ACADEMIC AFFAIRS HONORARY AND VISITING RESEARCH TITLES PRIVACY NOTICE

Queen’s University Belfast (“we”, “us” and “our”) is committed to protecting your personal data. The notice is addressed to Honorary and Visiting Research Titles Nominees and Holders who are users of our services, (“you” and “your”). This Privacy Notice tells you why we need to collect personal information about you, what we will do with it, and how we will look after it. It also tells you about your legal rights in relation to your Personal Data. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact us. Contact details are provided below.

WHO WE ARE

1. We are Queen’s University Belfast, a university with a reputation for excellence in education and research and a member of the Russell Group. Founded in 1845 as Queen's College Belfast, we became an independent university in 1908.  Academic Affairs is responsible for managing the process for conferral of Honorary and Visiting Research Titles in support of the University’s Honorary Titles Group.

HOW YOUR PERSONAL DATA IS COLLECTED

2. Information you provide: When managing the process of conferral of Honorary and Visiting Research Titles we will ask for information about you. The information required can include your name; address; email address, if applicable; immigration status; current employment or study status; academic qualifications; research experience; source of funding; references; and CV. This is known as your “Personal Data”. We may also ask you for some special categories of information (for example criminal convictions, health including maternity or paternity details, disability information, ethnic origin and religion). This is known as your “Sensitive Personal Data”.

• Data from other sources (Honorary Titles Only): We also collect information about you from other sources and this also forms part of “Personal Data”. This includes information from Referees.

HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

3. We use your Personal Data in the following ways:

Honorary Titles

• Providing details of Honorary Title nominees to the University’s Honorary Titles Group to assess the nomination for conferral of an honorary title, in the context of associated procedures and criteria for conferral;

• Providing details of Honorary Title nominees, who have been endorsed by the Honorary Titles Group, to Academic Council for formal approval and ratification;

• Maintaining the information provided on the nomination form within the Additional Persons Database as a record of the Honorary Title;

• To maintain a contact database;

• Conducting audits of compliance with the Honorary Titles Policy and Procedures to provide assurance of the University’s governance arrangements; and

• Notification to any regulatory authority deemed as lawful and correct

Visiting Research Titles (VRT)

• Assessing the nomination for conferral of a VRT, in the context of associated procedures and criteria for conferral;

• Maintaining the information provided on the nomination form within the Additional Persons Database as a record of the VRT;

• Providing details of VRT holders to the University’s Honorary Titles Group, on request, as part of the University’s governance requirements; and

• Notification to any regulatory authority deemed as lawful and correct.

LEGAL BASIS FOR COLLECTING AND USING YOUR PERSONAL DATA

4. We will only use your Personal Data if we have valid reasons for doing so. These reasons are known as our “legal basis for processing”. In certain circumstances we may ask for your consent to process your information. At other times we may be required to process your information to enable us to confer and manage the Title. There are circumstances where we have a legitimate interest to process your personal data, for example to provide you with a service which you have requested.   The legal bases for processing your Personal Data are,

• Contractual obligations, owing to the staff/student contract;
• Legal obligations, where we are required to process it under law;
• Legitimate interests of the data controller, where we are required to process data for business related tasks and;
• To protect your vital interest where there is a threat to life.

When processing your ‘sensitive data’, we will do so in line with Article 9 of the GDPR and will use the appropriate exemption for each instance of sharing and/or processing, which are:

• Processing is necessary for carrying out obligations to employment, social security and social protection law;
• Processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject;
• Processing is carried out in the course of the legitimate activities with appropriate safeguards;
• For the purposes of public interest in the area of public health, such as cross-border threats and ensuring high standards of quality and health and safety;
• Processing is necessary for occupational health or workplace assessment and diagnosis;
• Processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest and;
• Processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research or statistical purposes.

WHO WE SHARE YOUR DATA WITH

5. In line with our Data Protection Policy and Procedures we can share your information, including Personal Data and Sensitive Personal Data, with the following parties for the purposes set out above:

• Google Analytics (when interacting with QUB online services);
• The University’s Honorary Titles Group and Academic Council; and
• Any regulatory authority where required under legislation.

DATA PROCESSING OUTSIDE EUROPE

6. We will not transfer your Personal Data and Sensitive Personal Data outside of the European Economic Area.

HOW LONG YOUR INFORMATION WILL BE KEPT

7. We will keep your Personal Data for the two years after the end of academic year in which the appointment expires.

8. We will only keep your information if we need it for one of the reasons described above. We place great importance on the security of the Personal Data that we hold, including the use of physical, technological and organisational measures to ensure your information is protected from unauthorised access and against unlawful processing, accidental loss, alteration, disclosure, destruction and damage.

YOUR RIGHTS

9. The Data Protection Act 2018 provides you with a number of legal rights in relation to your Personal Data, including the right:

• to request access to your Personal Data;
• to request correction of your Personal Data that is wrong or incomplete;
• to request erasure or the restriction of processing of your Personal Data;
• to request the transfer of your Personal Data in a structured; commonly used machine-readable format;
• not to be subject to automated decision making; and
• to withdraw your consent.

10. If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, or require further information about any of the rights, please contact us.

11. Where we need to collect your Personal Data, whether for the purposes of providing a service you have requested or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that information when requested, we may not be able to provide the service or perform the contract. We may, therefore, have to cancel the contract or the service we provide to you but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

12. There may also be times where we cannot stop using your Personal Data when you ask us to, but we will tell you about this if you make a request.

CONTACTING US

13. If you have any questions or comments about this privacy notice, the University’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted at:

Derek Weir

Data Protection Officer

Registrar’s Office
Lanyon South
Queen’s University Belfast
University Road
BT7 1NN
info.compliance@qub.ac.uk   

COMPLAINTS

14. You have the right to complain about how we treat your Personal Data and Sensitive Personal Data to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE

15. We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. We will notify you of the changes where we are required by law to do so.