Introduction

At University College Cork, we treat your privacy seriously. Any personal data which you provide to the University will be treated with the highest standards of security and confidentiality, in accordance with Irish and European Data Protection legislation. This notice sets out details of the information that we collect, how we process it and who we share it with. It also explains your rights under data protection law in relation to our processing of your data.

Who we are

Throughout this Notice, “we”, “us” and “our” refers to the Student Records and Examinations Office (SREO), University College Cork. For more information about us, please refer to our website: Student Records and Examinations | University College Cork

How we collect your personal data

We collect your data when a Head of School or their nominee completes the ‘Record Academic Misconduct’ form or you complete the ‘Academic Integrity Training’ form. Additionally, we collect data that has been provided by invigilators on the ‘Report on Suspected Breach of Examination Rules’ form in examination halls. Your data will be used by us only in accordance with the purposes outlined in this notice.

The purpose and legal basis for collecting your data

Any personal data that is provided to us via the ‘Record Academic Misconduct’ form or the ‘Academic Integrity Training’ form will be processed fairly and lawfully. The following details will be recorded:

• Academic Year
• Student Name
• Student Number
• College
• School
• Module
• Academic Misconduct Type
• Level of Academic Misconduct
• Sanction
• Whether the student has accepted the sanction
• Whether the issue is resolved
• Supporting Documentation (e.g., email communications with the student, the student’s Personal Statement, the student’s acceptance of any penalty, the assessments or examinations in question, Turnitin reports, etc.)
• Completion of academic integrity training

The data collected by these forms is processed when considering and making determinations in relation to allegations and instances of academic misconduct. The data stored on the Academic Misconduct Register is used to record an instance of academic misconduct and track repeated instances of misconduct. Additionally, review of such data may inform the University’s management and prevention of infringements.

The Student Records and Examinations Office will report on this data and provide it to Academic Board on an annual basis. The Student Records and Examinations Office  will anonymise the information, and these reports will be done on a high-level only (e.g., how many cases each year in each College/School/Department and the types of academic misconduct that has occurred).

The legal basis for processing data is in accordance with Article 6(1)(c) of the GDPR insofar as it is pursuant to a legal obligation of the University. Section 28 (1) & (2) of the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act 2012 (as amended) provides that the University shall establish procedures for quality assurance for the purposes of establishing, ascertaining, maintaining and improving the quality of education, training, research and related services and further that the University shall have regard to the guidelines issued by the Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI). There is also an additional legal basis in accordance with Article 6(1)(e) of the GDPR where there is a public interest in academic integrity being maintained.

Details of third parties with whom we share personal data

We use IT service providers to help us with our activities. They may have access to the data as reasonably necessary for support purposes on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.

How long we will keep your data

In keeping with the data protection principles, we will only store your data for as long as is necessary. For the purposes described here, we will store your data for the duration of your programme of study. After you are conferred or otherwise leave the University, your data on the Academic Misconduct Register and the associated supporting documentation will be deleted unless there is a direction from the Student Discipline Committee, the Office of Coporate and Legal Affairs (OCLA), or other relevant University authorities to retain the record indefinitely.

Your rights

You have various rights under data protection law, subject to certain exemptions, in connection with our processing of your personal data, including the right:

•  to find out if we use your personal data, access your personal data and receive copies of your personal data;
• to have inaccurate/incomplete information corrected and updated;
• in certain circumstances, to have your details deleted from systems that we use to process your personal data or have the use of your personal data restricted in certain ways;
• to object to certain processing of your data by UCC;
• to exercise your right to data portability where applicable (i.e. obtain a copy of your personal data in a commonly used electronic form;
• where we have relied upon consent as a lawful basis for processing, to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time;
• to not be subject to solely automated decision.

 If you wish to avail of these rights, please write to: The Information Compliance Manager, University College Cork at gdpr@ucc.ie.

Questions or Complaints

If you have any queries in relation to the Academic Misconduct Register, please contact the Student Records and Examinations Office at sreo@ucc.ie.

If you have any queries or complaints in connection with our processing of your personal data, you can contact UCC’s Information Compliance Manager by email at: gdpr@ucc.ie

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission if you are unhappy with our processing of your personal data. Details of how to lodge a complaint can be found on the Data Protection Commission’s website (www.dataprotection.ie), or by telephoning 1890 252 231.