AHEP Privacy Statement

Who we are

When we say ‘we’ or the ‘AHEP’ we mean the Association of Higher Education Professionals, B1 George Begg Building, University of Manchester, Sackville Street, Manchester M1 3BB. The Association of Higher Education Professionals is a registered charity in England and Wales with registration number 1179422. 

If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement, please contact our Business Support Coordinator, via hello@ahep.ac.uk, who is the Data Protection (Compliance) Officer at the AHEP.  

How we collect your personal information

There are several ways we may collect information about you.  These include: 

You may give us your information in order to subscribe to the AHEP, book on to one of our events, opt in to receive information, when you contact us to ask about our activities, join one of professional communities, order products or services from us, enrol as a student on our PgCert Programme, work for us, volunteer for us or otherwise give us personal information in the normal course of our activities. We may also hold information provided by third parties where this is relevant to your own circumstances.   

As you interact with our website, we will automatically collect technical data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. 

We will only ask for personal information that is appropriate to enable us to administer our services to you. In some cases, you can refuse to provide your details if you deem a request to be inappropriate. However, you should note that this may impact our ability to provide our services to you if you refuse to provide information that stops us from doing so. 

What information we collect

This can include information such as your name, date of birth, email address, postal address, telephone number(s), fax number and credit/debit card details, marketing and communications preferences, as well as information relating to your health or personal circumstances. This list is not exhaustive, as we hold records of most contacts we have with you, or about you, and we process this information, so we can deliver our services to you. 

Data protection law recognises that certain categories of personal information are more sensitive. This is called sensitive personal information and covers health information, racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature, political opinion and trade union membership. 

We will make it clear to you what information we are collecting and the purposes for collecting such. We will only collect personal information where there is a clear need to do so. 

How we use your information

How we use your personal information will largely depend on why you are providing it. We may use your information in the ways set out below. How we use your personal information will largely depend on why you are providing it. We may use your information in the ways set out below. 

• To verify your identity when participating in the AHEP activities including events and conferences, our PgCert Programme, and all other opportunities in which you have a right as a member to participate in. 
• To give you the information, support, services, opportunities or products you ask for. 
• We use your personal information to look into and respond to complaints or other issues. 
• We use personal information to carry out statistical analysis and research in order to help us to understand how we are performing and how we can improve our services and meet the needs of people that require our help. 

We use your information to keep a record of your relationship with us and for internal administrative purposes (such as our accounting and records), and to let you know about changes to our services or policies. This includes details of AHEP volunteers. We may also use your personal information for other purposes, which we will specifically notify you about and, where required, obtain your consent. 

Purposes for processing

We have set out below a description of all the ways we plan to use your information, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.  We may process your information for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your information. 

Communicating with you

With your consent, we may use your information to send you communications, by email about our work and how you can help us to help you, for example, information about our subscription opportunities, volunteering and how you can get involved with the AHEP. 

With your consent, we may use your information to send you communications, by email, informing you about partner organisations who offer services, benefits or discounts to AHEP subscribers. 

All our marketing emails will have clear information about how you can opt out of receiving communications by email. You can let us know if you would prefer not to receive these marketing communications at any time by unsubscribing from the email. If you have any queries about this you can email us at hello@aua.ac.uk. 

We will also contact you with routine organisational information about opportunities or activities if for example you have joined one of our professional communities, taken up a voluntary role, or you have booked to attend an event. 

We may use profiling techniques to ensure communications are relevant and timely, and to provide you with an improved experience. This sort of profiling can include us using information such as your age, where you live, where you work and any previous interaction you may have had with us. 

Who we share your information with

We will never sell your personal information to any third parties, but sometimes we share your personal information with service providers who are contracted or authorised to act on our behalf to fulfil a contract or a legal requirement.  

We may also share your information with the AHEP volunteers to enable them to undertake their role. This can include personal information of service users, other volunteers, staff and trustees. 

We may also share information with our financial and legal advisers for the purposes of obtaining advice and protecting our legal rights. 

We may also share your information with the emergency services or statutory authorities if we think there is a risk of serious harm or abuse to you or someone else. 

When we collect your personal information, we use strict procedures and security features to prevent unauthorised access. However, no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. As a result, while we try to protect your personal information, the AHEP cannot absolutely guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us and you do so at your own risk. 

Where we store personal information

The personal information that we collect is stored within the UK. However, there may be some circumstances where it is necessary to transfer and store personal information at a destination outside the UK or the EEA.  In these circumstances, we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that personal information is treated securely and in accordance with data protection law and, in the event that personal information is transferred outside the UK or the EEA, shall ensure that this is carried out subject to the requirements of the UK GDPR.  

How long we keep it for

We will only retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Details of retention periods for different aspects of personal information are available upon request.  After this period, we will securely destroy or anonymise personal information in accordance with data protection law. 

Privacy and our websites

Links: The AHEP website may include links to other sites, not owned or managed by us. We cannot be held responsible for the privacy of information collected by websites not managed by us. 

AHEP Forums: an online discussion and consultation facility – are moderated, is not anonymous and your name can be seen by other AHEP subscribers. When contributing to a discussion we strongly recommend you avoid sharing any personal information that can be used to identify you (such as your age, and address or email address). We are not responsible for the privacy of any identifiable information that you post in the AHEP forum. 

Your Rights - Right of access

You have the right of access to information we hold about or concerning you.  If you would like to exercise this right, please do so in writing. If you are seeking to obtain specific information (e.g. about a particular matter of from a particular time period), it helps if you clarify the details of what you would like to receive in your written request. If someone is requesting information on your behalf, they will need written confirmation from you to evidence your consent for us to release this and proof of ID (both yours and theirs). We have one month to provide you with the information you’ve asked for (although we will try to provide this to you as promptly as possible). In response to a subject access request, we will provide you with a copy of the information we hold that relates to you. 

Right of rectification or erasure

If you feel that any data that we hold about you is inaccurate you have the right to ask us to correct or rectify it.  You also have a right to ask us to erase information about you where you can demonstrate that the data we hold is no longer needed by us, or if you withdraw the consent upon which our processing is based, or if you feel that we are unlawfully processing your data.  Your right of rectification and erasure extends to anyone we have disclosed your personal information to and we will take all reasonable steps to inform those with whom we have shared your data about your request for erasure. 

Right to restriction of processing

You have a right to request that we refrain from processing your data where you contest its accuracy, or the processing is unlawful and you have opposed its erasure, or where we don’t need to hold your data anymore but you need us to in order to establish, exercise or defend any legal claims, or we are in dispute about the legality of our processing your personal data. 

Right of portability 

You have a right to receive any personal data that you have provided to us in order to transfer it onto another data controller where the processing is based on consent or contract and is carried out by automated means called a data portability request. 

Right to object

You have a right to object to our processing of your personal data where the basis of the processing is our legitimate interests including but not limited to direct marketing and profiling. 

Right to withdraw consent

In the circumstances where you may have provided consent to the collection, processing and transfer of personal information for a specific purpose has been provided, you have the right to withdraw consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact us using the contact details below. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law. 

Please note, there are some specific circumstances where these rights do not apply and we can refuse to deal with your request. 

To exercise any of your data subject rights you can do this by contacting our Data Protection (Compliance) Officer, via hello@ahep.ac.uk.  

How long we retain your information

We will ensure that only retain your personal information for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Details of retention periods for different aspects of personal information are available upon request.  After this period, we will securely destroy or anonymise personal information in accordance with data protection law. 

Your right to complain

If you have a concern about the way, the AHEP is handling your personal information or if you have, any questions about how we handle information you should contact the  

Data Protection Compliance Officer at the AHEP. You can make a complaint by contacting our Data Protection (Compliance) Officer, via hello@ahep.ac.uk. 

If you are unhappy about how we have handled your data or if you have concerns perhaps that we hold information about you that is incorrect, have held it for too long, or are not keeping it secure you can contact the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) helpline on 0303 123 1113. They may be able to help you do something about it. You can also raise your concerns at www.ico.org.uk/concerns/. 

We welcome all feedback as we use this to help us continually improve the service we provide you. We want to hear from you when we have done something well and more importantly when we have missed the mark or caused any inconvenience. If you have a complaint or commendation to share with us please contact us. 

Changes to the policy

We may change our privacy policy from time to time so please check back periodically. 

This Privacy Policy was last updated in May 2023.