Privacy Statement

 

This Privacy Statement (“Statement") explains how Uversity collects, uses, shares and otherwise processes your personal data. This Statement also describes your choices and rights regarding use, access and correction or deletion of your personal data. All your personal data will be used in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 EU (the “GDPR”) and Data Protection Acts 1988 to 2018 (the “Data Protection Acts”).

Unless indicated otherwise, this Statement applies to personal data collected from scholarship applicants and recipients of scholarship awards.

Uversity fully respects your right to privacy and we are committed to ensuring that your personal data are:

• processed lawfully, fairly and transparently
• processed for specific, explicit and legitimate purposes only, and not in any manner incompatible with those purposes
• adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed
• accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
• not kept in an identifiable form for longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed
• processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal

1.     What is personal data?

Any data that identifies you, or could be used to identify you, which is submitted to and/or collected by Uversity.

2.     Who are we?

Uversity is a registered charity (No. 20083199) and company limited by guarantee (No. 520514). Uversity awards Higher Education Scholarships to Adult Learners to enrol on a Bachelor’s Degree Programme, for the first time, at one of the participating institutions on the island of Ireland (the “Programme”). In this Statement, the use of “we”, “us”, and “our” means Uversity.

3.     Application of this Statement

Uversity collects certain information about you in order to assess your eligibility and suitability for a scholarship and for the purposes of administering the scholarship if you are successful. We collect and use information relating to prospective, current and former applicants for the Programme, both through our online application form and through our offline process.

4.      What information do we process?

We process the following categories of personal data:

For all applicants to the Programme:  In the first instance, we ask you to submit the following information via our on-line application that will be reviewed by Uversity staff and external reviewers contracted by Uversity:

• Personal contact details including telephone number, email address and postal address
• Personal details including date of birth, gender, marital status, number of dependents, country of citizenship, and length of residency, any access requirements you may have
• Education and employment history
• Confirmation of any government benefits you receive
• Name and contact details of two referees
• A motivation statement of 500 words.

Please note: we use a third party service provider called MindaClient to provide the application platform and to host data for Uversity.

Uversity is the data controller of all information provided on the application form and of all data hosted on the MindaClient platform and, is subject to this privacy statement.  MindaClient is the data processor. Please see MindaClient’s Data Privacy Policy here.

Please note: It is your decision regarding the extent of personal information and details that you disclose in your application. We do not require you to submit special category personal data, such as data revealing racial or ethnic origin or data concerning health. Please note that if you do submit such information, we will process it for the purposes of evaluating your scholarship application and on the basis that we have your explicit consent to do so.

Further, we do not require you to submit information regarding criminal convictions and offences. If you do submit such information, please note that it will be deleted and will not be considered as part of your scholarship application.

We also request that you do not provide to us medical or other sensitive personal data related to third parties/family members. If you feel you must provide such information to us, please provide it without the use of names or other identifying information.

For applicants recommended for the Programme: If you are recommended by the reviewers for a scholarship, we will then request additional information from you that may include:

• A copy of the bio-page of your passport and supporting citizenship documentation
• Copies of recent bank statements
• Further financial information
• Details and confirmation of income, including government benefits, if relevant
• Details and confirmation of admission to a higher education institution
• We may also contact your referees and the higher education institution(s) indicated in your application.
• We may also obtain other personal data about you as part of the application review/interview process and/or through your interactions with us during the selection process or the ongoing administration of scholarships for successful applicants.
• Successful applicants will be requested to provide bank details to enable monthly payments to be made and will be required to submit annual verification of their academic progression.

We collect this data for the purposes of assessing your eligibility and suitability for the scholarship and your financial need to enrol on and complete a Bachelor’s Degree at one of Uversity’s participating higher education institutions and the administration of your scholarship, if you are successful.

5.     Our Legal Basis

We use your personal data for the purposes outlined above, except where restricted by law. In doing so, we rely on a number of separate and overlapping legal basis to lawfully process your personal data, including where:

• necessary for the purposes of Uversity’s legitimate interests, provided that those interests are not overridden by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms. Uversity is a charity, the purpose of which is the advancement of education and the main object for which it was established is the advancement of education by the making of grants to persons engaged in academic or other study or research. Uversity is of the view that it is therefore necessary to process your personal data in the context of your application for a scholarship.
• necessary to perform a contract we have with you, if you are successful in your application, as outlined in the terms and conditions of the scholarship;
• you have consented to the processing (in which case you may revoke your consent at any time by contacting us at apply@uversity.org). Please note that, as stated above, we do not require you to provide us with special category personal data, such as data revealing racial or ethnic origin or data concerning health. If you do submit such information, we will process it for the purposes of evaluating your scholarship application and on the basis that we have your explicit consent to do so; and further, we do not require you to submit information regarding criminal convictions and offences. If you do submit such information, please note that it will be deleted and will not be considered as part of your scholarship
• necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation, or to establish, exercise or defend legal. We will use your personal data, when it is necessary, to preserve or to defend our rights in court, to respond to law enforcement requests or discovery procedures, or where required or permitted by applicable laws, court orders, government regulations, or government authorities, which may include lawful access by courts or governmental authorities outside your country of residence.

6.     Do we share your personal data?

As detailed in section 4 of this Statement, Uversity may share your personal data with our officers, employees, agents acting on behalf of Uversity, advisers and service providers who act on behalf of Uversity pursuant to a contractual relationship.

Our IT services are provided by an external service provider pursuant to a written agreement. Uversity continues to be the controller. Such third parties are only permitted to use the personal data for processing/administering applications and scholarships as instructed by Uversity. They are also required to keep the data safe and secure.

We may also disclose your information to Uversity’s donors and sponsor and, or where we are required to do so by any regulatory or government agency/body, law enforcement agency, court or other legal process, or by law.

Applicants may be requested to speak to employees of Uversity (or agents acting on its behalf) by telephone. If applicants request that Uversity communicates with him/her by email, the applicant is solely responsible for the security and integrity of their own email account. The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure and consequently, while Uversity will take all reasonable security measures, it cannot guarantee the privacy or confidentiality of information being passed via the internet; any transmission is entirely at the applicant’s own risk.

7.     How long do we keep your personal data?

Uversity will keep the data you submit on secure systems for the purpose of on-going administration, audit and review. We will keep your personal data in accordance with our record retention policy taking into account requirements imposed on us by our regulator(s) or by law, and also business and legal considerations. We will keep your data for no longer than is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected.

8.     How do we keep your personal data secure?

Uversity has put in place appropriate security measures against unauthorised access to, or alteration, disclosure or destruction of personal data and against its accidental loss or destruction. Data processing and data sharing agreements entered into between Uversity and any third parties with whom it exchanges data take account of the security measure requirements necessary to protect the data.

It should be noted that no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed as 100% secure, thus we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any personal information you transmit to us over the internet. You are also responsible for the security of your personal information by taking precautionary measures, such as keeping your application password confidential and using secure wireless connections.

9.     Cookies

We use information gathered from cookies to help improve your experience of uversity.org. Some cookies are essential so you can move around the website and use its features. Our website also contains third party cookies which are listed in our cookie policy. For further information and control options in respect of the use of cookies please see the Uversity Cookie Policy.

10.     What are your rights?

You have various rights under data protection law, subject to certain exemptions, in connection with our processing of your data:

• Right to access your personal data: You have the right to request a copy of the personal data that we hold about you, and information as to how we process that data.
• Right to rectification: You have the right to request that any inaccurate or incomplete data that we hold about you be
• Right to erasure: You have the right to request us to delete data that we hold about
• Right to restriction of processing: You have the right to request that we no longer process your personal data for particular purposes, or to object to our processing of your data for particular
• Right to data portability: You have the right to request the transfer of your data to a third

Please note that you may be required to provide us with sufficient information in order that we can verify your identity and locate your data. Note also that these rights are also subject to certain restrictions. Please contact us if you require further information in this regard.

It is our intention to hold only accurate, complete and up-to-date data. It is your responsibility to ensure that the information you provide Uversity is accurate, complete, comprehensive, truthful and timely to ensure your application’s eligibility and ongoing consideration/administration. If you need to update your details you can do so directly via your online application or by emailing apply@uversity.org and instructing us regarding the personal data to be updated. Uversity may also contact you directly once you have supplied your email address for further information/clarification.

If you would like any further details about the measures that we have in place to ensure compliance with data protection law, or in relation to your personal data, you can submit queries and requests to apply@uversity.org or contact us at the address below.

Without prejudice to any other rights you may have, you may file a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission. The Commission’s website is www.dataprotection.ie and details of how to lodge a complaint can be found here.

11.     International Transfers

We do not envisage that your personal data will be transferred outside the EEA, but if we need to do so, we will ensure that appropriate measures are in place to protect your personal data and to comply with our obligations under applicable data protection law.

12.     Contacting us

If you have any questions regarding this Statement or our use of your personal data, please contact us using the following information:

Web:	https://www.uversity.org
Email:	apply@uversity.org
Data Controller	Uversity

 

Postal address

IFSC House, Custom House Quay Dublin, D01R2P9 Ireland

13.     Changes to this Statement

Uversity reserves the right to update this Statement at any time. If we make any changes, we will post details of the changes on our website. When you use the Site the current Privacy Statement will apply and you should review it each time you visit the Site.

Last updated December 2022.