Collection Vision Society Evaluation Surveys

Who is collecting the information?

Edinburgh College is the Data Controller. We have a Data Protection Officer (DPO), who can be contacted by emailing: DataProtection@edinburghcollege.ac.uk.

Information is being collected by a College lecturer undertaking research as part of Edinburgh College’s Research Scholarship. If you have any questions about the project, please contact Claire.Waugh@edinburghcollege.ac.uk

Why are we collecting it, and what are we doing with it (Purpose)?

The College is collecting survey responses to evaluate the Collective Vision pilot project, a student-led initiative designed to enhance employability, confidence, and collaboration through practical and creative learning experiences.

The information gathered will be manually analysed and used to evaluate the Collective Vision pilot’s impact on student confidence, employability skills, engagement, and inclusivity. By collecting feedback at three points during the project, progress over time can be assessed and areas for improvement identified to inform future delivery.

What personal data do we collect?

The surveys do not request names, email addresses, or other direct identifiers.

Participants may provide voluntary personal reflections in open-text questions (e.g., about learning preferences or challenges), which may be considered personal data; however, these are not used to identify individuals, and the capture of any personal data is incidental.

How are we collecting this information? What is the source?

Information is collected directly from participating students through 3 surveys conducted using Microsoft Forms within Edinburgh College’s secure Microsoft 365 environment at different stages of the project.

Completing the surveys is optional and at the participant's choice.

The lawful basis for the processing

The basis for processing any potentially captured personal data under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) is Article 6(1)(e) “necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller” – delivering and evaluating education and student-experience activities.

Who we share the information with

Individual survey data will not be shared outside the project team. Only anonymised results may be shared internally within the College for reporting and improvement purposes. No data is shared with third-party organisations or external speakers.

How long do we hold the personal data?

Survey data will be retained securely for up to one academic year after the end of the 2025 pilot. After this period, aggregated results will be kept, and individual response data will be deleted.

Individuals’ rights in relation to this processing

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights; some of these rights only apply if certain conditions are met. Your rights are: right to be informed (e.g. privacy notice), right of access, right of rectification, right of erasure (commonly known as the right to be forgotten), right to restrict processing, right to object, right to data portability and the right to know of any automated decision making (including profiling). It’s worth noting that you can exercise your rights either verbally or in writing, and the College would be required to process your request within one month.

The rights that apply to this particular processing are:

Right to be Informed – i.e. a privacy notice.
Right of Access – this means you have the right to access your personal information.
Right to Rectification – this means you have the right to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information.
Right to Erasure – commonly known as the Right to be Forgotten (RTBF) – this means you can request that your personal data be deleted.
Right to Data Portability – this means you have the right to request your information in a machine-readable format (e.g. a .csv file) to be provided to you or transferred in that format to another organisation.
Right to Restriction – this means you can restrict the processing of your information and links with some of the other rights.
Right to Object – this means you can object to how your data is used.
Right to be informed of automated individual decision-making (including profiling) – we do not use this for OH purposes, and therefore this does not apply.

Some of the rights above have caveats and only apply in certain circumstances. You can exercise your rights at any time, and the College would be required to answer within a month upon receipt of your request. If you wish to exercise your rights or have any queries in relation to this, please contact the Data Protection Team at DataProtection@edinburghcollege.ac.uk.

Complaints to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

If you are concerned about how your personal data is being used by the College, in the first instance, please contact the College Data Protection Officer (DPO) at DataProtection@edinburghcollege.ac.uk. If you are not satisfied with the outcome, then you can complain to the regulator of data protection, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO guides on the ICO website.

You can email them at casework@ico.org.uk, call them on 0303-123-113, or you can send a letter to them at the following address:

Customer Contact
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF