Summary

Personal data is data which by itself or with other data available to us, can be used to identify you. The following policy statement updates our existing practices to take into account the new General Data Protection Regulations which take effect from May 25, 2018.

In most cases the data we collect is essential to process any booking you make on one of our events, and to send you the necessary information to attend and gain admittance. This is necessary for us to fulfil our contractual obligation to you, and specific consent for this use is not required. In line with our policy of offering guidance and assistance to all those who attend our courses, for as long as they require it, we would like, with your consent, to retain contact details in order to share, via newsletters, information and opportunities we consider useful to prospective students of the medical, health or veterinary sciences.

Your Consent

When you attend an event, you will be asked, either by email or by filling in a form, to consent to being emailed newsletters as described below. You will be able to unsubscribe from these newsletters at any time.

If you do not consent to receiving newsletters, your email address will be not be added to our post-event mailing list and you will not receive any follow-up information, e-books, event notices, or marketing. If you do consent and subsequently wish to opt out, you may do so by unsubscribing.

Personal data we collect

• Full name, address, and contact details of anyone booking a place on one of our residential events.
• Name, gender, age bracket (16-21 or other), and contact details of delegates attending one of our residential events. Additionally, we may record information relating to health or mobility, should this impact on the safety and well-being of a delegate while attending a residential event.
• Name and email address, category (student, parent, teacher) of anyone booking place(s) on our non-residential events
• Name, email address, stage of study, and career preference (medical, veterinary) of attendees at non-residential events
• Draft personal statements submitted for analysis.

How we collect personal data

How we store personal data and for how long

Personal data relating to event bookings are stored in-house, with access limited to our own bookings team. Data are archived after the event has taken place, but information relating to health, supplied confidentially for the safety and well-being of a delegate while at an event, will be removed as soon as the event has taken place.

Email contact details may be stored in online mailing lists for as long as we consider we can offer useful information via newsletters.

We will keep draft personal statements until the end of the academic year following the date of submission, only for the purpose of resending should the original analysis be lost.

How we use personal data

Personal data relating to current event bookings are used to manage the bookings, including receipting, and reserving accommodation, and for the online mailing of event-specific information. We would be unable to fulfil our contractual obligations without this.

Archived data, from bookings of events that have taken place, are used in-house for statistical analysis, and for verification of attendance (eg to check eligibility for free Personal Statement Analysis, or for the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme).

Email addresses may be used, subject to consent, for mailing newsletters containing information we deem of use or interest to our customers. This may include educational tutorials such as how to use the free stethoscopes given away at events, or e-books on subjects such as MMI (Multiple Mini Interviews) or the UKCAT and HPAT tests. These newsletters may also contain marketing material or sponsored links from ourselves or our partners. Partners will usually, though not exclusively, be university departments (such as medical or veterinary schools), or other organisations relevant to university applications.

When we need to share personal data

If you are attending a residential event, we will pass your name, and any information relevant to your safety and well-being, to our host institution, for the purposes of allocating accommodation and catering. Any information relating to health or mobility issues, relevant to your safety and well-being, will be shared confidentially with the Event Manager and on- call staff at the event.

Draft personal statements are shared with an assessor who will comment on them in an audio file, which is returned to us. Contact details of the student submitting the draft statement are not shared with assessors.

Should we need to recover unpaid fees, contact information only would be passed to a debt recovery agent.

No other data are shared with third parties without express consent.