About the Service

The Immigration Advice Services (IAS) team provides support to international students with immigration matters relating to their studies and beyond. We provide immigration advice predominantly around Student Route but also offer an advisory service for non-academic and welfare-related matters, to further support and enhance the international student experience and promote internationalisation at USW and in the community.

We support all international students regardless of nationality, religion, gender, age, sexual preference or health status. Advice is offered free of charge and without discrimination.

We operate according to the UKCISA/AISA Code of Ethics and meet the strict rules and standards of the Immigration Advice Authority.

Data Protection/Fair Processing Statement

Your Personal Data

The University of South Wales is the data controller and the Data Protection Officer can be contacted through  [email protected].

The University needs to process personal data about you in order that it can provide you with support and advice on a range of issues such as immigration, cultural issues and your welfare.  There is a requirement on the University under certain circumstances to keep a record in order to meet the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) requirements.  This processing is undertaken with your consent.
 
We will not collect any personal data from you we do not need in order to provide and oversee this service to you.  Information held on file will be kept in line with our retention schedule.  

Your information will not be subject to any automated decision making processing.
 
You have the right to confidentiality when you use the service provided by the IISA team. However, where necessary this information may be shared internally with staff in academic faculties and other departments in order to advise you or comply with the University’s regulations or UK law. It may also be shared outside the University with the Home Office, United Kingdom Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) and the British Council. This is because further information about your case is required.

The information may also be made available to the (OISC) Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (for audit purposes) and the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (in the case of student complaint).

If the adviser wishes to disclose this information to any other source then your explicit consent will be sought prior to any disclosure, unless:

All the personal data is processed by staff in the UK on servers run by the University and in some instances hosted on servers located within the European Union. No third parties have access to your personal data unless the law allows them to do so.

If at any point you have a complaint, believe the information we process on you is incorrect, wish for it to be corrected or deleted or you would like to request to see this information, then please contact the University’s Data Protection Officer at [email protected].

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

  • you are putting yourself at some serious risk of harm;
  • your behaviour is adversely affecting the legal rights of others;
  • staff are being placed in a position where their professional integrity is compromised;
  • disclosure is required by law;