Privacy Notice
Last updated: 09 June 2026
Privacy Notice
This privacy notice sets out how the THE group of companies processes your personal data.
It covers:
- Our role under data protection law
- What personal information we collect about you and how we collect it
- How we use your personal information
- Personal information that we share with third parties/processors
- Our legal basis for collecting and using your personal information
- Data retention, data security and transfers of personal information outside of the UK and European Economic Area (EEA)
- Your rights
The companies which make up the THE Group are:
- THE World Universities Insights Limited, UK
- Data HE Limited, UK
- BMI GlobalEd Ltd, UK
- The Education World Forum Limited, UK
- World Forum Holdings Limited, UK
- THE WUR, Inc, USA
- Inside Higher Ed, Inc, USA
- C-Change Media LLC DBA Poets & Quants, USA
- THEWUR Singapore Pte Ltd, Singapore
- Unijobs Global Pty Ltd, ߣߣÊÓƵ
- THE WUR Pty Ltd, ߣߣÊÓƵ
For ease, these companies will be referred to collectively as THE throughout this privacy notice.
Our Role
THE World Universities Insights Limited of 98 Theobalds Road, London, WC1X 8WB, United Kingdom is the main Controller of your personal data. That means we are trusted to look after and deal with your personal data in accordance with this notice. We determine the ways and means of processing your data and must therefore, be accountable for it.
We are also Joint Controllers for personal data processed by the rest of the group, unless they are a Data Processor carrying out work on behalf of one of their clients.
Where we are a Joint Controller, we have a Joint Controller Agreement in place with our subsidiaries outlining our respective responsibilities.
We are a Data Processor when we carry out work on behalf of our clients.
This Privacy Notice is about how we handle personal data as a Controller.
1. What personal information we collect about you and how we collect it
Information that you provide us directly
We collect personal information whenever you contact us and provide us with information that we are able to identify you by, including when you contact us by phone, email or when you sign up to use any of our services. In particular, we collect information about you when you register and create a user account on any of our Websites, post content on any of our Websites, register for an event, enter your details into a form, upload your CV, purchase a product from us (such as through the THE Store), subscribe to receive a product or service that we offer, subscribe to receive email updates from us, take part in a competition or market research and every time you e-mail us directly. We also collect information about the payment methods that you use for any transactions that you make with us.
Content posted by you containing personal information
If you post any personal information to any of our public websites, for example by commenting on any part of the site, this information will immediately be made available to other users of our site globally.
Personal data collected from public sources
We collate and maintain a register of academics. This data will consist of name, email address and place of work. Data is collected from public sources. This data is used for the purposes of market research either by us, other THE group companies, or on behalf of our clients. Where we have your work email, we will also use this to keep you up to date with relevant information about the Higher Education Industry. You can opt out of these updates at any time.
Information that we automatically collect (including use of "cookies")
When you have consented to non-essential cookies on our website, we automatically gather certain limited information about your visits. This includes demographic data and browsing patterns. Information automatically received includes among other things your: IP address (which identifies the computer or device that you use to access the Sites); the time and date of your visit; browser; operating system; internet connection details, as well as a breakdown of your journey through our Websites and products that you searched for. This is used to build up marketing and usage profiles, to aid strategic development, to manage our relationship with advertisers and to audit usage of the Websites. Essential cookies use similar data and are dropped without consent to ensure the website works the way it is supposed to, in a secure manner and with the functionality that users expect to see.
We act as a joint controller with LiveRamp who provide ads for us. You will be asked for your consent for this when you visit our website.
For further information please see our Cookies Policy and for more independent information about cookies, visit .
Information that we collect from third parties
Certain third party partners of THE may provide us with information relating to you. It is that third party's responsibility to ensure that they have the right to do this. If we have obtained data from a third party and we think you are not aware that we hold your data, we will contact you and let you know we have it, with a link to this privacy notice.
2. Our legal basis for collecting and using your personal information
Data Protection Legislation mandates that any personal information can only be used where there is a lawful basis to do so.
Account administration and service provision
When you create and use a THE account
| Process | Lawful Basis |
|---|---|
| Using your email address and username to authenticate your identity and administer your THE account(s) | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| Account creation to provide access to gated content published on our website | Performance of Contract |
| To deal with your enquiries and requests | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
Website and Platform
When you use our websites or platform
| Process | Lawful Basis |
|---|---|
| To contact you and investigate reports or complaints related to content that you have uploaded | Legitimate Interest (investigating complaints) |
| Posting content on any of our websites | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| Entering details into a form | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| Use of essential cookies to ensure the website works the way it is supposed to | Legitimate Interests (providing a service to users) |
| Use of non-essential cookies to gather information about your use of the website | Consent |
| Use of data from non-essential cookies to: build usage profiles to personalise your experience, display targeted adverts on our website, support our marketing or strategic development activities, manage our relationship with advertisers, and audit usage of the websites | Legitimate interests (our commercial interests) |
University rankings
When we use information to compile THE's university rankings
| Process | Lawful Basis |
|---|---|
| Receiving personal data about the person who sends us an institution's university rankings submission | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| Processing personal data as part of the process of compiling the university rankings | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| Using bibliometric data of academic publications in support of global university rankings and research evaluation | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
Register of academics
If you are on our register of academic contacts
| Process | Lawful Basis |
|---|---|
| Identifying and managing academic/administrative contacts at universities for the purpose of requesting data submissions via the THE portal | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
| To store and manage contact details of institutional representatives involved in the submission and management of data for THE's university rankings | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| To send invitations or service messages about the THE's university rankings | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| Collating and maintaining a register of academic contacts to support outreach for rankings-related surveys (e.g. the Reputation Survey) | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| To collect and analyse responses about the perceived reputation of institutions | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| To send surveys and use their results to create white papers and promote THE group services | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
| Using B2B email addresses to market our services to universities | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
| Using your email address to keep you up to date with relevant information about the Higher Education Industry | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| Using data on the register for market research by THE group | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
Student, university and scholarship fairs
If you are involved with BMI GlobalEd fairs and events
| Process | Lawful Basis |
|---|---|
| Using details of prospective students, school counsellors and university staff to promote student recruitment events and webinars | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| Using student and event attendees' data to identify and reach out to similar prospective students about events | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
| Using registration information from recruitment events (in-person and virtual) for the purposes of event coordination, communication, and tailored follow-up | Contract |
| To manage opt-out requests from individuals who no longer wish to receive marketing communications, including keeping a record of opt-out status | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
| To facilitate B2B engagement between universities and high school counsellors through structured matchmaking events | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| To organise and facilitate B2B matchmaking events where universities meet with scholarship organisations to explore partnership opportunities and promote study programmes | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| To facilitate virtual student recruitment fairs where students can interact with universities via an online platform | Contract (when the service is for students as individuals), or Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) when the relationship is with the organisation |
Subscriptions and Payments
If you make a subscription or payment transaction with us
| Process | Lawful Basis |
|---|---|
| Purchasing a product from THE | Performance of Contract |
| Processing information about payment methods used in transactions | Performance of Contract |
| To manage customer subscriptions to our content (businesses and individuals) | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/customer experience) |
Jobs and Recruitment service
If you use our UniJobs recruitment services
| Process | Lawful Basis |
|---|---|
| Uploading your CV to Unijobs | Performance of Contract |
| Data quality check to ensure submitted information during registration or job application is accurate and up-to-date | Performance of Contract |
| To provide you with job opportunity services we believe may be relevant to you | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/information for job seekers) |
| To send you Job Alerts where you have signed up for this service | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/information for job seekers) |
Recruitment at THE group
Related to recruitment within THE
| Process | Lawful Basis |
|---|---|
| To identify and contact potential staff candidates | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interest to recruit candidates for roles in THE group) |
| To assess candidates as part of the recruitment process | Performance of Contract |
Events
If you are involved with an event or webinar
| Process | Lawful Basis |
|---|---|
| To enable you to register for an event | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| To update and control the quality of event registration data | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/customer experience) |
| To create personalised name badges for event attendees and speakers | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/customer experience) |
| To identify, assess, and manage potential and confirmed speakers for events | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/customer experience) |
| Using webinar attendee and speaker details in order to provide webinars | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| Recording footage from our events or webinars | Legitimate interest (our commercial interests) |
| Using footage of our events or webinars for our promotional use | Legitimate interest (our commercial interests) |
| Sharing (where agreed) webinar recordings or event footage with clients or partners | Consent |
Marketing
When we use personal data for marketing purposes
| Process | Lawful Basis |
|---|---|
| Sourcing information about contacts at organisations | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
| Connecting and synchronising data about contacts across THE group systems, to manage records and to qualify marketing leads | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
| Using data including your marketing preferences and your interactions with our communications, to manage and deliver email marketing communications to you | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/customer experience) |
| Collecting lead data from quiz-based marketing | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
| To enter you into competitions or prize draws upon your request | Performance of Contract |
| To carry out market research or surveys about our products and services | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/customer experience) |
| For marketing and strategic development purposes | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/customer experience) |
| To market our products and services to you in conjunction with your position at an organisation | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/marketing) |
| To provide you direct marketing information related to our products and services | Consent |
| To enable third parties to contact you in relation to services offered in conjunction with us | Consent |
Business Purposes
When we use personal data in our business operations
| Process | Lawful Basis |
|---|---|
| To submit statutory company accounts and information required by Companies House, or equivalent, for legal and regulatory compliance | Legal Obligation |
| For other legal reasons, including anti-money laundering, fraud prevention, detection and reporting, audit or law enforcement | Legal Obligation |
| To screen flagged accounts for compliance with international sanctions regimes and to prevent business dealings with restricted entities | Legal Obligation |
| To support the preparation of board meetings and shareholder activities | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
| To analyse and create statistical reports based on the services we provide | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
| To respond to Data Subject Requests | Legal Obligation |
| To manage our supplier relationships | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
| To process and pay supplier invoices for goods and services | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
| To enable e-signing of agreements with organisations | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
| To manage bookings for visitors to our office | Legitimate Interests (safety and security) |
| Receiving information when you e-mail us directly | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests/providing a service to users) |
| If you are referred to in THE group messaging, work management or email platforms | Legitimate Interests (our commercial interests) |
3. THE's data processors
We also share your personal information with suppliers that we engage to provide services to us and/or support our offering to you (such as our hosting providers). These suppliers need to process your personal information on our behalf to provide such services. Where this is the case, we take great care to only appoint reliable third parties who can guarantee the security of your personal information and our business information. For example, we ask each such third party to complete an information security questionnaire to ensure their practices and procedures provide the level of security that we would expect (and is required under law) when processing personal information. Note that these third parties simply process personal information on behalf of THE and have no right to use, disclose or transfer your personal information in any other way. Please see below in relation to our policy for transfers of personal information outside the UK/EEA.
4. Third parties that we share your personal information with
Where you have provided us with consent, we will share your personal information with other third parties (who will also be data controllers in respect of the information that we share). To the extent you have any concerns about any third party's handling of your personal information you should get in touch with that institution.
5. Other circumstances where we use or share your personal information
In certain circumstances, we may be required by law to disclose your personal information to third parties such as government bodies, law enforcement agencies, and data protection regulators.
6. Data retention, data security and transfers of personal information outside of the United Kingdom/European Economic Area (EEA)
We take steps to protect your personal information from unauthorised access and against unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction and damage. We will only keep your personal information for as long as we reasonably require and, in any event, only for as long as Data Protection Legislation allows.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will take steps to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted via email and/or our website; any transmission is at your own risk.
The personal information that we collect from you will, where possible, be stored and processed within the UK/EEA. In certain circumstances, we may require third parties that are based outside of the UK/EEA to process, host or store your personal information.
In the event your personal information is transferred, stored or processed outside of the UK/EEA, we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation and that we have an appropriate transfer mechanism in place.
7. Your rights
The right to be informed - We will tell you what we are doing with your information.
The right of access - You can ask what personal information we process about you and why.
The right to rectification - If you think that our records on you are wrong, please let us know. We will correct any factually incorrect information.
The right to erasure - In some cases you can ask us to delete your information. Please note that there may be situations where we must retain your personal data after a request for erasure, where we have a lawful basis for doing so.
The right to restrict processing – You can ask us to stop using your information for certain purposes.
The right to data portability – In certain circumstances you can ask us for a copy of your information in a format that is machine-readable.
The right to object – Where our lawful basis is legitimate interests you can object to us processing your personal data.
The right to object to direct marketing – You can ask us to stop sending you marketing at any time.
Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling – In certain circumstances, you have some rights related to automated decision making. You can ask us to review any automated decision we have made.
You also have the right to make a complaint if you think we have not handled personal information responsibly and in line with good practice. See the next section, Complaints.
You can find out more about data subject rights from the ICO: .
If you want to exercise any of these rights, please contact us via the details set out below.
8. Complaints
Should you have any queries or complaints in relation to how we use your information, you have the right to make a complaint directly to us. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and will investigate it and tell you the outcome without undue delay. Please contact us via the details set out in the Legal and Contact Information section of this notice. If you remain dissatisfied with our response, or if we have not responded within 30 days of receiving your complaint, you then have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. Further information about how to make a complaint can be obtained at or by telephoning 0303 123 1113.
9. How to unsubscribe from any email alerts that you receive
If you have elected to receive information about our products or services or the products or services offered jointly with or on behalf of other organisations and/or "alerts" from us via email (for example, by creating an email alert for a job) and would like at any time to unsubscribe from this service, please email us at help@timeshighereducation.com or click on the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of an email.
10. Changes to our Privacy Policy
THE may amend this Privacy Policy at any time and where we make material changes to it we will provide notice on our website.
11. Legal and Contact Information
The registered office of THE World Universities Insights Limited is:
THE World Universities Insights Limited
98 Theobalds Road, London, WC1X 8WB
United Kingdom
Email: dpoTHE@timeshighereducation.com
We will use all reasonable efforts to answer any questions or resolve any concerns regarding your privacy promptly.
All comments, queries and requests relating to our use of your personal information are welcomed (including in relation to transfers of personal information outside the UK/EEA). If you would like to contact us, queries should be addressed to our data protection team at the above address or by email at dpoTHE@timeshighereducation.com.