Introduction
This Privacy Policy outlines how Bursary Assessment Associates’ (” we “, ” our ” or ” the Company “) practices with respect to information collected from applicants and clients who share personal and financial information with us (collectively: ” Users “).
Grounds for data collection
Processing of personal and financial information is necessary for the purposes of us validating an application for suitability of a financial award towards tuition fees or other educational costs.
What information we collect
Names, addresses, employment information and financial information including details of all income, expenditure, assets, and liabilities. Supporting documentation must be provided to enable us to validate the financial declaration.
How do we receive information about you?
An application Form will be completed and submitted to Bursary Assessment Associates through the online application portal, supporting documentation must be included as part of this submission.
In exceptional circumstances, a paper application form and supporting documentation may be sent either to the school or to Bursary Assessment Associates, if sent to the school, this will be scanned and securely transmitted to Bursary Assessment Associates so that they may undertake the assessment required by the school. If paper documents are submitted to Bursary Assessment Associates, the documents will be scanned and saved on the secure server and the paper documents will be securely destroyed.
We may obtain information about you from publicly available sources such as Companies House and Zoopla in order to verify your identity or other personal details and assess your application in support of a bursary award.
How we use your data
For the purposes of your application:
- The school is the Data Controller of your information
- Bursary Assessment Associates is the Data Processor of your information
Bursary Assessment Associates is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and has satisfied the client school as to its arrangements regarding the security of any information and documents you may provide as part of your application.
The following process explains how your information is handled upon receipt:
Bursary Assessment Associates will review the information provided and if the application form is incomplete, we will contact you to request additional information.
We will contact you to make an appointment to discuss your application if this has been required by the school, this is to ensure that any financial assessment is as complete as possible.
Bursary Assessment Associates will send its report on your application securely to a named person at the school and this is the completion of our part of the process, unless the school has further questions to support them during their decision process.
Bursary Assessment Associates will scan and store securely any paper applications, notes and supporting documents regarding your application, and shred any paper documents securely.
This process is undertaken only for the purposes of considering your application for a Bursary, and your information will not be passed to any third party. If a family have made applications for multiple schools who are clients of Bursary Assessment Associates, with the agreement of the family and the clients, it will usually be possible for us to undertake only one meeting with the family in support of the multiple applications.
The confidential report produced by Bursary Assessment Associates is the property of the client school and this report is regarded by the ICO as exempt from subject access requests.
User Rights
You may request to:
- Receive confirmation as to whether personal information concerning you is being processed, and access your stored personal information, together with supplementary information.
- Receive a copy of personal information you directly volunteer to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.
- Request rectification of your personal information that is in our control.
- Request erasure of your personal information.
- Object to the processing of personal information by us.
- Request to restrict processing of your personal information by us.
- Lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.
Please note that these rights are not absolute and may be subject to our own legitimate interests and regulatory requirements.
If you wish to exercise any of the aforementioned rights, or receive more information, please contact our Data Protection Lead, Joanne Beer, using the details provided below:
office@bursaryassessmentassociates.co.uk
Data Retention
Retention periods will be determined taking into account the type of information that is collected and the purpose for which it is collected, bearing in mind the requirements applicable to the situation and the need to destroy outdated, unused information at the earliest reasonable time. We also link our retention periods to our clients’ requirements which is typically seven years for application forms and two years for supporting documents.
How do we safeguard your information?
The Company is registered with the information commissioner’s office (the ICO), and we take all steps to protect the personal data of families applying for a bursary and the data of our clients.
Our team members are fully trained in the requirements of data protection legislation and are required to undertake update training on an annual basis, in addition our team members are bound by strict confidentiality clauses in their contracts.
We employ industry standard procedures and policies to ensure the safety of the information we collect and retain, and prevent unauthorised use of any such information, and we require any third party to comply with similar security requirements.
Data will normally be stored within UK or EU data centres, in the case of the application from software, information is held on Microsoft Azure geo-replicated data centres in the USA which are certified with the US Privacy shield and the California Consumer Privacy Act. The application forms are deleted from the software portal on a timely basis once successfully downloaded.
Updates or amendments to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to periodically amend or revise the Privacy Policy; material changes will be effective immediately upon the display of the revised Privacy policy.
How to contact us
How to contact us
You can contact us at office@bursaryassessmentassociates.co.uk
Registered office:
Bursary Assessment Associates
The White House
Wilderspool Business Park
Greenall’s Avenue
Warrington
WA4 6HL.
The company is registered with companies’ house, registration number is 11078885.
We are registered with the information commissioner’s office (ICO) – reference number A8422092.