WRoCAH will need to share some of your personal information between administrators across the White Rose Consortium, and with the AHRC as our major funder. This page outlines the various responsibilities relating to data sharing.
Data sharing across White Rose
The WRoCAH member institutions are legally responsible (as data controllers) for communicating to you directly how research student personal data is used at their particular institution, either when you begin your studies, or when you attend for particular elements of your programme of study at Consortium partners (unless there is no personal data collected – as might be the case when attending a single lecture).
Information about the use of your personal data (sometimes known as a “fair processing notice” or “data collection notice”) is often delivered through an online enrolment/registration system. Information issued by different members of the Consortium is likely to be similar in effect but not identical.
By accepting a Studentship with the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities, you are also agreeing to data sharing between the three White Rose institutions and with the WRoCAH office (based in York) to support your studies. The White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH) itself is not a legal entity, so cannot hold information or be legally responsible for it: those responsible for your personal data are the universities which hold it (known as Data Controllers), not WRoCAH.
The White Rose Consortium institutions are in process of developing a contractual statement defining the purposes for which they share personal data and the standards which they operate. The terms of this will be made available to candidates and students as soon as possible.
By accepting a Studentship within the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities, you agree to the data sharing arrangements and shared items agreed by the Consortium and made available to you: the institutions cannot amend these without at least informing you, and in many circumstances also obtaining your further consent.
Concerns or enquiries about personal data processing
If you have concerns about the way in which your personal data is being handled by a Consortium institution you can contact the Data Protection contact at the institution concerned for advice. You should do this if:
- You suspect that the institution is using or sharing your personal data for purposes about which you have not been properly informed in writing.
- You have concerns about some other malpractice or a security breach.
- You wish to have access to the personal data which the institution holds about you, and the institution has not told you how to do this.
A list of websites for Data Protection contacts within the White Rose Universities Consortium is below. Please remember that if you make statements about other people in your email (eg. to complain about them), the individual(s) concerned may have access to that statement. If the matter cannot be resolved immediately, the Data Protection contact will let you know the appropriate complaints procedure or other process to follow (which will differ by institution). If the institution’s complaints procedure has been exhausted you have the right to take your complaint to the Information Commissioner.
Data Protection Links
- University of York: https://www.york.ac.uk/records-management/dp/policy/
- University of Leeds: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/secretariat/data_protection_code_of_practice.html
- University of Sheffield: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/cics/dataprotection/personal
Data Sharing with the AHRC
This section outlines the use and publication of Information provided to RCUK on RCUK funded Studentships.
1. PhD project information displayed on the Gateway to Research?
The Gateway to Research (GtR) is a web-based portal http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/ where information about funded research is published. The aim is to assist businesses and other interested parties to identify potential partners in research organisations to develop and commercialise knowledge, and thereby increase the impact of publicly funded research. It provides better access for the research community, business and the public to information on research funded by the seven Research Councils and the Innovate UK.
The PhD project information which the Research Councils will publish on the GtR website is given below. Note that the project summary (abstract) is a key piece of content for display in GtR and it must be suitable for publication and not contain sensitive or confidential information.
| Item of data | Notes |
| Student Name | for students starting from 2015 onwards |
| Training Grants | The grant(s) from which the student is funded. A student may be funded by more than one grant. These are already published on GtR. |
| Organisation | The organisation that holds the training grant. |
| Project Title | This should be as informative as possible, even if final title not yet confirmed |
| Summary | Sensitive or confidential information should NOT be included in this summary |
| Supervisor | The academic supervisor(s) |
| Organisation | This will be the Organisation where the student is registered. |
| Department | The Department of the Organisation at which the student is registered. |
| Project Partner Organisation | This will be displayed to highlight collaborative working |
| Registration Date | The date on which the student started their studies |
| Expected Submission Date | The date by which the thesis is due to be submitted. |
2. Other use of information provided to RCUK
Use of submitted data may include:
- Registration and processing of proposals;
- Operation of grants processing and management information systems;
- Preparation of material for use by reviewers and peer review panels;
- Administration, investigation and review of grant proposals;
- Sharing proposal information on a strictly confidential basis with other funding organisations
- To seek contributions to the funding of proposals
- Statistical analysis in relation to the evaluation of postgraduate training trends
- Policy and strategy studies.
- Meeting the Research Councils’ obligations for public accountability and the dissemination of information.
- Making it available on the Research Council’s web site and other publicly available databases, and in reports, documents and mailing lists.
The following information about training grants and funded students will routinely be made publicly available:
- Student name (for students starting from 2015 onwards)
- Aggregated information regarding student numbers, stipend levels, qualifications, age at start, migration levels (from first degree university to another) etc.
- Name(s) of project partner organisations and supervisors
- Project titles and topics
- Project summaries
- Numbers of students in particular regions, universities or departments in context of the Training Grant funding announced.
- Registration and expected submission dates and rates
Information may be retained, after completion of the Masters or PhD, for policy studies involving analyses of trends in postgraduate training and reporting on these to government bodies such as DBIS. Students should always have been informed that the university is releasing personal details to AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC or STFC for the above purposes.
3. Je-S Student Details Functionality
The Research Organisation provides standard information on the details of students and the student research projects funded by the Research Councils’ through the web-based data collection functionality Je-S Student Details which Research Organisations use to return details of the students and student research projects funded from the Training Grant.
The Information that is required is available in the Je-S system help text: Go to the following web address, click Show, select Studentship Details and then select Data Protection
https://je-s.rcuk.ac.uk/handbook/pages/StudentResearcherDetails/StudentResearcherDetails.htm