- What is the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES)?
- How we collect and use your information
- What information we collect
- Why we process your data?
- How long we keep your information
- How to exercise your rights
- Questions or complaints
What is the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES)?
This privacy notice explains how your personal data is processed for the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES).
The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is the data controller for your personal data and is subject to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
The survey is carried out by Advance HE on behalf of higher education providers, including UH.
How we collect and use your information
The purpose of PRES is to gather feedback about the postgraduate research experience.
Survey responses are stored by Jisc, acting as a data processor on behalf of UH. Jisc shares survey responses with Advance HE, which also acts as a data processor. Your responses are held securely by UH, Jisc and Advance HE.
All participating institutions, including UH, have agreed not to identify individuals when reporting survey results internally or externally. Results are reported in a way that prevents individuals from being identified.
The full dataset is available to Advance HE and its sub-processors for national research and analysis.
What information we collect
We use information held in the University's student records system and information you provide through the survey.
To make the survey easier to complete, some information already held by the University is pre-populated, including:
- Your course
- Age range
- Country of domicile
- Personal email address recorded on your student record
The survey also asks for optional demographic information, including special category data such as:
- Ethnic background
- Gender status
Your name and email address are not shared with Advance HE.
Why we process your data?
Your personal data is only used by relevant UH staff who need it to carry out their role.
Access to raw survey data is restricted to the Doctoral College Survey Team for analysis. After analysis, staff only have access to anonymised and aggregated results.
We process your personal data based on your consent.
You can withdraw your consent at any time. If you do, we will delete your individual survey response. However, anonymised data that cannot identify you will remain within our datasets.
To withdraw your consent, email: research-degrees@herts.ac.uk
How long we keep your information
We remove identifying information from downloaded raw data immediately.
Identifying data is retained within the Jisc system only for as long as needed to collect and issue survey results.
After the survey closes, UH retains an anonymised dataset for analysis of the postgraduate research experience.
How to exercise your rights
To exercise any of your data protection rights, contact the University's Data Protection Officer: dataprotection@herts.ac.uk
Questions or complaints
If you have questions, comments or concerns about how your personal data is handled, contact the Data Protection Officer:
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO):
- Website: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
- Post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF