Privacy and Cookies

Queen's University Belfast is committed to transparency and to complying with its responsibilities under the data protection legislation. The following information will help you to understand how the University manages and protects personal data.

Privacy Notices

Whether you are a student, member of staff, service user or an organisation, your privacy is important to us. Our privacy notice(s) aim to advise you on the way we look after your data at various stages. Find out more and search for a specific privacy notice.

Freedom of Information, Data Protection and Information Governance

The University has a dedicated Information and Compliance Unit which is responsible for overseeing University compliance with Freedom of Information, Data Protection legislation and best practice in information governance. For more information please visit the Information and Compliance Unit website.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small text file that is downloaded to your personal computer, mobile phone or other device when you visit a website. When you return to a website it uses this cookie to 'remember' some of the things you did during a previous visit. For example, if you are using the same computer, and previously took an action to dismiss a prompt or alert message on a certain area of a website, you will not see that prompt or alert message again (assuming that you haven't deleted the related cookie). Cookies typically store the name of the domain or website you are visiting, the duration or lifetime of the cookie, and one or more unique and randomly generated content values.

Cookies are used in places on this website to store your preferences and to improve the overall user experience. Please be aware that some areas of our website will not function as expected if you do not consent to the use of cookies.

Queen's University Belfast does not use cookies to collect or store any personal information such as your name, date of birth, email address or home address.

You can choose to manually disable cookies on your computer, or delete existing cookies by adjusting your browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

Types of cookies

1. Strictly necessary cookies
These will generally be used to store a unique identifier to manage and identify the user as unique to other users currently viewing the website, in order to provide a consistent and accurate service to the user.

2. Functionality cookies
Will typically be the result of a user action, but might also be implemented in the delivery of a service not explicitly requested but offered to the user. They can also be used to prevent the user being offered a service again that had previously been offered to that user and rejected.

3. Performance cookies
These are limited to performance and website improvement.

4. Targeting/advertising cookies
These contain a unique key that is able to distinguish individual users’ browsing habits or store a code that can be translated into a set of browsing habits or preferences using information stored elsewhere.

Please find below a list of cookies used on the University website and online environments.

Core University Websites

List of cookies used on the core University websites.
Cookie Name and Description	Behaviour
CookieControl This cookie is set by the cookie compliance solution from Civic. It stores information about the categories of cookies the site uses, the consent given and interaction with the notice.	Expires after 1 year.
_ga Used by Google Universal Analytics to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier.	By default it is set to expire after 2 years.
_gid Used by Google Universal Analytics to store and update a unique value for each page visited.	Expires after 24 hours.
_gcl_au Used by Google Tag Manager for experimenting with advertisement efficiency across websites using Google Adsense services.	Expires after 3 months.
Campaign Dependent ID Cookies associated with Remarketing, Google Display Network and DoubleClick.	Can be set with an expiry date of up to 2 years.
General purpose session cookies These cookies are used to maintain user sessions information.	Expires at end of user session.
qubSurvey These cookies will be set with a unique number (i.e qubSurvey4) and relate to specific surveys run on the University's website.	Expires after 1 week or 60 days depending on user action.

Online Environments Section One

Cookies relating to online environments used at the University.
Cookie Name and Description	Behaviour
https://cmst4.qub.ac.uk - JSESSIONID Used by the Terminal Four Content Management System to set a users unique Session ID.	Expires at the end of user session.
https://cmst4.qub.ac.uk - _ga Used by the Terminal Four Content Management System. This cookie is used by Google Universal Analytics to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier	By default it is set to expire after 2 years.
https://cmst4.qub.ac.uk - _gid Used by Google Universal Analytics to store and update a unique value for each page visited.	Expires after 24 hours.
https://cmst4.qub.ac.uk - t4-section-tree-column-stats Used by the Terminal Four Content Management System to track if section statistics should be shown in the hierarchy view.	Expires at the end of user session.
https://cmst4.qub.ac.uk - i18next Used by the Terminal Four Content Management System to track the current system translation in use.	Expires at the end of user session.
https://cmst4.qub.ac.uk - userLevel Used by the Terminal Four Content Management System to set the user level of the logged in user.	Local Storage Entry - Does not expire.
https://cmst4.qub.ac.uk - userHtmlEditorId Used by the Terminal Four Content Management System to set the user level of the logged in user.	Local Storage Entry - Does not expire.
https://cmst4.qub.ac.uk - Datatables_xxx Used by the Terminal Four Content Management System to store the hierarchy history for a user.	Local Storage Entry - Does not expire.
https://cmst4.qub.ac.uk - t4ContentRedirectTo Used by the Terminal Four Content Management System to set the section a user should be directed upon login.	Expires at the end of user session.
Queen's Online Portal (QOL) - QUBSESSID Used by Queen's Online to set a unique session id for a user.	Expires at the end of user session.
Queen's Online Portal (QOL) - SearchSession Microsoft SharePoint cookie for internal use.	Expires at the end of user session.
Queen's Online Portal (QOL) - WSS_FullScreenMode Microsoft SharePoint cookie for internal use of the application to indicate whether a page is shown in full screen mode.	Expires at the end of user session.
Queen's Online Portal (QOL) - Ribbon.* Microsoft SharePoint cookie for internal use.	Expires after 1 week.
Queen's Online Portal (QOL) - http%3A%2F%2F*%2Eqol%2Equb%2Eac%2Euk%2FDiscovery Microsoft SharePoint cookie for internal use to indicate the type of site.	Expres after 1 month.

Online Environments Section Two

Cookies relating to online environments used at the University.
Cookie Name(s) and Description	Behaviour
PFact Research System - ASP.NET_SessionId Cookies necessary for login and session management.	Expires at the end of user session.
https://go.qub.ac.uk/ - PHPSESSID A University Service to shorten a URL for dissemination purposes typically publications.	Expires at the end of user session.
https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/ - PHPSESSID Used to set a unique session id for a user.	Expires at the end of user session.
https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/ - catAccCookies This cookie is set by the cookie consent plugin relating to this platform.	Expires after 1 month.
Qsis: Student Information System - X-Mapping-kcepobcd / qsis-wap-m1-8900-PORTAL-PSJSESSIONID / ExpirePage / PS_LOGINLIST / PS_TOKEN / SignOnDefault /HPTabName / PS_TOKENEXPIRE Cookies necessary for login, access rights and session management.	All expire at the end of user session.
Library Systems - Encore - JSESSIONID (encore_qub) / JSESSIONID (jstor) / III_SESSION_ID / PAT_LOGGED_IN / III_ENCORE_PATRON / XProxyTicket / SERVER / TENACIOUS / SessionID / _utma / _utmc / _utmz MAID / machine-id / _utmb / _utmz Cookies necessary for login, search and session management.Plus additional cookies associated with Google Analytics. (This site will automatically create more cookies through its interactions with Amazon (7 cookies), Google (2 cookies) and Myilibrary (3 cookies) if you avail of specific sections of the site. These are outside the control of the University.)	All expire at the end of user session. Persistent.
Library Systems - LMS - JSESSIONID / CASTGC org.springframework.web.servlet.i18n.CookieLocaleResolver.LOCALE Cookies necessary for login, search and session management.	All expire at the end of user session. Persistent.
Advisory Helpdesk - ASPSESSIONIDSSRQRAA Cookie necessary for accessing user profile and logging requests.	Expires at the end of user session.
SmartCard Payments via WorldPay Payment facility - select.worldpay.com and secure.worldpay.com - JSESSIONID / machine (These are necessary for the service transaction and are outside the control of the University.)	All expire at the end of user session.
Dynamics365PortalAnalytics Critical service cookie to analyse service usage anonymously and aggregated for statistical purpose.	Expires after 90 days.

External Websites

From time to time we may link from our website to external websites that set cookies on your machine, please note such websites are outside the University’s control and are not covered by this cookie statement.