Accessing your personal data
All staff and students (and any other person whose personal data BIMM Music Institute processes) have the right to access their personal data.
Staff will usually have access to their HR records via their staff portal, or via informal request to their Head of Department or College Principle, or to HR. We would recommend that you approach a HR team member in the first instance to see if the information can be provided informally.
Students wishing to update or check the accuracy of the personal data held about them centrally can contact Student Services.
If you wish to be unsubscribed or be removed from a marketing list or research participant list or register you can contact the department concerned and request this without submitting an access request. You can also use the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of emails from marketing emails.
Any person wishing to access their personal data under the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018 should make a Subject Access Request (SAR). Requests can be made verbally or in writing, and must be emailed to [email protected].
Your request will be processed by a very limited number of staff within the Privacy and Information Security teams, under the supervision of the Data Protection Officer, who will be required to view all the data you request, including personnel, financial and occupational health records. By submitting a Subject Access Request you are accepting that the Privacy team will need to request and view the data about you in order to assess what can be disclosed. Information of third parties, including staff in some circumstances may be withheld or redacted. All data will be handled securely and in the strictest confidence. If you have any concerns please contact Privacy in the first instance.
Exam scripts are exempt from the right to subject access.
Making a subject access request
The Data Protection Officer has a duty to establish the identity of the requester. The identification required is usually one document that includes photo identification and a signature, such as a photo driving licence or a passport, plus a current utility bill or bank statement showing your name and address. Requests from internal members of staff may not require this and you will be advised on making your request of this is the case.
The Data Protection Officer will then coordinate the gathering together of the appropriate information. BIMM Music Institute will comply with SARs as quickly as possible but will ensure that the information is provided within 1 calendar month from receipt of identification unless there is good reason for delay. Data protection laws allow for an extension of up to 2 months for responding to very complex requests. If you are able to describe the data you seek clearly this is less likely. We may also refuse requests that are deemed manifestly unfounded or excessive and reserve the right to charge a fee. In such cases the reason for refusal, delay, or any fees payable will be explained in writing.
Examinations
Examination scripts, and other assessment work or fieldwork, are expressly exempted from the normal data subject access rules under the Data Protection Act. This means that the Institute is under no obligation to permit examination candidates to have access either to their original scripts or copies of the scripts.
However, examiners’ comments are not covered by this exemption. To request a copy of examiners’ comments a student should submit a subject access request to the Privacy team, as explained in the section above. We would encourage students seeking feedback on examinations to contact their Student Services department and Course Tutor.
