The Division of Development and Alumni Relations Privacy Statement

The aim of this Privacy Notice

Our alumni and supporters are extremely important to us, and this Privacy Notice explains how the University of Manchester’s Division of Development and Alumni Relations (DDAR) collects, stores, manages and protects your personal information. It outlines the types of information that we hold and how we use it to provide services to our alumni and supporters. We aim to be clear when we collect your personal information, and not do anything you would not reasonably expect.

Who we are and what we do

The Division of Development and Alumni Relations supports The University of Manchester through contact with alumni, students, and supporters of the University. We do this by offering a range of academic, social and networking events and publications and providing access to University Library resources and employment and skills advice for recent graduates. We also fundraise to support the University’s students, teaching, research and capital projects.

In order to do this, we have a database that contains personal data collected by the University during the course of our relationship with students, alumni, donors and supporters.  Initially, personal information about students is transferred into our database from the student record system, in accordance with the Student Privacy Notice.  The vast majority of the information we hold is obtained directly from you; and if you interact with any other departments, divisions, schools or faculties within the University, we may receive data from those areas. Similarly, we may receive information from recognised University volunteer groups, chapters, clubs or societies, subject to their privacy notices. We may also obtain information from third parties we partner with, subject to those third parties’ own privacy practices.  We always aim to keep your details up to date, and we will conduct projects to check the contact details we have for you are correct, and, where appropriate, update them.  As a result, some of the data may also have been obtained from publicly available sources – for example, we may find a new address for you by using the Royal Mail’s National Change of Address database (NCOA).  We may also use information from publicly available sources to carry out research to assess your inclination and capacity to support the University financially or by volunteering your time.  More information on these activities, and the legal bases on which we process your data in pursuit of these activities, is below and you will always have the right to opt out of any or all forms of processing by the DDAR.  We value our relationship with you and we use your personal information to ensure we contact you in the most appropriate way, improve our services and to ensure we work efficiently and effectively.

The DDAR is part of the University of Manchester, and the University is the Data Controller.  Full details of the University’s data protection policies are available here: https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/privacy-information/data-protection.

Our responsibilities and legal bases for processing your personal information

As part of our work we process and store personal information relating to students, staff, alumni, current and potential supporters and friends of the University and we therefore adhere to all relevant UK data protection legislation.  We take our data protection responsibilities seriously and ensure the personal information we obtain is held, used, transferred and processed in accordance with all applicable laws.  When laws are updated, revised or replaced we will review our data processing practices as required by and in line with the most up-to-date UK legislation. The University’s alumni and supporter relations and fundraising activity encompasses those who have studied here, those who work or have worked here, and those who have done neither.

There is no requirement under UK legislation for the University to conduct alumni and supporter relations or fundraising, and we therefore rely on our legitimate interest as our legal basis for data processing for these activities wherever appropriate and possible.  This is because alumni and supporter relations and fundraising:

• is of clear benefit to the University and those who we can support because of this activity – through teaching, research and in society more broadly;
• has a limited impact on the privacy of students, alumni, staff and current and potential supporters, whose interests do not override our legitimate interests and the wider public interest;
• is reasonably expected by our students, alumni, staff and current and potential supporters, who we do not wish to bother with disruptive consent requests when they are unlikely to object to processing.

Our full assessment which sets the rationale for us relying on legitimate interests as our main legal basis for processing personal information is available in our Legal Bases Assessment, which is available here.

The DDAR processes the information outlined in this Privacy Notice in pursuit of our legitimate interests in:

• communicating with students, staff, alumni, and current and potential supporters (which includes donors, volunteers and those involved in wider University activity, e.g., events);
• providing benefits, services and offers to students, staff, alumni and supporters;
• furthering the University’s educational charitable mission (which includes fundraising and securing the support of volunteers);
• enabling the University to achieve its strategic and operational goals.

We may pursue these legitimate interests by contacting you by telephone, email, post or social media, subject to your communications preferences.  Information about how you can manage the ways that we contact you, including how to opt out from some or all contact from the DDAR, is outlined in the ‘Your rights’ section below.

Whilst the DDAR relies on legitimate interest as the legal basis for processing where this is appropriate and possible it recognises that it is not the only lawful ground for processing personal information.  As such, where appropriate the DDAR will sometimes process your personal information using an alternative legal basis.  For example if you are not a student or graduate but you fundraise or donate to the University via a crowdfunding platform such as JustGiving or Hubbub we may contact you with future opportunities to get involved only if you agree we may do so.  Further information is outlined in our Legal Bases Assessment.

The personal information we hold

The DDAR maintains, as far as it is able, a record of all former students of the University of Manchester, predecessor institutions, or affiliated institutions (for whom, for example, the University of Manchester validates degrees) and, as such, we hold alumni records for the life of the institution. We also hold the records of non-alumni supporters in the same way.  Our approach to information retention is subject to compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018 (UK GDPR) and outlined in further detail in the section DDAR Data Retention below.

Graduation information is published each year in graduation books and is therefore in the public domain.  If we become aware that your name has changed we will update our records to reflect this.  In subsequent instances where we provide your name (e.g. a class list) we will use your current name alongside any previous names (such as your maiden name) to ensure you can be identified correctly.  The personal information we store and process, the majority of which is given to us by our alumni and supporters but some of which we may obtain from other sources, may include:

• name, title, gender, nationality (as provided to the University) and date of birth;
• contact details including postal address, email address, phone number and links to social media accounts;
• information about your time at the University and other academic institutions;
• your occupation and  professional activities;
• your recreations and interests;
• family and spouse/partner details and your relationships to other alumni, supporters, friends and associates;
• records of donations and Gift Aid status, where applicable (as required by HMRC);
• records of communications sent to you by the DDAR or received from you;
• volunteering by you on behalf of the University;
• information about your wealth;
• information your propensity to support the University and/or receptiveness to certain kinds of communication or engagement;
• information about your relationship with the University and the development of it;
• media articles about you;
• information on your engagement in University meetings, events, groups or networks;
• information about your use of University resources or facilities (for example the Library);
• information about your use of your.manchester.ac.uk and www.manchester.ac.uk including your IP address, visit timestamp, location, browser type, referral source, length of visit, number of page views and navigation around our website.  For further information please see the University’s Website Privacy Notice;
• information to help us improve the effectiveness of our communications with you including tracking whether the emails we send are opened and which links are clicked within a message, and tracking interactions with our website and/or social media adverts (via cookies).

The University does not store any credit/debit card details and is fully PCI-DSS compliant. Bank details used for processing Direct Debits are stored by a trusted third-party, under the Direct Debit Guarantee scheme.

How we use your personal information

Unless you have requested otherwise,  personal information held about you by the DDAR is accessible to the University, its schools and faculties, alumni associations, International Centres, groups and networks (included selected volunteers), the North American and Hong Kong Foundations of The University of Manchester, alumni volunteers, and sports and other clubs associated with the University and may be used to pursue and support a full range of mutually beneficial alumni and supporter engagement and fundraising activities, where these do not override your fundamental rights and freedoms as a data subject. All external entities with whom personal information is shared and to whom we are not legally bound must sign a contract and/or a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement which governs their use of the personal information before any transfer of personal information takes place. The DDAR also has established controls, processes, and procedures in place to secure your information, and control who can access it and how they can use it.

The DDAR processes information in pursuit of the following University activities, which we may carry out by mail, email, telephone and social media:

• sending University publications and communications (for example alumni magazines, newsletters or surveys);
• notification of alumni and supporter events;
• fundraising programmes;
• promotion of discounts and services for alumni;
• promotion of volunteering opportunities (for example, mentoring);
• running of University elections;
• responding to an action taken by you (for example, if you register to attend an event, make a donation, or enquire about leaving a legacy to the University);
• promotion of opportunities for further study.

The University may also use third-party data processors to support the activities described in this Privacy Notice.  Where this is the case, the third party partner will always be contractually bound to the University, required to adhere to a security standard assessed and accepted by the University, and required to hold personal information confidentially and securely and not to use it in any other way than as instructed by the University.  Personal information will only be kept by the third party for as long as it is required to fulfil its obligation to the University, and will then be destroyed.   A list of organisations with whom we partner in this way is available on request.

If you interact with the University through a third party (for example, supporting the University via JustGiving or a crowdfunding page, Eventbrite, or through a recognised University volunteer or group) then we may obtain information about you from that third party.  The receipt of personal information by the DDAR in this manner is subject to the third party’s own privacy policy or the information they have provided to the data subject.  Information obtained in this way is treated no differently to any other once held by the DDAR and is bound by the terms of this Privacy Notice as soon as it is received. If you interact with or support the University through a service provider then your information may also be subject to privacy notices of data processors who enable that service (for example, payment providers like Stripe, Apple Pay or Google Pay for donations).

From time to time we may work in partnership with other charitable organisations contractually bound to the University on joint fundraising initiatives, and we may – in limited circumstances – share your name and information about the nature of your relationship with the University (e.g. the fact that you are an existing donor to the University) with those organisations.  We do this solely to ensure that you are contacted for these joint initiatives only by the most appropriate partner.  In such cases all parties are bound by a contractual agreement governing the types and uses of the shared data and will not be permitted to retain the data nor use it for any other purpose (for example, fundraising beyond the joint project).   Please note that these ‘partnership approaches’ encompass a very small number of individuals who are likely to make major philanthropic gifts to the specific charitable area the University is working in partnership to support.

The University’s alumni email service is hosted by Aluminati Network Group which is contractually bound to provide this service to the University and our alumni.  To enable us to offer this service, some of your personal information will be stored  by Aluminati.  Users are subject to this Privacy Notice and the additional terms and conditions here.  This service closed to new users in September 2021.

We may use information we hold on you to tailor social media offerings related to the University activities listed above.  This means that you might see targeted content from the DDAR on social media channels where you have an account. We do this to try to ensure we are providing you with content that is most appropriate for you or may be of most interest to you.  If you would prefer we did not tailor our messaging and content to you in a targeted way on social media please let us know.  Please note this may still mean you receive and/or see content about the University on social media channels, though it may not be tailored by the DDAR.

Tools may be used to help us improve the effectiveness of the University’s communications with you, including tracking whether the emails we send are opened and which links are clicked within a message.  As outlined in the University’s Website Privacy Notice we monitor website visits and use tools such as Google Analytics to improve our website and services.  We also use integrated social media technology, for example the Facebook analytics pixel on the University of Manchester website.  This pixel is code placed on websites which collects data to help us optimise adverts with the content most relevant to you.  This technology and our websites use cookies, which are text files placed on your computer when you visit a site to help us understand how you use our websites.   For information on how to manage cookies, please see here.

Wealth screening, data analysis and updating your contact details

The University of Manchester was founded with the help of philanthropy, and donor support continues to make an enormous impact at our University.  As we are a fundraising institution, we may use personal information that you provide, as well as information gathered from public sources or other departments, schools or faculties within the University, to undertake analysis of who might support us and to understand the preferences of our alumni and supporters about events, communications and services. 

This analysis may include:

• using personal information to guide us in how we communicate or engage with you (e.g. so that if we ask you to support the University, we do so at an appropriate level and in an appropriate way)
• studying the personal information we have on some individuals and patterns across groups of individuals to identify others who may exhibit similar characteristics, so we can communicate and engage with you appropriately (e.g., to understand if you may be interested in a particular event or news story)
• Carrying out focused research using publicly available sources – for example, Companies House, the Electoral Register, the internet and the media – to determine your ability and/or inclination to engage with us in a certain way (e.g. to join a University board or committee, or make a major gift). We may carry out wealth screening, a process which uses trusted third-party partners, to automate some of this work. You will always have the right to opt out of such processing. Information on how to do so is in the Your Rights section below.

By doing this, we can focus conversations we have with you about fundraising and volunteering in the most effective way and ensure that we provide you with an experience as an alumnus/a, donor or potential donor which is appropriate for you. 

Additionally, we may:

• work with trusted third-party partners to undertake projects to identify alumni and supporters who have passed away, allowing us to suppress communications accordingly.
• use publicly available sources to carry out due diligence on donors in line with the University’s Gift Acceptance Policy and to meet money laundering regulations.
• carry out projects to find new contact details for alumni with whom we are not in contact to ensure the University can remain in touch with as many of its alumni as possible. 

Many of our alumni choose to manage and update their own details, which you can do online at your.manchester.ac.uk/update-your-details.  Information on how to opt out of processing is in the Your Rights section below.

If you provide us with contact details for a particular method of communication we may update your record and communicate with you using this method of communication unless you tell us otherwise.  Any contact details provided directly by you may update any previous preferences in relation to this method of communication unless you inform us otherwise.  If you are registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) but provide us with a telephone number we may call you on this number as your action demonstrates that we have your consent to do this.

Fundraising is a key part of the DDAR’s work, and we are committed to working in a transparent, ethical, responsible and honest way.  To reflect this commitment, we are a member of the Fundraising Regulator and committed to the Regulator’s Code of Practice; and we will also always abide by our institutional Donor Promise.

Protecting your personal information

We are committed to holding your personal information securely and treating it with sensitivity.  All information is held securely and in accordance with all applicable legislation.  Your information held on a database hosted on a secure server within the University network.  This database is protected by multi-level authentication and access is restricted to individuals who need to see the data to carry out their duties at the University.  This is limited to: members of staff in the DDAR; assigned IT support; and colleagues from other areas within the University who work closely with the DDAR on the provision of services to alumni and supporters, such as the University’s Careers Service.  User access rights to the database are restricted according to individual job roles in order to ensure that users only see information relevant to them.  This access is reviewed on a regular basis.

Unless we have a legal obligation to do so, we will not disclose your information to individuals, organisations or other entities outside the University other than those which are acting as agents (data processors) for the University (for example, the company which prints and sends our annual alumni magazine, or the volunteers who run our alumni groups).  All external entities with whom data are being shared and to whom we are not legally bound must sign a contract and/or a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement before any data transfer takes place.  We do not and never will sell or give away your personal information to, nor trade it with, any other organisations.

Although most of the information we store and process stays within the UK, some information may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA). This may occur if, for example, one of our trusted partners’ servers are located in a country outside the EEA. Where these countries do not have similar data protection laws to the UK, we will take steps to make sure they provide an adequate level of protection in accordance with UK data protection law.

The University has a legal obligation to supply some of the information we hold about you, as a graduate, to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) – the official agency for the collection, analysis and dissemination of quantitative information about higher education in the United Kingdom.  HESA is part of Jisc and will treat your personal information in line with its Student Data Collection Notice.  HESA produces official statistics (such as university league tables) and its outputs are regulated by the UK Statistics Authority, which has a direct line of accountability to Parliament.  Graduates from summer 2017 and earlier will be contacted both six months and potentially three years after graduation to complete the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) Survey.  Graduates from October 2017 onwards will be contacted fifteen months after graduation for the Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS), which replaced the DLHE Survey from the 2017/18 academic year onwards.

The University also participates in national surveys from some of its programmes to rank the quality of its teaching, learning and research, for example the Financial Times Rankings for Alliance Manchester Business School.  In such instances your personal information may be shared with the survey body in order to contact you for its research purposes; where this is the case we will always ensure that there are no further uses of your personal information without your consent.  These rankings are important as they feed into university league tables and rankings.  In turn, this illustrates and improves the value of our qualifications whilst broadcasting the quality of a Manchester education in comparison to other institutions.

The University of Manchester Worldwide

The University of Manchester Worldwide (UMW) Ltd (Company Number: 04666867) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Manchester which helps deliver our world-class education across the globe through our International Centres in Dubai, Hong Kong, São Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore.   Where a transfer of information covered by this Privacy Notice takes place between the University and our Centres we will make sure an adequate level of protection is in place in accordance with UK data protection law.

UMW Centres provide alumni based across the globe access to benefits and services that come with being a graduate of the University.  If you studied at a UMW Centre or to the best of our knowledge live in a region in which a UMW Centre operates then that Centre may also process your personal information for the purposes outlined in the ‘Our responsibilities and legal bases for processing your personal information’ section above.  Both the DDAR and the UMW Centres will do their best to keep the data you provide with up to date including sharing updates, amendments, and rectifications.  You can change your preference for communications from a UMW Centre by contacting that UMW Centre directly.  Please note that if you wish to also change your preferences for communications from the DDAR then you must inform the DDAR directly as outlined in this Privacy Notice.  Communications preference changes received directly by the DDAR will apply to all Centres with whom the DDAR shares personal information.  For further information on how each Centre manages personal information contact the Centre directly via the details linked through to from: https://www.manchester.ac.uk/collaborate/worldwide/global-centres/.

University Recognised Partner Foundations

The University has alumni and supporters across the world.  To reflect this, the University recognises partner foundations that exist to support the University’s work in, and to enable tax efficient giving from, specific countries, regions, or territories.  Our recognised partner foundations are:

• The North American Foundation for the University of Manchester (NAFUM; a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organisation recognised by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service)
• The Hong Kong Foundation for the University of Manchester (HKFUM; a registered private limited company with non-profit status in Hong Kong under s88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance)

These foundations are independent from the University but work closely with it to facilitate a co-ordinated approach for the benefit of alumni and supporters.  The foundations also seek and accept gifts on behalf of the University but as they are independent of it maintain complete discretion over the allocation of gifts they receive.  Gifts made to the foundations may also qualify for a charitable contribution reduction on your tax return.

The University may support the work of the foundations by enabling ways for supporters to give to them, for example by hosting a donation form on their behalf.  If you donate to a foundation, including in a way facilitated by the University, your information will be processed by the foundation as a data controller and subject to the foundation’s own privacy practices.  Your information may also be received as part of this process by the University, as a data controller.  If you choose to engage with or donate to a recognised University foundation you consent to it sharing data you provide to it with the University.  The University will be a data controller of data received from the foundations.  The University will process information received from or via interactions with the foundations in accordance with all relevant data protection legislation and under this Privacy Notice.

Data Retention

A qualification from the University of Manchester stays with an individual for life and we therefore retain alumni information for the lifetime of the institution, and in compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018 (UK GDPR).  We believe a donation to the University, which illustrates belief in and support of our educational charitable mission, connects the donor to us in a similar manner.  As a result, we do not restrict the services or activities above accordingly and will therefore process personal information in support of them until the data subject tells us otherwise. If a data subject is not a graduate or donor then their information will be subject to deletion following a pre-determined period. For more detail on Data Retention, please see the University’s Records Retention Schedule.

Please note that if you request removal from our records we must retain a ‘skeleton record’ for you to ensure we do not contact you again.  In the majority of cases, this consists of: your unique ID number; name; date of birth; Manchester education record(s); records of gifts and tax declarations if appropriate; and information that you have requested removal from our records.  This is required to ensure we can respect your preferences.

As outlined in our Legal Bases Assessment we sometimes process data on potential supporters who are not already alumni or donors.  In such instances, individuals are provided with a copy of this Privacy Notice as soon as is appropriate and possible.  We periodically review the personal information we hold and if you are not an alumnus/a or donor or supporter then any personal information held will be deleted should you not respond to our attempts to contact you.

The DDAR follows the approach of ‘data minimisation’.  This means that for all individuals we only store and process the minimum amount of personal information we need to undertake our established business functions.  Personal information will always be securely disposed of when no longer required.  We are also committed to ‘Privacy By Design’, and ensuring privacy is considered from the outset in the development of any new processes or procedures.

Your rights

We will always try to ensure that the personal information we hold for you is up-to-date, reasonable and not excessive.  You will always have the right to:

• Be informed as to how we use your personal information (via this Privacy Notice);
• Access or request a copy of the data we hold about you;
• Update, amend or rectify the personal information we hold about you – you can manage your own personal information at manchester.ac.uk/update-your-details;
• Change your communication preferences at any time to restrict how we process your personal information, or opt out of some or all communication from the DDAR;
• Ask us to remove your personal information from our records. Please note that in such instances we must retain a ‘skeleton record’ for you to ensure we do not contact you again. There may also be data which we are legally obliged to keep;
• Withdraw consent, where it is used as a legal basis for processing;
• Object to or restrict the processing of your personal information for any of the purposes outlined above.

Please note that whilst the DDAR will do everything possible to respect your communications preferences the University of Manchester is a large, complex organisation with over 12,000 employees.  As a result if you make another division, department or school aware of your communications preferences please be aware this information may not always get passed on to the DDAR for us to also update your records.  To be certain that you will only hear from the DDAR in the ways you wish to please ensure you inform us of your communications preferences directly in the way explained in this privacy notice.  Privacy notices covering areas of University activity beyond the DDAR are available here.

Please note that in some instances we may be required to contact you outside your preferences because we are legally obliged to do so (for example, to provide a Direct Debit Guarantee and/or Gift Aid confirmation) or in response to an action you have taken (for example, to post you a gift thank you letter and receipt, or tickets to an event you have registered for).  Beyond any legal obligation or action in response to a positive action by you, your contact preferences will always stand until you inform us otherwise.

Please also note that as a student or graduate if you opt out of an activity through a platform hosted by a third party the DDAR is partnering with to deliver a service your preferences as collected on that platform may only relate to the activity that platform facilitates.  For example, if you are a student or graduate and you opt out of the University keeping you informed by email whilst fundraising through JustGiving this will mean you do not receive future emails about crowdfunding opportunities, crowdfunding events, or stewardship related to crowdfunding.  Any opt-in or opt-outs to or from DDAR updates via Eventbrite only affect communications we may send via Eventbrite.  If you opt out of our email communications via Mailchimp please note that this applies to our ‘one to many’ communications only, and we may still contact you by email ‘one to one’ (e.g. direct contact from a staff member about something specific to you personally).  You also have the right to opt out of ‘one to one’ communications by contacting the DDAR directly.  The DDAR will always make it as clear as possible what you are opting out of to ensure you can make the most appropriate personal choices.

If you have any queries about your contact preferences or wish to update us directly please contact us on alumni@manchester.ac.uk.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, or would like to receive a copy of the information we hold about you in the DDAR, please contact us at:

Division of Development and Alumni Relations
The University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester

M13 9PL

alumni@manchester.ac.uk
+44 (0)161 306 3066

For wider enquiries about how the University manages information please contact:

The University Data Protection Officer

Information Governance Office
The University of Manchester
Oxford Road

Manchester
M13 9PL

dataprotection@manchester.ac.uk
+44 (0)161 306 2473 or +44 (0)161 275 8111

Future changes

From time to time, we may use your information for new purposes not currently described in this Privacy Notice. If our information practices or the appropriate legislation changes at some point in the future we will always post the policy changes on this page.

Last updated on:  31 January 2024