Staff recruitment

Birmingham City University is the data controller and you are welcome to contact our Data Protection Officer by emailing informationmanagement@bcu.ac.uk or by post to:

Data Protection Officer, Information Management Team, Birmingham City University, Floor 1, Joseph Priestley Building, 6 Cardigan Street, Birmingham, B4 7RJ.

The personal data collected is the data on the online application form(s) for the recruitment of staff. These vary depending on the type of role you apply for so please refer to the online application form for the answer to this question. It will include your name, contact details, qualifications, professional experience, reason for applying for the role, your referees’ name and contact information. If you voluntarily choose to provide it, the online system processes equal opportunities information, which includes special category data.

The personal data that the online recruitment site collects about you will be used for the purposes of processing your application, for monitoring and improving the recruitment and selection process, and for the compilation of anonymous statistics. If your application is successful, it will be used to form the basis of your staff record. 

In compliance with current data protection laws, the information contained in your application is used to shortlist and select for each position you apply for. If you are successful in your application, your application and equal opportunities information will form part of your manual and computerised personal file and your personal data will be used for employment and payroll processing purposes. Staff personal files are kept for up to seven years after a staff member has left BCU employment.

For candidates who are not successful in their application, the information in the application is usually kept for a period of six months after the closing date and then destroyed. In a small number of cases, we are required to keep recruitment information longer than six months, until informed by UK Visa and Immigration (UKVI) that it can be destroyed. Equal opportunities data is collected for the purpose of monitoring the effectiveness of the University’s Equal Opportunities Policy and to provide anonymised statistical reports. This data is not used in the recruitment decision making process. Only collated, anonymised data from the Equal Opportunities Monitoring section is kept after that period to enable effective monitoring to take place

Cookies are used on this website to allow access to authenticated areas of the website (e.g. applying for a vacancy), for storing individual user preferences, and for gathering analytical visitor data. For more information, please visit the Cookies information page. 

The University processes your personal data provided as part of the recruitment and selection process on two lawful bases: 

• 'For the performance of contract' because it is necessary to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract for employment. This relates to information that we collect as part of the application and selection process.
• 'Legal obligation'. There is a legal obligation placed on us as the data controller to report on equality of opportunity. This relates to equal opportunities data collected.

Hard copies of personal data are kept in a secure location and personal data stored electronically is on servers are located within the UK or EU.

Applicant personal data will only be shared with relevant BCU staff, and will only be disclosed to third parties to fulfil the purposes described above, including but not limited to the following examples: to use the IT system used for the application process, conduct referencing, ascertain accuracy, carry out surveys relating to applications, if BCU seeks legal advice, or if the third party has a legitimate, statutory right to the information. BCU may also share your personal data with third parties upon your request with your consent.

In addition to the circumstances stated above we will share your personal data if we believe someone’s life is in danger. We will never sell your details to a third party.

You have the right to correct or update your personal data at any time. Please get in touch with your main contact at the University to update your details. If you cannot contact them, please email informationmanagement@bcu.ac.uk to update your personal data. You may have the right to have your personal data deleted, the right to restrict processing, the right to object and / or the right to data portability and you have the right to know about and challenge automated decision making and profiling. Follow the links to find out whether those rights apply in these circumstances. To do any of those things or if you have followed the links but would like clarification please email informationmanagement@bcu.ac.uk.

You have the right to see the personal data we hold about you. You can submit a Subject Access Request (SAR) in accordance with the Subject Access Requests (SAR) Procedure.

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office about the handling of your personal data and can find out more about this on their website.

BCU Data Protection Policy

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) information for members of the public  - For the Public website