For any enquiries or concerns regarding data protection at SEM please contact:

Lawrence Allen
Head of Administration and Student Welfare
lawrence@semmanchester.com
0161 833 4722
If you wish to take a complaint regarding data protection further, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office here or by calling 0303 123 1113.

1. POLICY STATEMENT

This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) sets out what personal information The School of Electronic Music (“SEM”, “We”, “us”, “our”) collects and how that information is processed when you visit the websites located at www.schoolofelectronicmusic.com (“Sites”) and/or the services provided from the Sites (“Services”).

This Policy describes, in a clear and accessible way, how SEM complies with data protection legislation. This includes the purposes and legal basis for each type of processing, any transfers or third party recipients of personal information, and the timescales for storing and processing them. This Policy also outlines your rights and obligations regarding data protection.

This policy applies to all applicants, students, alumni, subscribers and anyone else about whom SEM may have reasons to collect and process data, including personal information, either online and/ or offline.

SEM is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We only collect personal information necessary to provide the services that you requested, the use of your personal information will not be excessive and we take reasonable security measures to protect it. If we require your consent for any specific use of your personal information, we will collect it at the appropriate time and you can withdraw it at any time. We do not sell your personal data to third parties under any circumstances or use your personal information to carry out any wholly automated decision-making that affects you.

This Statement applies only to this website. For example, it does not apply to banners, advertisements or promotions we may sponsor or participate in on websites owned by third parties. Other websites linking to or from this website may have different policies and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. You should read any other applicable privacy policies carefully before using other websites.

SEM is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) with registration number ZA089651.

2. WHAT IS ‘PERSONAL INFORMATION’?

‘Personal information’ refers to any information which relates to or identifies you as an individual (“Data subject”) of which the following are examples: names, photographs, addresses, phone numbers, emails, IP addresses, payment details, social media account ID, screen name/ nickname, passport details, browser and device information, server log file information and information collected through cookies.

3. YOUR RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS

You have the following rights (all of which are qualified in different ways) under Data Protection law:

to be informed about how your personal information is being used
to access the personal information we hold about you
to request the correction of inaccurate personal information we hold about you
to request we delete your personal information, or stop processing/ collecting it
to withdraw consent to receiving marketing communications from us
to request we transfer or port elements of your data either to you or another service provider
to complain to your data protection regulator, which the UK is the ICO
to request information about the reasoning behind any automated decision
It is also your responsibility to ensure the information about you that is held by SEM is correct and up-to-date. Please keep us informed of any changes to your personal information by emailing us at contact@semmanchester.com.

4. WHEN DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM YOU

Information is crucial to ensuring we can understand, tailor, and deliver the best services to you. It helps us operate as efficiently as possible and to make sure our interactions with you are timely and relevant to you. To do this, we may collect information about you when you:

visit our website
subscribe to our newsletter
access our free offerings
participate in our competitions
register for an event hosted by us
attend an open day or school tour
Enrol on/ register for a course
enquire about a course
engage with us on social media

5.1. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION (PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS)

Higher Education (“HE”) programmes

SEM will use the personal information you provide on your enrolment/ application form (either through UCAS or direct application), together with any supporting documents, additional details provided by referee and notes followed by any interview (if applicable), to form part of the admissions process.

SEM Private Courses

SEM will use the personal details you provide on your application form for registration and course administration purposes.

What is the purpose and legal basis of the processing?

SEM will process the personal information and additional information provided on your application for the purposes of identifying you, processing your application, verifying the information provided, deciding whether to offer you a place for the course you have applied for, and communicating that outcome together with any feedback.

We may also use or disclose the information provided for the following statutory or public interest purposes:

To prevent or detect fraud
For equal opportunities monitoring
To help us to make reasonable adjustments for any disability, as requested by you
To provide statutory returns required by applicable legislation
For research and statistical purposes, but no information which could identify you will be published
We consider the processing of your personal information for the above purposes to be either necessary for us to take steps with a view to creating a contractual relationship with you (e.g. to assess your application to study with us), or necessary for compliance with a legal obligation (e.g. equal opportunities monitoring), or necessary for the performance of tasks we carry out in the public interest (e.g. admissions research). We require you to provide us with the information we ask for during the application process in order to assess your application properly except where its supply is marked as optional. Admissions decisions are not automated.

Who will my personal information be shared with?

As well as circulating your application and related materials to the appropriate staff at SEM, we may share your personal information for the above purposes as relevant and necessary with:

Your referees
Where relevant and as required and/or notified to you, your school/college or training organisation
Your examination boards or awarding bodies
Your student support assessment body
Your funders and/or potential funders (including, as relevant, the Student Loans Company)
In the case of international applicants, the British Council or appropriate agencies
Where relevant and as required, UK Visas and Immigration in order to act as your sponsor for visa purposes
Where relevant and as required, governmental bodies including local authorities, the Home Office, and the Department for Work and Pensions and its agencies
Other Higher Education organisations, in order to assist with tracking and research into access to Higher Education
Companies or organisations providing specific services to, or on behalf of SEM
How is my personal information used if I am accepted?

If you are accepted for an undergraduate degree, we will use your personal information for the purposes described in the following section ‘HE Students’.

5.2. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION (HE STUDENTS)

SEM will keep a record of the details you provided during the admission process and will also maintain records about your studies at SEM, and your use of the facilities and services that we offer.

Your personal information is created, stored and transmitted securely in a variety of formats, including our student records databases. Access to your personal information is controlled and limited only to the relevant staff at SEM or those who work on behalf of SEM.

In addition to this, SEM may process some information about you that is classed as ‘sensitive’ or ‘special category’ personal information, and which requires additional protections. This includes information concerning your ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious beliefs or health/ disability that we use for obligatory data returns, planning and monitoring purposes, or in order to provide care, help or suitable adjustments.  Access to, and the sharing of, your ‘sensitive’ personal information is controlled very carefully.

What is the purpose and legal basis of the processing?

SEM will process your personal information for a range of contractual, statutory or public interest purposes, including the following:

To deliver and administer your education, and record the details of your studies
To determine/confirm your academic achievements (e.g. grades)
To administer the financial aspects of your relationship with us and any funders
To deliver facilities to you (e.g. IT, libraries, studio booking)
To enable your participation at events (e.g. functions, graduation)
To communicate effectively with you, including the distribution of relevant announcements and newsletters/mailouts
To fulfill our legal obligations to return student data to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Please refer to HESA’s website at https://www.hesa.ac.uk/collection) and other relevant governing bodies as required
To operate security (including CCTV), governance, disciplinaries (including plagiarism and academic misconduct), complaints, audit and quality assurance processes and arrangements
To compile statistics and conduct research for internal and statutory reporting purposes
To fulfil and monitor our responsibilities under equalities, immigration and public safety legislation
To enable us to contact your next of kin in the event of an emergency (we will assume you have checked with the individuals before you supply their contact details to us)
We consider the processing of your personal information for these purposes to be either necessary for the performance of our contractual obligations with you (e.g. to manage your student experience and welfare while studying at SEM), or necessary for compliance with a legal obligation (e.g. equal opportunities monitoring), or necessary for the performance of tasks we carry out in the public interest (e.g. teaching), or necessary for the pursuit of the legitimate interests of SEM or relevant external organisations.

Who will my personal information be shared with?

As described above, your personal information is shared with relevant staff at SEM as required. In addition, it is shared as permitted or required by law, on a considered and confidential basis, with a range of external organisations, including the following:

Higher Education Statistics Agency (see HESA’s statement about the uses made by them of your personal information published at https://www.hesa.ac.uk/about/regulation/data-protection/notices)
Your funders and/ or sponsors as relevant (e.g., the Student Loans Company)
Partnership Institution / Qualification Awarding bodies (e.g. University of Central Lancashire)
External examiners and assessors, and external individuals involved in relevant University committees or procedures
Relevant Government Departments (e.g. Department for Education, Home Office, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Department of Health)
Relevant executive agencies or non-departmental public bodies (e.g. UK Visas and Immigration, HM Revenue and Customs, the Health and Safety Executive)
Relevant Higher Education bodies (e.g. Higher Education Funding Council for England, Office for Students, UK Research and Innovation, Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, Office for Fair Access, Office of the Independent Adjudicator, the organisation(s) running the National Student Survey and other student and leaver surveys)
Local authorities
On occasion and where necessary, the police and other law enforcement agencies
On occasion and where necessary, auditors
Companies or organisations providing specific services to, or on behalf of, SEM
Other than as set out above, we will not normally publish or disclose any personal information about you to other external individuals and/ or organisations unless you have requested it or consented to it, or unless it is in your vital interests to do so (e.g. in an emergency situation).

5.3. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION (PRIVATE COURSE STUDENTS)

SEM will use the details you provided for registration and course administrative purposes. We may aggregate or anonymise such data (where necessary) for statistical and course improvement purposes upon the completion of the course.

What is the purpose and legal basis of the processing?

SEM will process your personal information for a range of contractual, statutory or public interest purposes, including the following:

To deliver and administer your education, and record the details of your studies
To determine/confirm your professional achievements (e.g. certificate)
To administer the financial aspects of your relationship with us
To deliver facilities to you (e.g. use of studio or equipment)
To enable your participation at events
To communicate effectively with you on matters related to your course
To operate security (including CCTV), governance, disciplinaries, complaints, audit and quality assurance processes and arrangements
To compile statistics and conduct research for internal reporting purposes
To fulfil and monitor our responsibilities under equalities, immigration and public safety legislation
To enable us to contact your next of kin in the event of an emergency (we will assume you have checked with the individuals before you supply their contact details to us)

Who will my personal information be shared with?

As described above, your personal information is shared with relevant staff at SEM as required. In addition, it is shared as permitted or required by law, on a considered and confidential basis, with a range of external organisations, including the following:

Your funders and/or sponsors and/or guarantors
Relevant executive agencies or non-departmental public bodies (e.g. UK Visas and Immigration, HM Revenue and Customs, the Health and Safety Executive)
Local authorities
On occasion and where necessary, the police and other law enforcement agencies
On occasion and where necessary, auditors
Companies or organisations providing specific services to, or on behalf of, SEM
Other than as set out above, we will not normally publish or disclose any personal information about you to other external individuals and/ or organisations unless you have requested it or consented to it, or unless it is in your vital interests to do so (e.g. in an emergency situation).

5.4. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION (JOB APPLICANTS)

SEM will use the details you provide on your application including CV and covering letter and any supporting documents requested following any interview process.

You may also be required to undergo certain additional recruitment checks or procedures as part of the job application and offer process (e.g. criminal convictions checks, Disclosure and Barring Service checks or visa application procedures).

What is the purpose and legal basis of the processing?

SEM will process the personal information provided on your application and the other information referred to above for the purposes of:

Identifying you
Processing your application
Verifying the information provided and assessing your suitability for the role (including any relevant right to work checks)
Deciding whether to offer you a job, and communicating that outcome (together with any feedback)
We may also use or disclose the information provided for the following statutory or public interest purposes:

To prevent or detect fraud.
For equal opportunities monitoring.
To help us to make reasonable adjustments for any disability, as requested by you.
We consider the processing of your personal information for the above purposes to be either necessary for us to take steps with a view to creating a contractual relationship with you (e.g. to assess your application for employment with us), or necessary for compliance with a legal obligation (e.g. equal opportunities monitoring). We require you to provide us with the information we ask for during the application process in order to assess your application properly except where its supply is marked as optional. Application decisions are not automated.

Who will my personal information be shared with?

As well as circulating your application and related materials to the appropriate staff at SEM, we may share your personal information for the above purposes as relevant and necessary with:

Where relevant and as required, the Disclosure and Barring Service or UK Visas and Immigration in order to administer relevant recruitment checks and procedures
Your referees
Companies or organisations providing specific recruitment services to, or on behalf of SEM.
In all cases, we will only use any information gathered as part of any relevant check or procedure for that specific purpose, and we will handle, store, retain and destroy relevant materials in accordance with applicable legislation and codes of practice.

5.5. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION (SITE VISITORS)

Please refer to our ‘Cookies policy’ in the following section and the ‘Site Visitors Agreement’ on our website.

6. COOKIES POLICY

A “cookie” is a small amount of data sent from the server and stored on your computer’s hard drive. We use ‘cookies’ while you access the Sites to avoid the need to re-enter details on different occasions. Occasionally, we use session recording or click tracking software (e.g. Google Analytics) to understand how you interact with our websites, for example by scrolling the page, or clicking your mouse on a particular link.

The information is used for analysing sites activities and generating insights to allows us to improve your online experience. Examples include:

Enabling our service to recognise your device so that you don’t have to give the same information several times during one task
Recognising that you may already have given a username and password so that you don’t need to do it for every web page requested
Measuring how many people are using services, to make the services easier to use and to ensure sufficient capacity for quick delivery to your web browser
Adding new features or removing element that make the website difficult to use
Informing the choice of words and images that appear on the site to improve responses to our campaigns
Informing future changes to website design and functionality
Depending on the type of device you’re using and settings, it may supply us with additional information about the device type, your operating system, and details associated with this. Only your interaction with our website is captured and we receive no information about other sites you may view.

Most web browsers are automatically set up to accept cookies, but you can set your browser to refuse cookies or ask your browser to show you where a cookie has been set up. Please note that certain features of the site are only activated by the presence of a cookie and if you choose to refuse cookies these features may not be available to you. All modern browsers allow you to change your cookie settings. These settings will typically be found in the ‘options’ or ‘preferences’ menu of your browser. In order to understand these settings, the following links may be helpful (otherwise you should use the ‘Help’ option in your browser for more details):

Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
Cookie settings in Firefox
Cookie settings in Chrome
Cookie settings in Safari
Please note that we do not recommend turning cookies off when visiting schoolofelectronicmusic.com as this will prevent you from using many of the services on the site. For further information about cookies and how to control their use, please visit the following third party educational resources: www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.eu.

7. WHAT IF I AM UNDER 18?

Under the UK Data Protection Act 2018, children from the age of 13 may consent to the processing of their own personal data.

We do not normally offer courses to students under 16, though we may offer one-to-one training with parental consent. If you are under the age of 18, you should review the terms of this Privacy Policy with your parent or guardian to make sure you both understand them.

In certain circumstances, staff members at SEM may have a duty to disclose sensitive information about students under the age of 18, or vulnerable adults, to designated colleagues or appropriate government agencies under the terms of our Safeguarding Policy or the Prevent Duty.

8. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER

SEM uses external providers to process, store and back-up our data. We also use cloud data storage. By default, data is stored at data centres located in the UK or the EU but in exceptional circumstances data may be processed at data centre outside UK/EU. Your personal information will only be transferred to countries whose data protection laws have been assessed as adequate by the European Commission, or where adequate safeguards, such as the EU-US Privacy Shield, are in place to protect your personal information.

9. HOW LONG IS MY INFORMATION KEPT?

For students studying certified courses, we will keep information relating to you indefinitely for the purpose of academic records, to be able to provide references and replacement certificates as required. Once your contract with SEM is completed, you may request for your information to be deleted, however this may impact our ability to provide you with a reference or replacement certificate in the future.

Personal information relating to individuals not registered for certified courses, such as those who have made general enquiries or attended open days and not completed the enrolment process, will be reviewed on an annual basis and deleted when no longer necessary.

10. HOW CAN I ACCESS MY INFORMATION?

You have the right to request a copy of your personal information that is held by SEM by submitting a request (commonly known as a ‘subject access request’).
If you wish to make a subject access request, please email info@semmanchester.com and provide sufficient details to enable us to verify your identity and locate the information.

SEM is obliged to respond within one month. The provided information will be as of the date of receipt of your request and will be subject to any legally applicable exemptions.

11. HOW TO CHANGE THE WAY WE CONTACT YOU

You have the right to stop receiving marketing communications from us if you wish, you can do so at any time by one of the following methods:

Click ‘unsubscribe’ in any of the previous emails we sent you. We use Mailchimp to distribute emails, which will automatically stop you receiving any future emails from the mailing list that you had been previously subscribed to.

Please be aware that stopping marketing communications will not stop student service communications (such as student updates / notifications), which are essential communications if you are studying at SEM. These will be sent directly from SEM staff’s email addresses.

12. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

This information was last updated in November 2018 and will be reviewed periodically. The amended information will apply from the date it is posted and will govern the way in which we collect and use personal information from then on.