The National Student Survey Results Portal

Fair processing and privacy notice

NSS results dissemination portal – privacy notice

Please see the OfS website for the complete student-facing NSS privacy notice.

The below privacy notice focusses on the information collected from institutions and processed by Texuna in relation to access to the NSS data dissemination portal.

Overview

Your personal information will be used for the purposes of delivery and access to the NSS results on the data dissemination portal.

The Data Controller of the personal information you submit will be Office for Students (OfS).

The processor of the personal information you submit will be Texuna.

Earlier in 2024, the OfS and the UK funding and regulatory bodies ran a procurement exercise for services to develop a new NSS data dissemination portal to disseminate NSS 2025, 2026 and 2027 results to providers. The contract was awarded to CACI Limited, a data and technology company. CACI Limited are developing a new NSS data dissemination portal. The new NSS data dissemination portal will launch in December 2024 and will host data from 2021 to 2024. From December 2024 the ‘data processor’ will be CACI Limited.

The legal basis for processing your personal information is that the 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.

It will be stored on secure servers within the UK.

It will not be routinely shared with any other organisations

It will be retained for the duration of the contract or until access is no longer required then securely disposed of.

You have certain rights in relation to your personal information.

  • You may contact our Data Protection Officer (dp@officeforstudents.org.uk) with any queries or concerns you have about the use of your personal information.

    • The National Student Survey Results Portal privacy notice

    1. Introduction

    The Office for Students (‘OfS’) is the regulator of the higher education sector in England and has certain statutory functions set out in the Higher Education and Research Act (HERA) 2017. You can find more information about the OfS and the work that we do on our website:

    https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/

    The OfS is committed to protecting your personal information and being clear about what information we hold about you and how we use it. This privacy notice tells you what to expect when the OfS collects personal information as part of delivery and access to the NSS results on the data dissemination portal.

    The OfS is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Our registration number is ZA309955 and you can check our entry details on the ICO’s website: https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/what-we-do/register-of-fee-payers//

    2. Data controller, Data Processor and Data Protection Officer (DPO)

    The OfS is the ‘data controller’ of any personal information collected within scope of this privacy notice. Our location and contact details are below:

    Office for Students

    Westward House

    Lime Kiln Close

    Bristol

    BS34 8SR

    Tel: 0117 931 7317

    Email:dp@officeforstudents.org.uk

    Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) is the first point of contact for people whose information is processed. You can contact the DPO using the details above. You should note that this email address is monitored by other members of the OfS’s data protection team. Therefore, please mark any correspondence ‘for the attention of the Data Protection Officer’.

    Texuna Technologies Ltd (Texuna) is the ‘data processor’ processing personal data on behalf of the OfS for this activity. Texuna have been commissioned by the OfS to host The National Student Survey (NSS) data dissemination portal. Texuna is a service-oriented technology solutions provider that delivers data collection, management, analysis, reporting and publication services. Texuna is registered under the terms of the Data Protection Act and has a legal obligation to ensure that confidentiality of your personal information is maintained.

    Earlier in 2024, the OfS and the UK funding and regulatory bodies ran a procurement exercise for services to develop a new NSS data dissemination portal to disseminate NSS 2025, 2026 and 2027 results to providers. The contract was awarded to CACI Limited, a data and technology company. CACI Limited are developing a new NSS data dissemination portal. The new NSS data dissemination portal will launch in December 2024 and will host data from 2021 to 2024. From December 2024 the ‘data processor’ will be CACI Limited.

    The NSS results dissemination portal disseminates the results of the NSS to universities and colleges to interrogate and analyse their data and make changes to improve the student experience. They receive parts of student survey data in a non-identifiable form. The data protection agreement in place between OfS and Texuna Technologies Ltd provides the necessary protection under the law to safeguard students' information.

    The Office for Students (OfS) has commissioned the NSS results portal on behalf of the Department for Economy, Northern Ireland (DfENI), Health Education England, the Wales's Commission for Tertiary Education and Research (Medr) and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

    3. What personal information we will hold and use

    The personal information we will collect and use as part of delivery of the NSS portal is set out below:

  • Name
  • Contact details (address, telephone and email address of employer)
  • Username, log-in and password details, level of access to the dissemination portal

    • 4. Our purpose for using the information

    We can only use your personal information where we have a specific purpose or purposes for doing so. Any personal data, which exists or you submit via this site, will be used for the purposes of the NSS results dissemination portal service delivery only

    Texuna will use information supplied about you on the following basis:

  • To provide user access to the portal
  • To run the ongoing NSS results dissemination portal service and execute a communication strategy during the preparation stages of dissemination of the results on the portal.
  • To consult with institutions to improve their portal experience and leading to the ongoing development of the NSS results dissemination portal.

    • If the OfS want to use your personal information for a reason other than those purposes set out above, we will tell you before we start that use and provide further information about the new purpose(s).

    5.Legal basis for using your personal information

    Under data protection legislation, we require a legal basis to be able to process your personal information for the purposes set out above.

    In this case, the legal basis is: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 (see UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e)) and for statistical and research purposes (see UK GDPR Article 89).

    6.Information we obtain from other sources

    Your organisation has provided Texuna with contact details for staff who require access to the dissemination portal. Each provider has nominated a ‘super-user’ with responsibility to ensure appropriate users have access to the NSS results dissemination portal.

    7. Who we share your personal information with and why

    Any information you provide will NOT be used for marketing, nor will Texuna sell or routinely pass on your information to any third party except where required to do so by law.

    Texuna may, with your consent, forward queries where appropriate to the team running the NSS within the OfS for a response.

    Your personal data may also be shared with CACI Limited to enable the launch a new results portal. As explained above, CACI Limited have been appointed by the OfS and the UK funding and regulatory bodies to disseminate the NSS data from December 2024.

    8. How long we hold your personal information

    We are only able to retain a copy of your personal information as long as it is still needed for the purpose for which it was collected.

    Your personal information will be kept for the duration of the contract between the OfS and Texuna or until Texuna is advised that access is no longer required.

    After that point, your personal information will be confidentially and securely disposed of. If we need to keep your personal information for longer than the retention period above, we will inform you and explain the reasons for this.

    9. Where your personal information will be stored

    Your personal information will be stored on servers in the UK and will not be transferred outside that territory unless required by a court order.

    10. How we protect your personal information

    The OfS has a number of security measures in place to protect your personal information, including:

  • Accredited to the Cyber Essentials PLUS standard for cybersecurity;
  • All staff are required to undertake training in data protection and information security on joining the OfS;
  • Formal information security policies that must be read and understood by all staff;
  • Personal information is only available to those members of staff who require access as part of their role.

    • You can read more information on the OfS’s approach to information security on our website: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/ofs-privacy/information-security/

    Texuna will take every reasonable precaution to ensure your personal information is protected from loss, theft or misuse. It is kept secure and only those staff who are required to see it, have access to it.

    Texuna’s Information Security Management System (ISMS), which conforms to the requirements of the standard ISO 27001, is certified by the British Standards Institution, and encompasses the NSS results portal project.

    If you have any questions or require further information about Texuna’s privacy policy, compliance with data protection laws or information Texuna hold about you, please contact Texuna’s Information Security Management team. They can be contacted by email at: iso27k@texunatech.com.

    11.Your rights over your personal information

    Once your personal information has been collected, you have certain rights in relation to that personal information that may be exercised. You have the right to request:

  • A copy of your personal information
  • Inaccurate personal information held about you is corrected
  • Your personal information to be deleted
  • Processing of your personal information is restricted
  • A copy of your information in a format that allows easy transfer (‘data portability’)
  • That you are not subject to automated decision making or profiling (if these take place).

    • All these rights have certain limitations depending on the request and the purpose for which we are holding your personal information. Further information can be found about these rights and our processes for handling such requests at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/privacy/individual-rights-under-the-general-data-protection-regulation/.

    12. Complaints about the use of your personal information

    If you are unhappy with the way in which your personal information has been handled, please contact us via our Data Protection Officer (details in section 2) and we will try to resolve your issue informally.

    If you remain dissatisfied, you can complain to the data protection supervisory authority. In the UK, this is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and they can be contacted at:

    Information Commissioner's Office

    Wycliffe House

    Water Lane

    Wilmslow

    Cheshire

    SK9 5AF

    Tel: 0303 123 1113

    Email:casework@ico.org.uk

    13. Changes to this notice

    We keep our privacy notices under regular review and we will inform you of any changes to this notice by placing an update on the NSS results dissemination portal.

    This privacy notice was last updated in October 2024.