Privacy Notice

Last updated: October 2026

This notice explains how Buckingham International School of Education collects and uses personal information about people who enquire about, apply for or study our courses, visit our website, or work with us as schools and partners. We have written it to be clear and short; if anything is unclear, please contact us.

1. Who we are

Buckingham International School of Education Ltd ("BISE", "we", "us") is a company registered in England and Wales [12134952], with its registered office at 14 Hereford Road, London, England, W2 4AA. We market, and support admissions for, courses awarded by the Faculty of Education at the University of Buckingham.

Our admissions and marketing team is based at our China office, Forte Education Consultancy Ltd, Beijing, which handles enquiries and applications on our behalf and under our instructions.

Your information is collected by our China office, Forte Education Consultancy, which processes it on behalf of BISE in line with China's Personal Information Protection Law. By submitting an enquiry or application, and ticking the consent boxes on our forms, you separately agree that:

• your information will be provided to BISE in the United Kingdom and to the University of Buckingham in the United Kingdom, for the purposes in section 3;
• it will be stored in our customer records system, hosted in the United States;
• sensitive personal information, such as your passport or ID document and any equal opportunities information you choose to give, will be processed only to make and support your application.

For any privacy question or request, email [[email protected]] or write to us at the address above.

2. The information we collect

When you enquire (through our website, WeChat, WhatsApp, email, social media or at an event): your name, email address, phone number or messaging ID, where you are based, the course you are interested in, your message, and how you heard about us.

When you apply: the information on the application form, which can include your date of birth, nationality, passport or ID document, education history and certificates, current school and teaching role, English language evidence, CV, personal statement and referees' details.

Equal opportunities information: the application form may ask about your ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or disability. Answering is optional, and you can choose "prefer not to say". See section 8.

When you visit our website: your IP address, device and browser type, the pages you view, the page you arrived from, and information collected by cookies if you accept them. See the Cookie Policy.

If you are a student or graduate: your enrolment and course status, so we can support you, and, if you agree, your story or photograph for our alumni features.

If you work with us (schools, recruitment agents and other partners): your name, job title, organisation and work contact details.

We may also receive your details from a recruitment agent or school that refers you to us, or from the University of Buckingham about the outcome of your application.

3. How we use your information and our lawful basis

UK data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for each use of your information. These are ours.

4. Who we share your information with

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with the people below, and only what each needs.

• The University of Buckingham. When you apply, we submit your application to the University, which makes the admissions decision. From then on the University also uses your information as a separate controller, under its own privacy notice [https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/privacy-policy/]. Each year we also send the University a list of the applicants we referred, so that our records match.
• Recruitment agents and schools that referred you, who we may tell whether you applied and enrolled, so that their referral can be recognised. 
• Service providers who run systems for us, under contracts that only allow them to use your information on our instructions: Zoho (our customer records system), Blue Level (website development and hosting), Cloudflare (website security), CookieYes (cookie consent), and Google, LinkedIn and Meta (website analytics and advertising, only if you accept those cookies).
• Messaging platforms you choose to contact us through, such as WeChat (Tencent) and WhatsApp (Meta), which handle your messages under their own terms.
• Others where the law requires or allows it, such as regulators, our professional advisers, or a buyer if our business is ever sold.

5. Transfers outside the UK

Your information is transferred to:

• The United States, where our customer records system and Google, LinkedIn and Meta services are hosted.

When we transfer information to a country without a UK "adequacy" decision, we protect it with the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. For US providers certified under the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, we rely on that. 

6. Keeping your information secure

Access to applicant records is limited to the staff who need it, protected by individual logins, and recorded. Our providers are required to keep the information secure. If a breach puts your information at risk, we will tell you and the regulator where the law requires us to.

7. News and marketing

We will only send you newsletters, event invitations and course news if you have agreed. Every email includes an unsubscribe link, and you can also tell any member of our team or email [[email protected]]. Messages about an enquiry or application you have made are not marketing, and we will still send them.

8. Sensitive information

Some information is specially protected by law, including ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, health and disability. We collect it only through the optional equal opportunities questions on the application form, or if you choose to tell us about a disability so that we can support you. We use it only with your explicit consent, pass it to the University only as part of your application, and keep it to as few people as possible. Copies of passports and ID documents are also treated with extra care and are only seen by the admissions staff processing your application.

9. How long we keep your information

After these periods we delete your information or anonymise it so that it no longer identifies you.

10. Your rights

You have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete
• ask us to delete your information, or to restrict how we use it
• object to our use of your information where we rely on legitimate interests, and to stop marketing at any time
• receive information you gave us in a reusable format, or have it sent to another organisation
• withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting what we did before you withdrew it

We do not make decisions about you by purely automated means. To use any of these rights, email [[email protected]]. There is no charge, and we will reply within one month. We may need to confirm your identity first.

11. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first at [[email protected]]. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and tell you what we are doing about it.

You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.

12. Changes to this notice

We review this notice at least once a year. If we make important changes, we will update the date at the top and, where appropriate, tell you directly.