Current students privacy notice

If you are a current student studying with Design School Asia, this privacy notice provides information on how we use your personal data in relation to that enquiry. This is supplemental to the main page on our website about data privacy

How does this privacy notice relate to other privacy notices?

When you applied to become a student, you were told in the Student Applicant Privacy Notice how the School would use your personal data to process your application. This referred you to this Student Privacy Notice which explains how we use your personal data while you are a student at the School.

In addition to the information set out here, when you use specific services and facilities offered by the School, you will be told about any other uses of your personal data and may be directed to a webpage or privacy notice for more detailed information.

Sometimes another organisation will also be a data controller of your personal data if your programme is delivered in collaboration with, or on behalf of, another organisation. That organisation should explain this to you as well as how it uses your data.

What personal data will be processed?

The details provided to us when you applied to the School form the basis of your core student record, which is the high-level record retained by the Student Records Team. Your core student record also includes data you provide on registration, and information collected and entered by the School during your studies, including:

Your personal details, such as your name, home address and other contact details, age and date of birth, gender, nationality, country of birth, your dependents, whether you are a care leaver.
Information about your area of study.
Tuition and other fee charges, funding and payments.
Information about your sponsor.
Leave of absence, authorised absence, or exclusion data.
Attendance information in line with our Student Attendance Policy.
Summaries of the outcomes of academic appeals.
Information about extracurricular activities which are recorded on your transcript.
Data about your examinations, assessments and results, the qualification awarded.
Your leaving date and the reason for leaving.

The School will also keep records about you, including:

Details of your engagement with procedures (including academic appeals, Extenuating Circumstances, Fitness to Practice, leave of absence, plagiarism, misconduct procedures).
Attendance and absence records.
Information relating to modules, placements, examinations (including scripts) and assessments.
Information about reasonable adjustments (if relevant to you).
Your interactions with course and programme staff.
Visa and immigration data.
General correspondence and administration.

The School will also keep records about your use of the academic and non-academic facilities and services that we offer and processes and procedures with which you engage (for example, if you raise a concern or complaint) or which you are subject to (such as misconduct proceedings).

We may also need to process some data about you that is classed as ‘special category’ or sensitive personal data. This data includes data about your ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious beliefs or health/disability data. We only use this information to offer you support or reasonable adjustments and for statistical, research and monitoring purposes. Access to, and the sharing of, your special category personal data are controlled very carefully.

Criminal convictions: The School may hold and process data about criminal offences and criminal convictions if you have disclosed this on your application or if it is appropriate, given the nature of your programme (for example, if a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is needed for your programme). We will use information about criminal convictions and offences in the following ways:

To consider your suitability to become a member of the School or to continue to be a member of the School or to decide if any support or measures need to be put in place.
To comply with regulatory requirements to decide your suitability to study on a regulated programme or to practice in a regulated profession.
Consideration of safeguarding issues.

We will only use information relating to criminal convictions where the law allows us to do so and in line with our Data Protection Policy. Personal data relating to criminal convictions will be retained confidentially and securely and access to that data will be strictly controlled.

Information about you is created, stored and transmitted securely in a variety of paper and electronic formats, including databases. Only those staff who need access for the purpose of administering the admissions process and allocating accommodation will be able to access your personal data.

Why are you processing this data?

The School needs to process this personal data for a number of reasons in order to support you through your chosen programme of study. Specifically we will process your data:

To deliver and administer your education, record the details of your studies (including any placements with external organisations), and determine/confirm your academic achievements (for example, results, prizes). This includes your engagement with procedures relating to your studies or research, such as academic appeals, extenuating circumstances, leave of absence procedures.
When relevant, to monitor, evaluate and support your research activity.
To administer the financial aspects of your relationship with us and any funders.
To deliver services and facilities to you such as IT, libraries, careers, etc.
To enable you to take part in events such as graduation, functions etc.
To communicate effectively with you by post, email, phone or other electronic media, including the distribution of relevant newsletters and information, and invitations to take part in research activities.
To operate security, governance, disciplinary, complaint, audit and quality assurance processes and arrangements.
To support your training, medical, safety, wellbeing, welfare and religious requirements.
To compile statistics and conduct research statutory reporting purposes.
To manage and develop the School’s business.
To fulfil and monitor our legal responsibilities, for example, under equalities, immigration and public safety legislation.
To enable us to contact others in the event of an emergency (we will assume that you have obtained consent from those individuals before you supply their contact details to us).

What is your legal basis for this processing?

We consider the processing of your personal data for these purposes to be necessary for:

The performance of our contractual obligations with you.
Compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation.
The performance of tasks we carry out in the public interest.
The pursuit of the legitimate interests of the School or external organisations.
Archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes.

If we require your consent for any specific use of your personal data, we will collect it at the appropriate time, explaining why we are collecting the data and how we will use it, and you can withdraw this at any time.

We do not use your personal data to carry out any wholly automated decision-making that affects you.

Will any data be shared with a third party?

Within the School, your data is shared with only those School staff who need access for the purpose of delivering our academic and non-academic services and facilities.

Your personal data is shared with a range of external organisations as is necessary for the purposes set out above and as permitted or required by law, including the following:

The providers of any external or collaborative learning and training placements or fieldwork opportunities (and we will explain to you how and when this will be shared when we collect the data from you).
External examiners and assessors, and external individuals involved in relevant School committees or procedures.
Relevant Government Ministries (for example, Ministry of Health, MOH).
Relevant executive agencies or non-departmental public bodies (for example, Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, IRAS).
Occasionally and when necessary, the police and other law enforcement agencies, for the prevention or detection of crime.
Occasionally and when necessary internal and external auditors or regulators.
In the year you leave the School, your details (name, gender, contact details, information about your programme and award and registration status, emergency contact details, details of other universities attended, nationality, and secondary school details) will be shared with the Alumni Relations department while you are still a student so that you can be added to the alumni database. The School considers it is in the legitimate interests of the School to do so, as alumni are very important supporters of and ambassadors for the School, and that it is in the legitimate interests of alumni to do so, to develop their social and professional networks and help alumni achieve positions of success and influence.

We ensure we have appropriate data sharing agreements in place before sharing your personal data with any other data controllers.

Your School email account will be included on the School general email list which is used for contacting you about School business and activities.

Your personal data is shared as is necessary, on a considered and confidential basis, with several external organisations which assist with processing your information. Where this is the case, we will have formal agreements in place with any 3rd party organisation and they will be acting in accordance with our instructions and do not process your data for any other purposes other than what we have asked them to do. Sometimes your personal data is processed by these organisations outside of Singapore (usually because they use cloud systems provided by companies such as Microsoft or Google). If this is the case then we always ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure the confidentiality and security of your personal data.

We will never share your personal data with external organisations for marketing their products or services. We do not sell your personal data and never will, to anyone, under any circumstances.

How long is my personal data kept at the School?

After you leave the School, we will retain most personal data we hold about you for 7 years. We do this so we can respond to any queries you or third parties may have about your studies, qualifications or student experience, to prepare references, to respond to any concerns or complaints and as part of our assessment of any future application you make for further studies at the School. We are required by law to retain some data for longer, for example records of exposure to hazardous materials. Some data is kept for less than 7 years including assessments or examination scripts which are retained for 1 year (unless you submit an appeal or you are subject to an examination irregularity investigation in relation to that script); we will tell you when data is kept for periods other than 7 years from the date you leave the School.

The core record of your studies is retained indefinitely so that the details of your academic achievements can be confirmed. The School will also use your data, together with data about other current and former students, to carry out statistical analysis in relation to its student population or for historical or research purposes (but not to make decisions about you).

The School is sometimes required to take part in surveys or research conducted by or on behalf of Government departments, executive agencies, non-departmental public bodies or Higher Education bodies relating to individuals who have graduated from or left the School. If so, your contact details will be shared with the organisation carrying out the survey or research on behalf of the School.

Your rights

To find out more about your rights, please visit our privacy page

Does this page get updated?

This privacy notice is effective from the 22th of November 2021 and is reviewed annually. If we need to make changes, we’ll let you know via email.