Privacy notices

BCU may collect your personal data in a number of ways, for example:

• From the information you provide to us when you interact with us; for example when you register with the Alumni Association or contact us by email, telephone, post, social media, or in person;
• If you are a former student of BCU and you provided consent when you graduated, in which case we will usually hold a record of your previous contact details and the academic studies you completed with us;
• From third parties, who you may have given permission to share your personal data;
• From the public domain, such as information about you from company websites, LinkedIn, the national change of address service, or public honors

We may collect the following types of personal data about you:

• Name, title, date of birth and gender
• Contact details including postal address, email, phone numbers and links to social media accounts
• Your occupation and professional activities
• Your recreations and interests
• Records of communications from us to you, and vice-versa
• Media articles that provide information about your background and achievements
• Information on your engagement with BCU including attendance at events, volunteering, responses to surveys or focus groups, records of meetings and engagement with e-communications (for example, e-newsletters).

We will use your data to keep a record of your relationship with the University, and to deliver a range of alumni and supporter activities including: 

• Sending you publications from the University by post or email
• Sending e-newsletters with University news, events and alumni profiles
• Telling you about University events, alumni events and reunions, and sending your invitations
• Giving you information about opportunities that we think may be of interest to you including job vacancies, mentoring, auditions, Alumni of the Year, volunteering and competitions
• Contacting you about opportunities to give donations to support our work and/or other fundraising opportunities and programmes.

We may share your data with other departments and faculties within BCU only where necessary for the delivery of alumni or development services.

We may share your personal data with certain third parties for the purposes of delivering Alumni Association and development services, in accordance with your preferences provided.

If we use a third party, we will always ensure that appropriate controls are in place to ensure data is safe, it is only used for the allowed purpose, and it is permanently deleted after the task has been completed.

The secure database used to store your data is kept in the UK. However, some of the personal data we process about you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (EEA); for example, where it is processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers, or where personal data is processed by one of our suppliers who is based outside the EEA or who uses storage facilities outside the EEA.

BCU will only send you marketing emails, or contact you via your preferred method, where you have expressly agreed to this. We may personalise the message content based on information you have provided. You can update your preferences at any time; see section 8 below.

BCU is committed to safeguarding your personal data. Whenever you provide such information, we are legally obliged to use your information in line with all applicable laws concerning the protection of personal information, including the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation. In relation to all our alumni and supporter records, these are held within a dedicated and secure database system hosted on a secure network with access limited on a ‘need to know’ basis. For more information, a copy of BCU’s overarching Data Protection Policy is available on the policies page of the BCU website.

We will hold your personal information within a secure dedicated database for as long as is necessary to provide alumni and development services to you. Where you have indicated you no longer wish to receive any services your information will be retained or securely and permanently destroyed in accordance with the BCU retention and destruction policy.

BCU wants to ensure that we keep the details we hold about you up to date and communicate with you fully in accordance with your wishes. You should also get in touch with us if any of your personal details change. You can update your details and your communication preferences at any time using the following contact details:

Email: alumni@bcu.ac.uk

Telephone: +44 (0) 121 331 5506

By post: Birmingham City University Alumni Association University House 15 Bartholomew Row Birmingham B5 5JU

Under the Data Protection Laws, you have the right to: 

• Request access to your data (commonly known as a “subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of your data and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of your data. This enables you to ask us to correct any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you.
• Request erasure of your data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove your data in certain circumstances; for example, if you consider that there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your data where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
• Object to processing of your data where we are relying on our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing for this reason. You also have the right to object where we are processing your data for direct marketing purposes.
• Request the restriction of processing of your data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your data; for example, if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your data to another party.

Depending on the circumstances and the nature of your request, it may not be possible for us to do what you have asked, for example, where there is a statutory or contractual requirement and it would not be possible to fulfil our legal obligations if we were to stop. However, where you have consented to the processing you can withdraw your consent at any time, by emailing us at informationmanagement@bcu.ac.uk. In this event, we will stop the processing as soon as we can. Further information on your rights is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

If you wish to exercise any of your rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer using the following contact details:

By email to: informationmanagement@bcu.ac.uk

By post to: Data Protection Officer
Information Management Team
Birmingham City University
Floor 1, Joseph Priestley Building
6 Cardigan Street
Birmingham B4 7RJ

If you have any questions, comments or concerns about how we use or handle your personal data please contact the Data Protection Officer using the contact details in section 10 above.

If you are not content with how we handle your information we would ask you to contact our Data Protection Officer to help you. However, you do also have the right to complain directly to the Information Commissioner at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. Information about the Information Commissioner is available on their website.

This privacy notice may be updated from time to time so you may wish to check it each time you submit personal information to BCU. The date of the most recent versions will appear on this page (see version control).

Document version control Version: 1.1 Updated: 2 April 2019