School of Art and Design application and portfolio submission

Who is collecting the information?

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

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

We are collecting your information to process your application to do a course in the School of Art and Design. The application process requires you to submit a portfolio of examples of your Art and Design work so that delivery staff can review your portfolio. You will then be invited to a portfolio review to assess your suitability for the course. 

The portfolio you submit will be stored securely and only accessed by certain staff. 

What personal data do we collect?

Personal data

• Name
• Course applied for
• Digital and/or physical portfolio
• Personal Opinions contained within the portfolio and noted at an in-person portfolio review.

The lawful basis for the processing

Under data protection law the legal basis for the College in processing your personal data is GDPR Article 6(1)(e) “processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller” The Post-16 Education (Scotland) Act 2013 and the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Acts 1992 and 2005 require the College to provide quality fundable courses and this is one of the College’s core public tasks. 

Who we share the information with

The College does not share your application and portfolio information with anyone external to the College, unless there is a legal requirement to do so. The College does use third-party software providers, for example, Microsoft Teams. In those instances, appropriate contractual agreements are in place to protect your information.

How long do we hold the personal data? 

The College will not hold your data for longer than necessary. Following the completion of interviews for the academic year, the department will retain the digital portfolio for 6 months, then securely destroy/delete it in accordance with College procedures.

We may ask you to keep your portfolio to use as an example for future students. We will contact you directly to request your permission, and the portfolio will be anonymised, with personal information, for example, scans of qualifications, removed.

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