Reminder: Upcoming Student Retention Deadline 2025

Data Updates
Reminder: Upcoming Student Retention Deadline 2025

This is a reminder to members with expired Student records in the Retention Tool to please delete these by 5PM on Friday 31st October 2025

Black and white portrait of Nicola Wheeler. — Nicola Wheeler, Member Engagement Consultant

Last month, we published a Data Update alerting members to the annual HEAT Student Retention Deadline, requesting any ‘expired’ Student records are removed from the database. Student records move into the database if they fulfil the criteria for expiration, as set out in the Data Retention Schedule in the section 12 of the HEAT Data Protection Policy. Please see our previous update for more information on the HEAT Retention Process.

Retention and Duplicate Cleaning Deadline

We have been in contact with members who have records that require deletion. This is a gentle reminder to those members with any expired Student records in the Retention Tool to please kindly delete these by 5PM on Friday 31st October 2025.

Important: We will email Legal Leads with records still in the Retention Tool after the last working day of October 2025 to inform them that their organisation is in breach of the HEAT Legal Agreement through non-compliance with GDPR.

Exporting records for review

You can choose to export Student records from the Retention Tool (members only) if you wish to review these records before deleting them. Those exported records can be saved locally in line with your own data compliance systems with regard to GDPR. Once exported, those records are no longer covered in any way by the Legal Agreement between HEAT and your organisation.

Retention and Collegiate members

If your organisation has any Collegiate sub-user groups, please make sure that you untick the ‘My Group Only’ checkbox (members only) to see any records relating to these groups when reviewing Student records in the Retention Tool.

Resources and Support

We will check the Retention Tool after the deadline has passed, and if there are still records that require deletion, we will be in touch with you and the Legal Point of Contact for your organisation.

More information and tips for using Retention Tool can be found by reading our Data Cleaning and Management User Guide on File Store (members only).

If you have any queries about deleting your Student records using the Retention Tool, please contact HEAT Support for assistance.

01 October 2025 Retention

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