The Student Support Services teams are part of King’s College London (“King’s”, “we” “us”, or “our”).
This privacy notice supplements the following wider privacy notices:
If you have any questions about Student Support Services and our use of your data at King’s after you read these notices, please Ask a question via Student Services Online.
What are Student Support Services?
Our Student Support Services include teams who provide a range of services to staff, students, applicants and prospective students.
Advice, Wellbeing & Welfare (AWW)
Our Advice, Wellbeing & Welfare department aims to support current and prospective students throughout their time at university. They offer advice, guidance, outreach sessions and signposting on a broad range of issues including money, housing, general wellbeing and more challenging welfare concerns.
The team works to inform and empower students to take agency over their own circumstances but are also here to support and advocate on their behalf.
Counselling & Mental Health (CMHS)
King’s Counselling & Mental Health Service provides clinical triage and assessment, brief term individual counselling provision, therapeutic groups, mental health advice and manages the Student of Concern pathway.
Disability Support & Inclusion (DS&I)
The Disability Support & Inclusion team offers information, advice and guidance to prospective students, applicants and current disabled students.
When we refer to the term 'disability' we also include long-term medical or mental health conditions and Specific learning difficulties (SpLDs).
Student Conduct & Appeals (SCA)
The Student & Appeals team provides staff, students, and third parties with formal processes dealing with complaints, appeals and misconduct across the College.
Visa & International Advice (V.I.S.A)
The Visa & International Advice team provides students and their families with student-related immigration guidance.
They offer support for International, EU/EEA and Swiss Nationals currently studying or intending to study at or recently graduated from King’s College London.
What information do we collect and how do we use it?
We collect a variety of personal information depending on the service being accessed. This includes:
- Basic personal information, such as your name, contact details, age, gender, nationality
- Next of kin details
- Social media profiles where relevant to a complaint, disciplinary or other College governance process (e.g. Fitness to Study/Practice)
- Programme and course information along with details about your faculty or department
- Academic, immigration, care leaver, parental, widening participation and fee status
- Tenancy, mortgage, bills, benefits documentation
- Special and more sensitive category data such as: health and medical information, disability, risk and harm information, bullying and harassment details, sexual orientation, ethnicity, criminal convictions, bank details, debt status
- Information relating to complaints, disciplinaries and appeals
We collect this information from you when:
- You register with us, request support, or attend any of our open days, events, or workshops
- We provide you with advice such as wellbeing, disability, visa information
- We assess your support needs at your request, for example, to enable us to provide you with Kings Inclusion Plans, Statements of Disability, Confirmation of Study with relevant funding bodies
- You attend sessions such as counselling, mental health and diagnostic assessments
- You are referred to our services through our Safeguarding Policy, via the Prolonged Lack of Contact or Student of Concern processes
- A complaint is made by you, or about you, or you have lodged an academic, postgraduate research (PGR), progress or termination appeal
- An allegation of misconduct or a Fitness to Study/Practice concern is raised
- A Report + Support notification is either made by yourself or that concerns you
What is the legal basis for King’s processing your information?
We rely on the following lawful bases to process your personal data:
- Your consent in circumstances where you have a genuine choice about the processing, and the ability to change your mind at any time
- Legitimate Interests where the processing is for a legitimate interest of the university or a third party, and that interest is not overridden by your interests and rights such as such as producing statistics and internal research to improve our services
- Public Task where the processing is necessary for the College to carry out its official functions
- Contract where the processing is necessary to fulfil the terms of our contract with you
To provide student support services we also need to process data that is considered more sensitive by the law (known as ‘special category data’). Because of this sensitivity, this data needs an additional lawful basis. When processing your special category data our student support services will rely on:
- Your explicit consent in circumstances where you have a genuine choice about the processing, and the ability to change your mind at any time
- Processing being necessary for reasons of substantial public interest. For example, where processing your data is necessary for the provision of confidential counselling, advice or support, or of another similar service provided confidentially, or for safeguarding individuals at risk. A full list of the substantial public interest conditions the College relies on can be found in the King's Data Protection Policy
- Vital Interests where we have significant safeguarding concerns
We also process data to meet our statutory obligations such as monitoring and gathering data to meet our equal opportunities obligations and our reporting requirements to governmental bodies.
Where and why do we share your data?
Our provision of an effective student support services at King’s includes multiple internal teams in addition to our central student support service teams listed above.
Your personal information will be shared by us internally within King’s on a need-to-know basis and in compliance with the King’s Data Protection Policy and Procedure.
We disclose your data to third parties where they are acting as authorised agents for the university for the purposes listed below; or where we are permitted or required to do so under UK law. Typical third party data sharing includes:
- Public authorities (such as the Office of the Independent Adjudicator) and public partnerships such as police or government departments, if required by law
- Businesses contracted to help us deliver services
- Professional bodies such as the General Medical Council and the General Dental Council
- Government departments, for example, Department for Work & Pensions, Councils, Home Office and UKVI
- Funding bodies, for example, Student Finance England (SFE) and other regional funders.
Purposes for data sharing include:
- Disclosure of a recent suicide or attempt
- Disclosure of a serious mental or physical health condition requiring acute treatment in hospital or in a specialist service
- Breach of a university policy or regulation e.g. students on programmes that lead to a professional qualification and registration with a regulatory body
- Where the university is legally obliged to provide information to external authorities, such as the police or a government agency (e.g. breach of visa conditions)
- Where a member of vulnerable group may be being impacted by a student's circumstances and this could result in a referral to an external statutory service
- Where we have reason to believe that there is a serious risk of harm to yourself or others (including vulnerable adults/children), we may need to share this information more widely within Kings and externally with relevant statutory services such as the police, ambulance services, your GP, Social Care, non-statutory organisations supporting people at risk, and your emergency contact
Examples of businesses contracted to help us deliver our services include:
- AdvicePro, a third-party case management platform hosted by AdviceUK to help us manage our casework, events, competitions, marketing and flatmate finder requests
- CORENet, an information management platform hosted by CoreIMS, to store our case notes, for example, counselling notes
- Third party independent investigators to conduct investigations where appropriate
- External partners, Blackbullion and NASMA to help grow your financial skills and to support students with advice on money matters
- Legally enforceable data sharing agreements are put in place with third-party suppliers in compliance with our Data Protection Policy
Where we have your consent, we may share data with the following:
- Emergency contacts and family members
- Specialist consultants
- GP’s or other professionals
- DBS Services
- EventBrite and other platforms hosting our events
- Government departments
- Landlords, Housing Providers and Letting Agents
- External partners such as Citizen’s Advice Westminster, University of London Housing Services, and local and national legal advice services
- Funding bodies, for example, Student Finance England (SFE)
- Agents or representatives acting on your behalf
How long do we keep your information?
Your data is securely stored and retained in line with the Records Retention Schedule on the Corporate Records Management page.
Where can I go for more information or to make a complaint?
To find out more about how the university deals with your personal information, including your rights and who to contact if you have a concern, please see King's College London Core Privacy Notice.
Visit Student Services Online to learn more about Appeals, complaints & misconduct.