data retention

Your personal information will be retained by the University for as long as it is necessary for the purposes outlined above.

Under the sponsor licence guidance, Appendix D, documents have to be kept for one year from the date the sponsorship ended.

Most of the University’s information about: your application to study with us, registration, your study with the University as a student, academic progress, assessments, attendance placements, accommodation, and your engagement with our support services will be retained for six years after your graduation or departure date, after which your information will be securely disposed.

Core student information about you, e.g. your studies and academic awards (name, dates of study, courses studies, main academic details, units, marks and classification etc) will be retained indefinitely.

Your rights in respect of the processing

The GDPR provides data subjects with the following data subject rights:

• The right to be informed – this privacy notice assists with fulfilling these obligations.
• The right of access.
• The right to rectification.
• The right to erasure.
• The right to restrict processing
• The right to data portability
• The right to object

Please note, that these rights apply in certain circumstances, for example according to the lawful basis utilised by the University. The right of access to personal information held about you exists in order to be aware of, and verify, the lawfulness of the processing. Please use the contact information below to exercise these rights.

Contacting us

For questions or concerns about this Privacy Notice, or our use of your personal information, please contact VisaCompliance@mmu.ac.uk in the first instance.

Our Data Protection Officer can also be contacted using dataprotection@mmu.ac.uk, by calling 0161 247 3884 or in writing to: Data Protection Officer, Legal Services, All Saints Building, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, M15 6BH.

Right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as the supervisory authority in respect of the processing of your personal data. We would encourage you to expend our internal complaints procedure through our initial contact and the University Data Protection Officer, prior to contacting the ICO. Please contact: casework@ico.org.uk or telephone: 0303 123 1113. For any further contact information please see: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Updates to this privacy notice

We may update this privacy notice from time to time in response to changing legal, technical or business developments. When we update our privacy notice, we will take appropriate measures to inform you, consistent with the significance of the changes we make