Confidentiality and privacy
What happens to your personal data?
Your information will be shared with relevant staff in the Student Support team. This includes staff in the:
- University Counselling Service
- Mental Health Advice Service
- Student Wellbeing Service
- Harassment and Violence Support Service
- Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre
Your information will also be shared with relevant administrative, data analysis, technical support and programme support staff.
We will use the data obtained from any forms you submit and from your interactions with us to offer timely and appropriate support interventions. This may include the use of your data for the allocation and management of appointments. We will not collect more information from you than is required to support you. With your explicit and informed consent, some external healthcare providers may share personal medical information with us to coordinate care and provide joined-up support. We will not retain any information for longer than is necessary.
We will use your data for monitoring, analysis and research, including evaluation of the services we provide. With your explicit and informed consent, some data shared with us by external healthcare providers may be used for monitoring, analysis and research. This may include information about how many appointments you have attended with that external healthcare provider. We may combine that data with other data about you held by the University (e.g. your personal demographics, course of study etc.) to analyse our effectiveness in delivering positive educational outcomes for our students, but we will not share any such information or analysis outside Student Support Services in a way that could identify you.
Relevant technical support staff may have access to your information by necessity, to enable them to support and maintain the systems used by the Student Support team.
We may publish aggregated data based on personal information from service users. This includes analysis and research utilising these data. Any such data will be anonymised. No information which could identify you will be published.
Sharing your information
Student Support will only share your information in line with your consents as given to us, either in general or in relation to specific interactions/types of information. Exceptions to this would only be if the sharing is required by law, or where there are serious concerns about your safeguarding or wellbeing. In the event of life-threatening incidences, we may share essential information. If confidential information is to be shared, we will normally contact you to inform you of what will be shared, and the reason for doing so.
The University of Cambridge is a partner in the ‘Universities of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin Mental Health Student Service (UCARMHSS)’ with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT). As part of that partnership, and with your explicit and informed consent, we may use your personal information to refer you to CPFT to enable you to access UCARMHSS healthcare provision. More information regarding UCARMHSS is available on the NHS website.
We will not share or use your information for marketing purposes.
How we keep your information
Your personal information will be stored securely. Access to your data is limited relevant staff as set out above. Staff within the team will only access your data where permitted and relevant to their role. This may include input from senior staff in the team, administrative staff or data analysts. We normally retain your records for seven years after your final involvement with us.
For additional information about how your data is stored and your data protection rights, please see how we use your personal information.
You have the right to access the information we hold about you by making a subject access request as described on the above webpage.
Withdrawal or change of consent
You have the right to change or withdraw your consent at any time. However, if you withdraw your consent this can only be applied at the point of request. This will not affect lawful processing of data based on previous consent.
If you wish to withdraw or change your consent agreement please contact reception@studentsupport.cam.ac.uk. We will then retain a copy of this request within your file.