Privacy Policy

We take your privacy seriously. This policy explains what personal information The UK Research Academy collects, why we use it, how long we keep it, who we may share it with, and the rights you have under UK data protection law.

Last updated: 25 May 2026

1. Who we are

The UK Research Academy (“UKRA“, “we“, “us” or “our“) is an independent provider of academic programmes for international students planning to study at postgraduate level in the UK. We operate independently of any university, college or other education provider.

This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, store and protect personal information when you visit our website, contact us, register interest in a programme, apply for a course, attend our teaching, or otherwise communicate with us.

We are committed to protecting your personal data and privacy. UKRA is fully registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under registration number ZC263220. You can view our ICO Registration Certificate here.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, the data controller is:

The UK Research Academy Limited
Contact: co*****@***************my.com

The UK Research Academy
Clyde Offices
2nd Floor
48 West George Street
Glasgow G2 1BP
United Kingdom

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or how we use your personal information, please contact us at: co*****@***************my.com.

2. What this policy covers

This policy explains how we use personal information relating to:

• website visitors;
• prospective students;
• students enrolled on our programmes;
• parents, sponsors or guardians who contact us;
• recruitment agents, advisers or institutional contacts;
• people who subscribe to updates, newsletters or events;
• people who contact us by email, forms, messaging platforms or social media.

This policy does not apply to websites, platforms or services operated by third parties. Where our website links to external websites, you should read their privacy policies separately.

3. The personal information we collect

We collect personal information that you provide to us directly, information we collect automatically when you use our website, and information from third parties where relevant.

3.1 Contact and identity information

This may include:

• name;
• email address;
• telephone number;
• country or region;
• WeChat ID or other messaging contact, where you choose to provide it;
• parent, sponsor, adviser or agent contact details, where relevant.

3.2 Enquiry, application and enrolment information

This may include:

• the programme you are interested in;
• intended university, degree subject or study destination;
• academic background;
• current study level;
• English-language ability or related information you choose to provide;
• reasons for joining the programme;
• information included in enquiry forms, application forms, emails or consultation notes.

3.3 Programme participation information

If you join a programme, we may collect:

• attendance records;
• participation records;
• submitted tasks or written work;
• tutor comments or feedback;
• information about support requests;
• certificate or completion records;
• communications about your progress.

3.4 Payment and transaction information

If you pay for a programme, we may collect:

• billing details;
• payment status;
• invoice and receipt information;
• refund or cancellation records.

We do not store payment card details. Payments should be processed through a secure third-party payment provider, which will process payment information under its own terms and privacy policy.

3.5 Website and technical information

When you use our website, we may collect:

• IP address;
• browser type and version;
• device type;
• pages visited;
• time and date of visits;
• referral source;
• approximate location derived from technical data;
• cookie and analytics information, where permitted.

3.6 Marketing and communications information

This may include:

• your communication preferences;
• whether you have opted in to newsletters or updates;
• records of emails or messages we send to you;
• whether you open or interact with marketing emails, where our email platform provides this information.

3.7 Special category information

We do not ask for special category personal data, such as health information, religion, ethnicity or political opinions.

If you voluntarily provide information that may fall into a special category, for example in relation to learning support, accessibility or wellbeing, we will use it only where necessary and with appropriate care. Special category data requires additional protection under the UK GDPR (see Information Commissioner’s Office).

4. How we collect personal information

We may collect personal information when you:

• complete an enquiry form;
• register interest in a programme;
• apply for a place;
• pay for a programme;
• attend a seminar, clinic, consultation or event;
• submit weekly tasks or written work;
• contact us by email, website form, WeChat, telephone, social media or another channel;
• subscribe to updates or newsletters;
• interact with our website.

We may also receive information from a parent, sponsor, recruitment agent or educational adviser where they contact us on your behalf.

5. Why we use your personal information and our lawful basis

Under UK data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for using personal information. The lawful bases include consent, contract, legal obligation and legitimate interests (see Information Commissioner’s Office).

• Consent — we use your information because you have clearly agreed that we can use it for a specific purpose, such as receiving optional marketing updates. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
• Contract — we use your information because it is necessary to provide a service you have requested, such as processing your registration, delivering the programme, managing payments, or taking steps before enrolment.
• Legal obligation — we use your information because the law requires us to do so, for example to keep certain financial, tax or business records.
• Legitimate interests — we use your information because we have a fair and reasonable reason to do so, such as responding to enquiries, improving our services, protecting our business, or keeping appropriate records, provided this does not override your rights and freedoms.

The table below explains how we use personal information and the lawful basis we rely on.

Purpose	Personal information used	Lawful basis
Responding to enquiries	Name, contact details, enquiry details	Legitimate interests, or steps before entering into a contract
Processing applications or registrations	Identity, contact, academic and programme-interest information	Contract, or steps before entering into a contract
Delivering teaching and support	Enrolment details, attendance, submitted work, participation records, feedback	Contract
Providing certificates or completion records	Name, attendance, completion information	Contract and legitimate interests
Managing payments, invoices and refunds	Billing details, payment status, invoice records	Contract and legal obligation
Communicating with students about the programme	Contact details, enrolment information, programme records	Contract and legitimate interests
Handling support requests or complaints	Contact details, correspondence, relevant records	Legitimate interests, contract and, where applicable, legal obligation
Improving our services	Feedback, survey responses, engagement information	Legitimate interests
Sending newsletters or promotional updates	Name, email address, preferences	Consent, or legitimate interests where legally permitted
Website analytics and performance	Technical data, cookie data, usage data	Consent where required, or legitimate interests for essential website operation
Protecting our business and legal rights	Relevant records, communications, transaction information	Legitimate interests and legal obligation

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we do so because we have a reasonable business or educational interest in providing, managing, improving and protecting our services, and we consider that this does not override your rights and freedoms.

Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time.

6. Marketing communications

We may send you information about our programmes, events, resources or updates if you have asked to receive them, registered interest, or where we are otherwise permitted to do so by law.

You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by using the unsubscribe link in the email or by contacting us at co*****@***************my.com.

We will not sell your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

Electronic marketing and cookies in the UK are governed by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, alongside UK GDPR. The ICO states that PECR rules apply to electronic marketing and cookies, and use the UK GDPR standard of consent where consent is required (see Information Commissioner’s Office).

7. Cookies

The UK Research Academy uses cookies for one purpose:

• to support essential website security and functionality.

We do not use cookies for website analytics, advertising, remarketing or embedded third-party media.

Our separate Cookie Policy explains:

• what cookies we use;
• what they do.

8. Who we share personal information with

We may share personal information with trusted third parties where necessary to operate our website, deliver our programmes, manage payments, communicate with students, or meet legal obligations.

This may include:

• website hosting providers;
• email and communication platforms;
• online teaching platforms;
• booking or scheduling tools;
• payment processors;
• accounting and invoicing providers;
• CRM or student-management systems;
• analytics providers;
• professional advisers, such as accountants, insurers or legal advisers;
• recruitment agents or educational advisers, where relevant and appropriate;
• regulators, public authorities or law enforcement bodies where required by law.

We only share personal information where there is a lawful reason to do so. Where suppliers process personal information on our behalf, we expect them to protect it and use it only for the agreed purpose.

We do not sell personal information.

9. International transfers

Some of the services we use may process or store personal information outside the UK. This may happen, for example, where we use cloud-based software, email platforms, analytics tools, online teaching platforms or communication tools with international infrastructure.

Where personal information is transferred outside the UK, we will take steps designed to ensure that it receives appropriate protection. This may include using countries recognised as providing adequate protection, approved contractual safeguards, or other lawful transfer mechanisms.

10. How long we keep personal information

We keep personal information only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy, including to provide our services, maintain records, meet legal obligations, resolve disputes and protect our rights.

Type of information	Typical retention period
General enquiries	Up to 2 years after last contact
Marketing preferences	Until you unsubscribe or withdraw consent, plus a suppression record to ensure we respect your choice
Application and enrolment records	Up to 6 years after the end of the relevant programme or relationship
Payment, invoice and accounting records	Usually 6 years, to meet tax and accounting requirements
Programme participation and completion records	Up to 6 years, unless a shorter or longer period is appropriate
Submitted work and tutor feedback	Up to 2 years after programme completion, unless needed for a complaint, certificate query or legal reason
Website analytics data	According to the settings of the analytics provider and cookie preferences

These periods may be adjusted where necessary, for example if we are required to keep records for legal, tax, safeguarding, complaint-handling or dispute-resolution reasons.

11. How we protect your personal information

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure.

These measures may include:

• secure systems and passwords;
• restricted access to personal information;
• use of reputable service providers;
• staff or contractor confidentiality expectations;
• secure payment processing;
• regular review of the information we hold.

No online system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect the information entrusted to us.

12. Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you have rights in relation to your personal information. These may include the right to:

• be informed about how your information is used;
• access the personal information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct inaccurate information;
• ask us to delete information in certain circumstances;
• ask us to restrict how we use your information;
• object to certain uses of your information;
• request transfer of your information in a portable format in certain circumstances;
• withdraw consent where we rely on consent;
• complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.

These rights do not apply in every situation, and there may be legal reasons why we cannot fulfil a request in full.

To exercise your rights, contact us at co*****@***************my.com.

13. Children and young people

Our programmes are intended for students preparing for postgraduate study and are generally aimed at adults.

If we knowingly collect personal information from a person under 18, we may require involvement from a parent, guardian or responsible adult where appropriate.

We do not knowingly target marketing to children.

14. Parents, sponsors and agents

Where a parent, sponsor, guardian, recruitment agent or educational adviser contacts us about a student, we may process their contact details and correspondence so that we can respond appropriately and keep a record of the communication.

If the student is aged 18 or over, we will normally communicate directly with the student about their enrolment, participation, progress, payments, support needs and personal information.

We will not normally share personal information about an adult student with a parent, sponsor, agent or adviser unless the student has authorised us to do so, or unless there is another lawful reason that allows or requires us to share the information.

Where a student asks us to communicate with a parent, sponsor, agent or adviser on their behalf, we may ask the student to confirm this in writing and may limit what information we share to what is necessary for the purpose.

15. Student work and learning materials

Students may submit written work, reflections, questions or other learning materials as part of the programme.

We use this information to deliver teaching, provide feedback and support learning. We will not publish student work publicly without permission.

We may use anonymised examples of common learning issues or academic writing patterns for teaching purposes, provided students are not identifiable.

16. Online teaching sessions

Our programmes may include live online seminars, clinics, consultations or other teaching activities.

We do not routinely record teaching sessions. This means students are expected to attend live sessions wherever possible, as live participation is an important part of the programme.

During online sessions, we may process limited participation information, such as names, attendance, chat contributions, questions, discussion points, submitted tasks or tutor notes, where this is necessary to deliver teaching and support learning.

Students should not record, photograph, screenshot or share teaching sessions, chat discussions, learning materials or other students’ contributions without permission.

Where we exceptionally need to record a session, students will be told in advance and the purpose of the recording will be explained. Any recording would be handled securely and used only for the stated purpose.

17. Automated decision-making

We do not use personal information to make decisions about individuals based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.

18. Complaints

If you have concerns about how we use your personal information, please contact us first so we can try to resolve the issue: co*****@***************my.com

You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, which is the UK regulator for data protection.

ICO website: ico.org.uk
ICO helpline: (+44) 0303 123 1113

19. Changes to this privacy policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. The latest version will be published on our website with the date it was last updated.

Where changes are significant, we may take additional steps to notify students or users.