Data Protection and Freedom of Information in the Higher Education Sector

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis
Produced in partnership with Sam Rose of Mills & Reeve
Practice notes

Data Protection and Freedom of Information in the Higher Education Sector

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis

Produced in partnership with Sam Rose of Mills & Reeve

Practice notes
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This Practice Note provides a summary of how the Assimilated Regulation (EU) 2016/679, UK General Data Protection Regulation, (UK GDPR) and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FIA 2000) regimes apply to the Higher Education Sector, including to universities.

It assumes the reader is familiar with key concepts under the UK GDPR, including ‘controller’, ‘data subject’, ‘personal data’, ‘processing’ and ‘processor’. For further guidance on those terms, click on the links above to navigate to the relevant section of Practice Note: Key definitions under UK data protection law. For higher-level introductions to data protection laws generally, see Practice Notes: Data protection law—new starter guide and Introduction to the EU GDPR and UK GDPR.

The UK data protection law collection collates further general guidance on the UK GDPR regime and is a recommended starting point for data protection research.

Data Protection

Data Protection Principles

The data protection regime in the UK is primarily governed by the UK GDPR and related sections of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). See Practice

Sam Rose
Sam Rose

Principal Associate, Mills & Reeve

Sam advises higher education institutions on governance; student disciplinary cases; fitness to study and fitness to practise; student disputes relating to teaching and assessment; freedom of expression; Prevent and Equality Act issues.
 
She also advises on information law, including complex freedom of information requests and data subject access requests.
 
Before joining the firm Sam worked as an education law specialist at the University of Oxford and as the Head of Strategic Litigation for the Consumers' Association (better known as Which?). As part of her role at Which?, Sam worked on projects considering consumer law compliance across the higher education sector, including looking at university advertising and student protection plans. She engaged with Government departments and regulators, including the Competition and Markets Authority and participated in the European Commission's REFIT exercise, reviewing the consumer law acquis. She was also actively involved with BEUC (the European consumer organisation).

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Related legal acts:

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