Communications with agents acting on behalf of enquirers and applicants
If you have instructed an agent to represent you in making enquiries and/or an application to BU, with your agreement we will then communicate with your agent and share your personal data with them.
More Information:
We will share your information with an agent only:
- Where we have a representation agreement with the agent; and
- The agent has obtained your clear consent to this sharing of your information. This will usually mean that you have signed a standard consent form issued by BU to the agent.
The information we share will include responses to enquiries and any offers we make to you.
- Consent: you have agreed to this processing
- Necessary in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract with us
Communications with applicants by BU country representatives
Applicants based in Vietnam, China or India may be contacted by BU representatives based in those countries. These are consultants working under contract with BU, who offer support to applicants in progressing their application and accessing relevant information from BU. For this purpose BU provides the consultants with secure access to applicants’ data (name, course applied for, contact details, application/offer status (including updates on progress through the admissions process) and the name of any agent acting on the applicant’s behalf). This information will be held securely by these consultants and only used by them for the purposes of providing support to applicants as described above. If you do not want to be contacted by our country representative, or want contact with them to stop, just let us know – either by telling the country representative or by emailing [email protected].
- Necessary for legitimate interests pursued by BU or another organisation, i.e. supporting applicants who may find it more difficult to understand or manage the admissions process and increase the chances of applicants taking up any offer of a place from BU
- Consent: you have agreed to this processing
Communications with enquirers and applicants based outside the European Economic Area
If you and/or an agent representing you are based outside the UK while communicating with us (whether through making an enquiry or an application to BU), then it will obviously be necessary for us to send your personal information back outside the UK in order to respond. This information will also be sent outside the UK for use by our country representatives as described above, unless you tell us that you do not wish to be contacted by them.
QS Enrolment Solutions (QSES) will be used to process some PostGraduate Taught (PGT) applications from international applicants to offer level. Processing includes marketing, communications and analysis of data to improve our services.
More information:
- Necessary for the implementation of pre-contractual measures taken at the data subject’s request
- Consent: you have agreed to this processing
Sharing your data with Kaplan in connection with Bournemouth University International College (BUINTCOL)
This applies if we either offer you a place at BU conditional on completion of a pre-sessional English course, or if we reject your offer but feel that you may benefit from a preparatory course before making further similar applications. With your agreement we will share some information about you with Kaplan an official contracted party of BU so that they can contact you by email with information about pre-sessional courses relevant to you. Kaplan operates BUINTCOL , which offers pathways into further study at BU.
More information:
We would share your name, email address and limited information about your application to BU. You will be asked if you consent to this sharing when you complete your application. If you don’t consent at that stage we will ask you again if we send you a relevant offer or rejection decision.
- Consent: you have agreed to this processing
Immigration and visa applications
If you require a student visa or in the case apprenticeships the ‘Right to Work’ in order to study in the UK, we will need to process the data in your application, and collect further information from you, for purposes relating to immigration and visa applications.
In the case of apprenticeships, it might be necessary to use a share code provided by you to verify your Right to Work status using the UK government’s Right to Work website. Alternatively, you might be asked to provide us with a copy of your British Residency permit card, which we would retain.
For students that require a student visa, we will need to review the information in your application to identify whether you are likely to obtain a visa: this may affect our decision on whether to make you an offer. Later (if you accept an offer from BU) we will process your information to issue the Confirmation of Acceptance of Studies (CAS) or any equivalent document that you will need in order to apply for a student visa and to comply with our legal obligations as a student visa sponsor. This may include sharing your data with UK Visas and Immigration (part of the Home Office within the UK Government).
If you are from the EU and eligible for EU settled status (so that you will not require a visa to study in the UK), before enrolling at BU you will need to provide us with a copy of your passport and evidence that you have or have applied to the UK government for EU settled status. However, we will not need to collect any additional information for immigration purposes during the admissions process.
More information:
Prior to determining applications, we will review them in order to identify any applicants who will require a visa to study in the UK and who we consider would not meet the requirements for a Student Visa (previously known as a Tier 4 visa). Where this is the case, this is likely to result in BU refusing the application.
At this stage we also identify any applicants who appear to be unable to provide all of the documentation we usually use to issue a CAS. If you are one of the small number of people for whom this is relevant, with your agreement we will ask the Home Office to provide us with your immigration history: as required by the Home Office, we will notify you before we contact them for this purpose and ask whether you consent to us receiving this information.
Once you have received an offer from BU, you have accepted the offer and you have met any other conditions on your offer (i.e. your offer status is “unconditional firm”), we will process your information in order to issue a CAS or equivalent document. In the case of postgraduate students, you will also be required to pay a fee deposit before we issue a CAS. At the moment we can only issue a CAS a maximum of six months before the date on which your studies are due to commence. To issue a CAS we are required to obtain a copy of your passport and to review documentation relating to previous visas you have obtained to study in the UK, your previous qualifications and any CAS documents you previously obtained from a university in the UK. We may also request additional documents associated with your visa application if we deem it necessary to assess the likelihood of a successful visa application. These enable us to assess whether you are likely to meet the requirements for issue of a student visa. We are legally required to retain copies of some of this documentation, including your passport, for the length of your study at BU. We are required to store this for UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) purposes for a period of 1 year after graduation or until a compliance officer from the UKVI has assessed the documents whichever is sooner. In the case of apprenticeships we have to retain evidence of funding eligibility (including Right to Work) for 6 years from financial year end after course completion, as per guidance for training providers.
As at the earlier stage, if you are not able to provide all of the documentation we need to make this assessment, with your agreement we will ask the Home Office to provide us with your immigration history: as required by the Home Office, we will notify you before we contact them for this purpose and ask whether you consent to us receiving this information.
- Necessary for compliance with a legal obligation on BU: our obligations as a student visa sponsor/licence holder under the immigration legislation and immigration law requirements with respect to holders of EU settled status
- Consent: you have agreed to this processing