Student and Library Services Data Sharing Agreement

We’re the Student and Library Services teams. Our main goal is to assist students in an ethical and professional way. Your privacy is very important to us, and we follow strict professional rules to safeguard your information. 

We want you to be able to trust us. What you share with us about yourself remains confidential. We only share it with our team members who genuinely need to know, and we always comply with the law to keep your information secure. 

When you use our services, we may collect and store some information about you: 

• Your basic personal details, like your name and address. 
• Notes from our meetings and conversations with you. 
• The ways we support you. 
• Information that others provide to help you. 
• If you use the library, we may keep a record of that, but we do this for all library users. 

Sometimes, we might need to share this information with others, such as people in your academic department or different university departments, or with relevant people outside the University (e.g., your doctor, or a trusted contact). Usually, we’ll ask for your consent before sharing your information. If you decline, it could affect the level of support the university can offer you. However, in cases where we’re seriously concerned about your safety or someone else’s, we might need to inform someone without asking you first. But we will do our best to talk to you about it. We keep your information secure for up to six years after you leave the university, and after that, we delete it. 

If we need to keep information about someone else, like your family or friends, we make sure it’s clear that it’s about them, not you.   

If you want more detailed information about how we use data, you can find it on your University websites. 

We have a procedure for addressing complaints if you’re not satisfied with our services. You can learn more about this in your University’s student complaints policies.

1. The Student and Library Services teams are committed to the highest standards of professional practice and adhere to the ethical frameworks of our respective professional bodies. We aim to offer you a first-class service that meets your particular access needs. We hold the dignity and privacy of all the students accessing our support in high regard and respect the importance of confidentiality in all our dealings with you.
2. It is important that you have confidence and trust in our services. The services provided by the Student and Library Services teams are confidential and we protect any information about your individual circumstances that you choose to share with us. In accordance with all relevant data protection legislation, your personal information will be treated respectfully and sensitively and only shared with other members of the teams on a “need to know” basis.
3. If you use our service we will collect, store and use information, including:
   • Personal details.
   • A record of meetings and communications between the you and us.
   • A record of any actions we take as part of supporting you.
   • Information provided to us by others for the purposes of supporting you.
   • Use of library resources and systems (collected for all users).
4.  We may share this information with other people. This may include staff in your Academic Department, other Administrative and Student & Library Services departments, Health and Safety, Accommodation Services, Estates, IT Services, or Safety and Support. We may also disclose information to your GP (doctor) or other relevant non-University professionals and in certain circumstances to your nominated emergency contact or next of kin. You may withhold your permission for us to share information, but this may affect the level of support the University is able to offer you.
5. Wherever possible staff will seek to obtain your agreement prior to liaison, however there may be some circumstances where this is not possible. Exceptions to confidentiality occur when practitioners believe you or others may be at risk of serious harm. In such circumstances where there is a concern for your safety/wellbeing, we may contact emergency or statutory services, or your emergency or next of kin contacts and/or engage with them if they make an enquiry on your behalf. Where possible, we will always aim to do this with your consent and in discussion with you first, but in exceptional circumstances information may be shared if we consider this essential for your safety. We store your information securely for up to six years after you leave university, and after that it is destroyed.
6. Where we receive, and determine it is appropriate to record information from or about a third party, we ensure that this is recorded in a way which clearly identifies this information as being from or about a third party.
7. Further details regarding our use of data can be found on the Universities’ websites:
   • Falmouth University
   • University of Exeter
8. We operate a complaints procedure which we use to respond to any concerns regarding the provision of our services. This is fully detailed in the Student Complaints policies of our partner universities:
   • Complaints Policy – Falmouth University
   • Complaints Policy – University of Exeter