Privacy Notice
The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) is committed to processing personal data fairly, transparently and in accordance with the law.
This privacy notice advises what personal data we collect, how we use it, what your rights are in relation to your personal data and how to contact us if you have any questions or concerns about the use of personal data.
SFC ensures that its data processing is compliant with applicable data protection laws including:
Guide to the Privacy Notice
As SFC processes a wide variety of data, we have split our privacy notice into separate sections to assist you in finding the data you are interested in accessing as below:
- College Students.
- College Staff.
- University Students.
- University Staff.
- Innovation Centres.
- Other Key Stakeholders.
- Website users.
- General enquiries and information requests and complaints.
- SFC members of staff and job applicants.
We also have general information about how we use personal data and your rights as a data subject (i.e. anyone we hold data about):
- Data Subject rights.
- Archival and statistical use of personal data.
- Retention of personal data.
- Identity of the Controller and Data Protection Officer.
1. College student data
SFC collects personal data of students in Scotland’s colleges in order to carry out our public tasks. These include to appropriately allocate funding to colleges, monitor their performance and to improve the student experience.
General Privacy Notice - College student data.
2. College staff data
SFC collects personal data of staff in Scotland’s colleges in order to carry out our public tasks. These include to appropriately allocate funding to colleges, monitor their performance and to improve the student experience.
General Privacy Notice - College staff data.
3. University student data
SFC collects personal data of students in Scotland’s universities in order to carry out our public tasks. These include to appropriately allocate funding to universities, monitor their performance and to improve the student experience.
General Privacy Notice - University student data.
4. University staff data
SFC collects personal data of students in Scotland’s universities in order to carry out our public tasks. These include to appropriately allocate funding to universities, monitor their performance and to improve the student experience.
General Privacy Notice - University staff data.
5. Research and innovation
SFC funds research and innovation projects in Scotland in collaboration with Scotland’s universities. We collect the personal data of key stakeholders to allow us to carry out this task.
General Privacy Notice - Research and innovation.
6. Key stakeholder data
SFC collects personal data of key stakeholders in colleges and universities as well as the wider education sector, individuals in the media, individuals involved in local and national government in order to facilitate business communications with them.
General Privacy Notice - Key stakeholder data.
7. Website and subscribers
We collect personal data from our website users so we can:
- Monitor the usage of our website.
- Customise web content for registered users.
- Update subscribers on the SFC’s activities.
General Privacy Notice - Website and subscribers.
8. General enquiries, information requests and complaints
Enquiries, information requests and complaints contain personal data of the enquirer as well as third parties in some circumstances. We will use this personal data in order to respond to the query, request or complaint.
General Privacy Notice - General enquiries, information requests and complaints.
9. Job applicants
SFC collects most of the personal data regarding job applications directly from the applicant themselves. However, we will also contact references for personal information as provided by the applicant.
General Privacy Notice - Job applicants.
10. Data subject rights
Individuals have right under data protection law which serve as checks and balances on data processing in accordance with the law. This section covers:
- The right to complain.
- The right to access.
- The right to rectification.
- The right to erasure.
- The right to restrict processing.
- The right to object.
General Privacy Notice - Data subject rights.
11. Further use of personal data (Archival, statistical, audit and research purposes)
SFC will process data for purposes other than which it was originally requested in certain circumstances. Data processed for any of the below purposes will be kept to a minimum and shall be anonymised wherever possible.
Archival purposes
SFC has an archival transfer agreement in place with the National Records of Scotland. SFC may keep limited personal data for archival purposes in accordance with the GDPR and DPA.
Statistical purposes
Sections of core data sets may also be kept for statistical purposes even once it is no longer required for the purpose it was initially collected for.
Research purposes
SFC may share personal data with external partners for research purposes. SFC will take all appropriate steps to ensure that data shared is necessary for those purposes and is kept securely.
12. Retention of personal data at SFC
SFC retains personal data in line with its Retention Schedule. To see this schedule, please follow this link:
General Privacy Notice - Retention schedule [PDF].
13. Identity of the Controller and Data Protection Officer
Unless otherwise stated, the Scottish Funding Council is the Data Controller of all personal data described in this notice.
SFC's office is based at:
Scottish Funding Council
Apex2
97 Haymarket Terrace
Edinburgh
EH12 5HD.
Tel: 0131 313 6500
Email: info@sfc.ac.uk
The Data Protection Officer is Emma Pantel, Information Management and Governance Officer, tel: 0131 313 6566, email: info@sfc.ac.uk.