This Notice explains how Leeds Arts University will collect and use your personal data. This policy outlines what categories of information we retain and how we use it. Leeds Arts University is committed to looking after any personal data that it processes, in accordance with Data Protection Legislation, including the UK GDPR, the EU GDPR and the Data Protection Act as amended. Leeds Arts University is a Controller for the purposes of Data Protection Legislation. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under Data Protection Legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.
Throughout this Notice, âUniversityâ "we", "our" and "us" refers to Leeds Arts University and "you" and âyourâ refers to former students of the University.
It is important that you read and retain this notice, together with any other information we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using that information and what your rights are under Data Protection Legislation.
Where do we get your personal data from?
We obtain your personal data from the following sources:
Your student record, following graduation
When you sign up to receive alumni updates via the form on our website
When you sign up to attend an alumni event
If you complete an Alumni Fund Bursary donation form, or make any other donation to the University (please also see our Donor Privacy Notice)
What personal data do we hold?
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where that personâs identity has been removed (anonymous data). The personal information that we collect and process about you will include data such as:
Biographical information consisting of your name, title, birth date, age and gender
Your contact details including address, email address and phone number
Your course and dates of study at the University and your academic record
Records of communications sent to you by the University or received from you
Attendance at alumni or other University events, such as Creative Networks or alumni reunions
Any other information you choose to share with us, such as your current employer or job role, website address
Special Category Personal Data
There are certain types of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection, known as special category personal data, which we collect and process. Special category personal data has a very specific definition in Data Protection Legislation, and includes, but is not limited to, your:
Health data, including any disability information and/or additional support needs
Race or ethnicity
When we process special category personal data, we are required to apply additional protections to it. We only process it in certain situations, where the law allows us to do so. This could include where we have a legal obligation, or where the purpose satisfies another legal justification. More information about our legal bases for processing your special category personal information can be found below.
Will we send your data to third party organisations?
We do not sell or otherwise transfer personal data to any third parties unless you have consented to this or this is permitted or required by law.
Instances where we may share your personal data with a third party include:
Where there is a legal requirement for us to do so, for example sending data to governmental bodies such as to Jisc to conduct a survey of graduate destinations (the Graduate Outcomes Survey). Please see Jisc's collection notice for their statement on how they use your personal information;
Third party service providers, such as for email services and CRM services within the Universityâs standard administrative environment;
On occasion, and where necessary, with University auditors;
On occasion, and where considered necessary, information may be shared with the police and/or other law enforcement agencies.
When we use third-party service providers, we only disclose to them any personal information that is necessary for them to provide their service. All of our third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information. We only permit third-party service providers to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. Occasionally we may need to send your personal data outside of the UK. Where this is the case, we will ensure that adequate levels of protection are in place to ensure the security of the transfer. Adequacy regulations in the UK currently apply to countries in the EEA and countries covered by existing EU adequacy decisions. Where these regulations do not apply, additional safeguards will be put in place for any necessary restricted transfer of your personal data.
Data Security
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. Additionally, we limit access to your personal information based on business need.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.
Automated decision-making
You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making, unless we have a lawful basis for doing so and we have notified you.
We do not envisage that any decisions will be taken about you using automated means. However, we will notify you in writing if this position changes.
How and why will we communicate with you?
We will send out a quarterly alumni newsletter to all alumni who have consented to receive communications from us. This will include the latest news from the University, invitations to events, our fundraising activity and links to external opportunities, such as awards and competitions.
Occasionally, we will also put together email communications about an event or opportunity we think will be of interest to specific alumni.
We will email you with information regarding any other topics you have opted-in to receive, for example invitations to graduate shows.
You can opt-out at any point in time via the âContact Preferencesâ link at the bottom of emails or via emailing alumni@leeds-art.ac.uk.
We may contact you up to 15 months after your graduation in relation to the Graduate Outcomes survey which is conducted by Jisc. This processing forms part of our legal obligation, and is separate to the consent-based communications listed above.
Your rights as a data subject
Data Protection Legislation gives you a number of rights to protect your personal data and its use. You have the right, subject to any exemptions, to:
Withdraw consent where that is the legal basis of our processing
Access your personal data that we process
Rectify inaccuracies in personal data that we hold about you
Be forgotten. This means that in certain circumstances you can request that your details be removed from systems that we use to process your personal data
Restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances
Obtain a copy of your data in a commonly used electronic form
Object to certain processing of your personal data by us
If you would like to express any of these rights you can contact us at dpo@leeds-art.ac.uk. Please note that we may need to request specific information from you, such as photographic ID, to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise your other rights). This is another security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.
Please see ico.org.uk for further information on the above rights.
How can I complain?
You can contact the Data Protection Officer for any complaints at dpo@leeds-art.ac.uk.
You can also lodge a complaint with the Information Commissionerâs Office. They can be contacted via their website, or at:
Information Commissionerâs Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Legal bases for processing your Personal Data under Data Protection Legislation and retention
We will only keep your information for as long as is necessary for us to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. Sometimes we may anonymise personal information so that you are no longer identifiable by the data. In these cases, we may use this information without further notice to you.
We only process your personal data where we have established a legal basis for processing under Article 6 of the UK GDPR, and Article 9 if we are processing your special category personal data. There are 6 bases for processing that are laid out under Article 6 of the UK GDPR, of which we use the following to support our processing of your personal information:
Consent
This basis for processing is used if you provide us with consent to hold your data and process it for a particular reason. For example, this could be to communicate with you via a specific method, such as if you opt-in to receive our alumni newsletter.
Legal Obligation
This is when processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, such as providing information to HMRC if you make a gift aid donation to us (please also see our Donor Privacy Notice), or to Jisc as part of the Graduate Outcomes survey.
Legitimate Interest
This is when processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interest of the University or a third party. For example, we have a legitimate interest in holding basic alumni data so we know who studied with us and what they studied.
We see being part of the University alumni community as a lifelong relationship and as such the University will look to retain alumni personal data until the individual asks us to remove it from our records.
If you decide that you no longer wish to receive communications from the University please be aware that we still need to retain a minimal amount of personal data, including your name and details of your study. This will enable us to ensure we do not contact you inadvertently in future, and allow us to maintain your academic record for archive purposes. We may also need to retain some financial records about you for statutory purposes (e.g. if you have chosen to Gift Aid a donation to the University).
Legal bases for processing your Special Category Personal Data under Data Protection Legislation
In addition, Article 9 of the UK GDPR requires us to meet an additional legal basis where we are processing your special category personal data. The special category information that we collect about you is listed above, but more broadly can include ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and information relating to health (for example in relation to a disability or additional support need).
We use the following legal bases to process your special category personal data:
Equal opportunity monitoring and reporting, including where this is required to external bodies;
For provision of support where you have disclosed information about your physical health, mental health and/or disability status (for example, relating to event attendance);
Where it is necessary for the purposes of carrying out obligations and exercising rights as required by law;
Where it is necessary to protect the vital interest of you or another person;
Where it is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims;
We do not typically rely on consent to process your special category data, as most of our processing is covered by the legal bases listed above. However, in limited circumstances, and only where this is necessary, we may approach you for your consent. If we do this, then you are able to withdraw your consent at any time for that particular purpose and processing activity. If we ask you for consent, we will also provide you details of who to contact to withdraw your consent.
Changes to this Information
We may update this information and we will notify you when we do this where necessary. This document was last updated on 25 July 2025.
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