How we use your information

We want you to feel confident about sharing your experiences with us. Here's what happens to your information when you complete a Big 6 survey.

What information do we collect?

To take part, you'll need to sign in using your Heriot-Watt University Microsoft 365 account. This allows us to record your email address alongside your survey responses.

We'll also match your responses with demographic information we already hold in our membership database, provided by the University under our data-sharing agreement. This includes:

• Year of study
• Level of study
• School

We use this information to understand how experiences differ between groups of students and make sure our findings reflect our diverse student community.

Why do we link your survey responses?

If you complete more than one Big 6 survey, we'll link your responses using your email address.

This helps us understand the bigger picture of student life, rather than looking at each topic in isolation.

Before analysing your responses, we'll replace your email address with a unique respondent ID. This is known as pseudonymisation and means we can connect responses without routinely using information that directly identifies you.

Your responses will remain confidential and access to identifiable information will be restricted.

What do we do with the findings?

We'll use your responses to:

• Better understand students' experiences, needs and priorities.

• Identify challenges and opportunities for improvement.

• Shape HWUnion's services, campaigns and representative work.

• Help us influence decisions affecting students.

We may share summary findings with partners, including Heriot-Watt University, where this supports our work to improve the student experience.

We won't share your individual responses or identifying information with these partners as part of our reporting. We'll also take care not to publish results for very small groups where individual students could potentially be identified.

What's our legal basis for using your information?

Under UK GDPR, we process your survey responses and associated demographic information on the basis of legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)).

As your Students' Union, we have a legitimate interest in understanding students' experiences, representing their views and improving the services and support available to them.

Using survey responses alongside relevant demographic information helps us identify differences between student groups, understand barriers to participation and ensure our representative work is informed by a broad range of experiences.

Our use of existing membership information for these purposes supports our role in representing students under the Education Act 1994.

Where surveys involve information requiring additional legal protections, such as health, disability or ethnicity information, we will apply the relevant safeguards and data protection requirements.

How long do we keep your information?

We'll keep your survey data for three years from the date you complete each survey.

This allows us to compare findings over time and understand how student experiences change.

After this period, personal data will be deleted or anonymised in accordance with our retention arrangements. Anonymous summary findings may be kept for longer.

Can you choose whether we contact you again?

Yes! At the end of each survey, you can choose whether you're happy for us to contact you by email about further research on the topics covered.

This could include invitations to answer additional questions or share your views in more detail. It won't involve us asking you to explain your individual survey responses.

If you agree, we'll add your email address to a follow-up research mailing list for that survey.

This is entirely optional, and you can withdraw your agreement at any time.

YOUR DATA, YOUR RIGHTS

Under data protection law, you have rights over how your personal information is used, including the right to access it, request corrections and, in certain circumstances, have it deleted or restrict how it's used.

You also have the right to object to our use of your personal information where we rely on legitimate interests. We'll consider any objection in accordance with data protection law.

You can find more information about your rights, how to exercise them and how to contact us in our Privacy Notice.

You can also raise a concern with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at www.ico.org.uk.

Prize Draw T’s & C’s

Not the most exciting, but essential. Here are the terms and conditions of our prize draw...

1. You must be currently enrolled as a student at a UK Heriot-Watt University campus to be eligible to enter.

2. Your survey response will record your HWU email address automatically to enter you in the prize draw.

3. Prizes of 14 x £20 Amazon vouchers will be awarded through means of random prize draws of survey responders who full complete a survey. Prize of 1 x £300 cash will be awarded through means of random prize draws of survey responders who fully complete all 6 surveys. After submission, it is not possible to change your entry into the prize draw.

4. Responders are only entitled to one draw entry per survey unless otherwise specified by Heriot-Watt Student Union. Multiple entries of the same survey (through completing a survey multiple times) will be removed and only the first response will be entered into the prize draw.

5. We monitor response quality to filter out responses deemed as poor quality compared to other responses (such as shorter time taken to answer, gibberish answers, obvious patterns of multiple choice answers, profanity etc).

6. Daily Draw: A draw to win 1 x £20 Amazon voucher will be made each day. The daily draw will include participants who completed a survey the previous day between 00:00 and 23:59. Participants completing more than one survey within this period will receive an entry for each survey submitted. Responses received on Saturday or Sunday will be drawn on Monday. The final draw (announced on Monday 9th November 2026) will include all responses received between 00:00 on Sunday 8th November and 09:00 on Monday 9th November. Other ad hoc draws may be made at the discretion of Heriot-Watt Student Union.

7. £300 cash prize draw: A draw to win 1 prize of £300 cash. The draw will be made on close of the survey and will include all participants who completed all six surveys.

8. Winners will be notified by email to their Heriot-Watt email account. If we cannot contact the winner after 14 days, we may award the prize to another entry drawn at random.

9. We may use the winner’s names and photographs for promotional and publicity purposes. If you would rather remain anonymous, please let us know by replying to your winner notification email.

10. Prizes are non-transferable and there is no cash alternative. Heriot-Watt University Student Union (HWUnion) may substitute alternative prizes of similar value. Failure to claim the prizes by the time or in the manner specified by HWUnion will make any claim invalid.

11. HWUnion may disqualify you from winning a prize if we have reasonable grounds to suspect that you are in breach of these rules or your participation in the prize draw is fraudulent or otherwise unlawful.

12. HWUnion may cancel the prize draw for reasons outside of its reasonable control. HWUnion may amend these rules without notice, by posting changes to them on this website.

13. HWUnion does not accept any responsibility for any network congestion, technical failure or other problem in any telephone line, network, system, provider or otherwise which results in any communication not being properly recorded or received.

14. HWUnion will process the personal information you provide in accordance with our data policies. More information can be found at Hwunion.com/privacy.

15. This competition is promoted by Heriot-Watt University Student Union, Riccarton, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS. Registered charity SC011949