About - Unifrog

About - Unifrog
On this page:
Join
Data & Terms
Security
Team
Values
History
Demo
Partners
Helping students
find their future
Our platform helps students aged 4 to 18 explore the worlds of work and education, make the best choices, and submit the strongest applications.
We empower teachers and counselors to deliver careers education and manage progression.
We partner with universities and employers to further support students. Parents can be involved too - they have their own Unifrog accounts!
What is Unifrog?
The
universal
destinations platform
How does my school or college join?
Contact us and we'll demonstrate the platform to you in person or on a video call - there's absolutely no obligation or charge for this.
If you decide to come on board we will help you plan how you will embed the platform throughout the academic year, and across multiple year groups. We will also train you and your colleagues, and sort out the (straightforward) logistics of getting you up and running. We are fully committed to helping you make the most out of Unifrog.
Data & Terms
Data & Terms
Single sign-on (SSO).
SSO allows students and teachers to login to Unifrog via their Google or Microsoft accounts, as well as by using their Unifrog usernames and passwords. It can make logging in much quicker! We do not charge for using our SSO integrations. For more info about setting up SSO,
see here
How to enable SSO at your school or college
The teacher who is the lead contact at your school or college (known as the 'Unifrog champion') needs to ask someone at Unifrog to switch it on.
You can see who the Unifrog champion is at
your school/college here
The best way for the teacher champion to contact us is by email, or by
sending us a message here
Technical admin at your institution giving permission
It is often the case that a user with admin permissions for your school / college's Google or Microsoft account needs to grant access for other users at your school / college to login to Unifrog with SSO.
You should find out by speaking to your technical team if this is the case at your institution.
If someone at your school / college tries to login with SSO before the admin has given permission, they'll see an interface like this:
Or this:
As you can see, these interfaces instruct you to send the admin at your school / college a request to grant permission. We cannot send this request to them for you.
What is a Hosted Domain (Google) and Tenant ID (Microsoft)?
These are IDs for your school's or college's Google or Microsoft account.
It is not necessary for SSO to work, but for an extra layer of security, we recommend that you supply us with your institution's Hosted Domain (Google) or Tenant ID (Microsoft).
If you do this, we will make it so that people with student or teacher accounts will only be able to use SSO with official email addresses for your institution. If they use a personal email address they will not be able to use SSO, but they will be able to use the normal username and password login method.
Where do you find your Hosted Domain / Tenant ID?
A member of your technical team will know what your Hosted Domain / Tenant ID is. Normally you will give us this information when we first switch on SSO for your school / college.
Microsoft IDs are a code, eg 'abf988bf-86f1-41af-91ab-2d7cd011db46', while Google Hosted Domains are website domains, eg 'school.com'.
What else is there to know about Hosted Domains / Tenant IDs?
On Unifrog a school can have up to two Hosted Domains; often one is used for student accounts, and another for teacher accounts.
Sometimes, but not always, all the schools / colleges within a single school or college group use the same Hosted Domains / Tenant IDs. Your technical team will know if this is the case for you.
You can choose to have us set up SSO without initially giving us your Hosted Domain or Tenant ID, and then we can add it later for you.
You can see whether you have a Tenant ID or Hosted Domain(s) added for you on your
Unifrog setup page
How do I know if my school / college has SSO switched on?
When SSO has been switched on, all teachers see a pop up on their teacher homepage telling them that SSO is now enabled. Teachers can also see their school / college SSO status
here
. And - of course - you'll be able to sign in using SSO!
Two-factor authentication
For SSO, two-factor authentication is managed by Google or Microsoft, not by Unifrog, and it tends to be enabled as standard. Separately, for Unifrog's own username and password system, teachers can have two-factor authentication applied. If you already have a Unifrog teacher account you can find our guide about Unifrog's two-factor authentication for the username and password login method
here
Creating new student and teacher accounts after SSO is switched on for your school / college
SSO does not change how new student and teacher accounts are created (this is still either by syncing with your MIS, or on Unifrog manually / by csv upload). However, when new student and teacher accounts are created after SSO is switched on for your school / college, these new students and teachers can choose to login to Unifrog using SSO without ever choosing a Unifrog password. They can pick a Unifrog password later if they wish, meaning they can also login using the username and password method.
Parent accounts and SSO
On Unifrog, parents can have their own dedicated sort of account which lets them: explore the platform like their child can, see opportunities particularly relevant for their child, and join live events for parents -
see more here
To create a parent account:
First
the parent's email address has to be added in the 'Parent / Caregiver email address' field on their child's Unifrog profile by the school
Next
the parent opens their own account
on this page
Regarding parents and SSO:
Parents can use SSO as well as the username and password method.
Parent accounts are not tied to particular schools. So if a parent signs in using SSO, the Microsoft Tenant ID or Google Hosted Domain of their child's school is not relevant.
Problems logging in
If you're a teacher, you can check if your school / college has SSO enabled
here
If a student or teacher is having trouble logging in via SSO, it might be because their Google or Microsoft username is not the same as the one that exists on Unifrog. After you've updated the usernames on Unifrog, they should be able to login fine. Find guides on managing student accounts
here
, and guides on managing teacher accounts
here
What sorts of devices work with SSO?
SSO works on any device where the user can sign into the Google or Microsoft account that's associated with their Unifrog username.
So, if at your school/college people can only sign into their Google or Microsoft account using a school or college device, you won't be able to use SSO on personal devices. However you'll still be able to sign in via the username and password method (and you can reset your password if you can't remember it, or haven't chosen one yet!)
My school / college is part of group. Can we have SSO switched on in bulk?
Yes you can. You need to ask your Unifrog contact to do this for you. Your Unifrog contact will need to know if you use Google or Microsoft, and what your Hosted Domain(s) / Tenant ID is (including whether this is the same for each member of the group).
Do we need to register Unifrog as an app in Microsoft Azure?
No, you don't need to register Unifrog as an app in your Microsoft Azure environment.
Unifrog is a centrally hosted platform, and we manage the Microsoft SSO integration on your behalf. That means all technical setup is already handled. There's no need for your IT team to configure anything in Azure.
Some other platforms require each school or college to register their own app because they offer self-hosted or on-premise setups. Unifrog does not support self-hosting, so this step is not necessary.
If you want to restrict Microsoft SSO access to users in a specific Tenant, we can apply that restriction for you. Just provide us with your Tenant ID.
Our integration with Wonde.
With our Wonde integration live, student and teacher accounts are created from the information in your MIS. All the necessary permissions are covered in our normal terms. For more info on how the integration works, including the data we request via the integration,
see here
How the Wonde integration works
>>> If you have a Unifrog teacher account, find a full guide (including videos) on how to use our integration with Wonde
here
<<<
THE BASICS ABOUT WONDE
With the Wonde integration live:
Student and teacher accounts on Unifrog can be created using the information in your MIS
The information on student and teacher accounts is kept in sync with your MIS – meaning when something changes on your MIS, it can be quickly updated in Unifrog.
The information flows from your MIS to Wonde, and then into Unifrog. There is no way for information to flow back from Unifrog to your MIS.
IS USING WONDE COVERED BY UNIFROG'S TERMS?
Yes. Unifrog's existing
covers all the data that is held on Unifrog (whether it comes through Wonde or not), and what it is used for. At the bottom of this guide you can see all the data fields included in the integration, and what they are used for.
GETTING STARTED
To use Wonde, you first need to have it installed in your MIS. Check with your IT team if this is already the case at your school/college. If it isn't, you'll need to arrange the installation with Wonde, separate to us.
After you have decided that you'd like to use the integration, the Unifrog team needs to have your school / college added to our Wonde dashboard. If you'd like this to happen - please contact us! We charge a small annual admin fee.
REQUIRED VS OPTIONAL DATA FIELDS
The way Wonde works is that we must request the same set of data for
every school / college
. Individual schools can choose not to provide data fields that we mark as ‘Optional’.
Schools store on their MIS the core information we absolutely need in order for Unifrog to function (eg the name of form groups, and the email address of form tutors) in different ways, so for all schools we have to request as required all of the fields that any school uses for the core set of information that we need.
We only mark as ‘Required’ the data fields that are necessary for Unifrog to function at a school. Where we don’t absolutely need information in order for Unifrog to work, we mark the data field as ‘Optional’.
The data fields marked as ‘Optional’ allow schools and students to have more functionality on Unifrog – for example:
Allowing schools to analyse how students with different characteristics use Unifrog, and what sort of destinations they end up in after leaving your school.
Allowing Unifrog to flag to students special opportunities like work experience and scholarships that are particular to students with their characteristics.
You can see full detail on all the data we collect on users and why we collect it, in our
Privacy Policy here
PREPARING FOR YOUR FIRST SYNC
To prepare for your first sync, on your school’s/college’s Wonde dashboard your IT team can toggle the optional fields on or off at the point at which it receives the invitation to include Unifrog in the Wonde integration.
You can change your mind about the optional fields at any point. Below we explain which fields are included in Wonde, which ones are optional, and what all the fields are used for on Unifrog.
ALL THE DATA WE REQUEST
Employees
Allows us to create teacher accounts.
We need all teaching staff, and not only staff marked as ‘teaching staff’, because sometimes non-teaching staff need access to the platform (for example they might be an adviser but not a teacher), and because sometimes schools mistakenly mark teaching staff as not teaching staff.
We only sync staff that should have access to Unifrog – and on the Wonde interface
on Unifrog
you have full visibility of who that is.
Employees upi
Required
Unique wonde identifier
Employees title
Required
E.g. ‘Ms’
Employees initials
Required
E.g. ‘KA’
Employees surname
Required
E.g. ‘Anderson’
Employees forename
Required
E.g. ‘Kim’
Employees legal surname
Optional
E.g. ‘Anderson’
Employees legal forename
Optional
E.g. ‘Kim’
Employees email
Required
E.g. ‘kim@gmail.com’
Employees teaching staff
Required
Is the employee a teacher
Employees current
Required
Is the employee currently employed
Employees role text
Required
The employee’s role, e.g. ‘Teacher’
Classes, Subjects and Groups
Allows us to create Forms (note that you still need to create and update subject Classes directly on Unifrog or via csv upload).
Classes name
Required
E.g. ‘10A’. Commonly used for form names
Classes description
Required
E.g. ‘10A’. Sometimes used for form names
Classes subject
Required
E.g. ‘Art’
Classes code
Required
E.g. ‘Ar’. Commonly used as an internal code for a class name
Subjects name
Required
E.g. ‘Art’
Subjects code
Required
E.g. ‘Ar’.  Commonly used as an internal code for a class name
Subjects active
Required
Shows if the class is active.
Groups name
Required
E.g. ‘10A’. Commonly used for form names
Groups code
Required
E.g. ‘10A’. Sometimes used for form name
Groups type
Required
Sometimes defines if it’s a form name or a class name
Groups description
Required
Sometimes defines if it’s a form name or a class name
Groups notes
Required
Sometimes defines if it’s a form name or a class name
Students
Allows us to create student accounts, add students’ characteristics, and assign students to the correct forms, form teachers, and counselors.
Students upi
Required
Unique Wonde identifier
Students initials
Required
E.g. ‘GS’
Students surname
Required
E.g. ‘Smith’
Students forename
Required
E.g. ‘George’
Students middle names
Required
E.g. ‘Michael’
Students legal surname
Optional
E.g. ‘Smith’.
Students legal forename
Optional
E.g. ‘Michael’
Students gender
Optional
E.g. ‘Male’
Students date of birth
Optional
Allows Unifrog to suggest opportunities to the students specific to their age. Affects how some parts of Unifrog work for students – for example, the Placements tool can work differently for students who are 18+.
Students email
Required
E.g. ‘student@schoolname.com’
Students postcode
Optional
A student’s postcode is used to show them their distance from different opportunities (e.g. university courses and apprenticeships), as well as to flag special opportunities to them that are relevant to where they live.
Students current nc year
Required
Used for year group / grade.
Students leaving date
Required
Shows if a student is now an alumnus.
Students SEN
Optional
Allows schools to analyse how Unifrog is used by different sorts of students. Allows Unifrog to suggest opportunities to students specific to their characteristics, for example scholarships and work experience.
Students premium pupil indicator
Optional
Students service children
Optional
Students ever in care
Optional
Students premium pupil eligible
Optional
Students ethnicity
Optional
Students English as additional language
Optional
Students ethnicity code
Optional
Students nationality
Optional
Students English as additional language status
Optional
Students UPN
Optional
Allows schools to more easily upload data from Unifrog into other systems, for example into the school’s MIS, and to Compass+.
Students user defined fields
Optional
Used for various purposes, for example it can be where a school stores information on students’ forms, form teachers, or counselors.
WONDE AND STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS
We can potentially bring through these student characteristics via Wonde:
Care (are they a Looked After Child)
Service (is one of their parents in the armed services)
EAL (do they speak English as an Additional Language)
PP (are they Pupil Premium)
SEN (do they have Special Educational Needs or Difficulties)
Ethnicity
Nationality (what passports they have)
All the characteristics are optional fields. If they
are
brought through via the integration, any data entered in a category for a student will be synced (i.e. updated/overwritten) with Wonde data each time the student is synced.
None of the other characteristics that can be added for a student in Unifrog (eg if they are a Persistent Absentee) are affected by Wonde at all.
THE MISs THAT WONDE SUPPORTS
Here are the MISs that Wonde supports. At the moment we do not support integration with any others, and do not have a timeline on when this will change.
Arbor
Bromcom
Databridge
Engage
ET-AIMS
Facility
Integris
iSAMS
Cloud School
PupilAsset
ScholarPack REST
SIMS
SIMS Primary
Teacher Centre
WCBS
WCBS Hub
SchoolBase
SchoolPod
XP Trust
Compass UK
Engage API
Synergetic
TASS
SchoolPro
SchoolEdge/SAS2000
FACTS (PCSchool)
Civica - CES (SIF)
Sentral
Sentral LISS
NSW 3PI (SIF)
Classe 365
Educonnex
Edumate
Edumate API
Civica - MAZE
DayMap
ICON (SIF)
SIMON
Xuno
Zunia
Edval
Timetabling Solutions
EDSAS
VSware
Aladdin
Kamar
LINC Tech/Hero
MUSAC/Edge API
Ed-admin
ADAM
Edupac
Veracross
Where does Unifrog's data come from?
Lots of places. This includes UCAS, the National Apprenticeships Service, The National Careers Service, Unistats, HESA, The Guardian, HEPI, the Cabinet Office, the Office for National Statistics, the Commission for Employment and Skills, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, Ofsted, every UK university, UK university alumni, FutureLearn, Coursera, Udacity, every college at Oxford and Cambridge, and QS. We keep all our data bang up to date - for example, apprenticeships vacancies are updated every night.
Lost data.
We keep complete version histories of students' essays and teachers' references and letters of recommendation. If you delete students by accident we can get them back again in full as long as you alert us within a month. If you delete students by accident and then alert us after a month, the data we can restore about them might not be complete, and we will charge you for the cost of the data recovery.
Website terms.
You can read our
website terms here
Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA).
We have prepared a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) that is an adaptation of the template produced by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Read it
here
Privacy policy.
We are committed to processing, storing and using personal data fairly and lawfully in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018. Unifrog is registered with the Information Commissioner. Read our
Privacy Policy here
Student Privacy Notice.
In line with the Children's Code, when they access the platform we show students a version of our Privacy Policy designed to make it easier for them to understand how we process their data. Read it
here
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018.
We take great care for our work to be fully compliant with the GDPR. Here are our answers to some common
GDPR related questions
GDPR FAQs
Unifrog takes its data protection responsibilities seriously. In relation to the Unifrog Website, both we and our partner institutions are treated as
data controllers
under the GDPR (now incorporated into UK law and known as "the UK GDPR". When we refer to the GDPR in these FAQs, we mean the UK GDPR).
Everything is covered in our
Service terms
and
, but we’ve set out answers to the most common queries we receive from partner institutions relating to data protection below.
a. Where is our contract with Unifrog?
Our
Service terms
govern our relationship with partner schools and colleges.
These Service terms also refer to:
our
, which sets out how we process personal information; and
our
Website terms
, which sets out the rules that apply when using the Unifrog Website.
b. Don't we need a signed Data Processing Agreement (DPA) to give personal data to you?
No. As detailed in section 15.2 of our
Service terms
, both Unifrog and the partner institution are acting as data controllers in respect of the relevant personal data, meaning that a Data Processing Agreement is not appropriate. (Please see
Why is Unifrog treated as a controller and not a processor?
below).
c. Why is Unifrog treated as a controller and not a processor?
We (Unifrog) act as a controller in relation to student, teacher and other staff data which we process (or use) in connection with the Unifrog Website because we determine how and why we process that data, rather than simply processing it as directed by our partner institutions. This is in line with the definition of controller in the GDPR.
For example, we decide what personal data to collect, the purpose and lawful basis for collecting and using that data, and how long to keep it. We make these decisions independently, without taking instructions from our partner institutions. This is necessary so that we can operate the Unifrog Website effectively. Being a controller also means we have a higher level of compliance responsibility under the GDPR.
d. Are Unifrog and the partner institution “joint controllers”?
No. Not all controllers are “joint controllers” (within the meaning of the GDPR), even if they work with other controllers to determine how and why certain data should be processed. Joint controllers work together to “
jointly
decide the purpose and manner of processing”. Other types of controllers
independently
decide the purpose and manner of processing, even when sharing data, and often use the data for different purposes. This is an important distinction since the GDPR only requires agreements between
joint
controllers (and between controllers and processors).
Unifrog and the institution are acting as
independent
controllers rather than
joint
controllers. In brief, this is because Unifrog determines what data it collects from students and teachers
on its own
, rather than in collaboration with any particular institution. Unifrog has also independently designed the Unifrog Website, and the processing involved as part of its operation.
e. We're a partner institution located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or a third country with the benefit of a UK adequacy regulation. Do you have a copy of our signed Data Sharing Agreement (DSA)?
Section 15 of our
Service terms
sets out the data sharing agreement that we have in place with our partner institutions in the EEA and other countries where the UK government is satisfied that there is an adequate level of data protection without the need for implementing additional safeguards (known in the UK as an adequacy regulation). Each institution agrees to these Terms of Service digitally during our onboarding process.
f. Aren’t we required by the GDPR to have a signed Data Sharing Agreement (DSA)?
No. In fact, there is no requirement under the GDPR to put in place any data sharing agreement in these circumstances (please see
Are Unifrog and the partner institution “joint controllers”
above). However, we cover data sharing in our
Service terms
in order to protect the data that we, and the partner institution, process. Since we ask each institution to agree to our
Service terms
as part of our onboarding process, there is no need for a separate signed copy. We can however send you a PDF of our
Service terms
for your records.
g. We're a partner institution in a country outside the EEA without the benefit of an UK adequacy regulation. Do we need to sign a DSA?
Yes. The GDPR prohibits the transfer of personal data to such countries unless appropriate safeguards are implemented to bring the level of protection to that required under UK law. With that in mind, the DSA incorporates Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs). The
DSA
also includes a data transfer impact assessment, which is required where SCCs are used, to legitimise restricted cross-border transfers.
You will agree to the DSA at the same time as you agree to our other terms, during the onboarding process at the beginning of your school’s Unifrog subscription.
h. We're a partner institution located in the European Economic Area (EEA). Do we need to enter into Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) or adopt other safeguards for our transfers of personal data to Unifrog?
No. The European Commission has adopted an adequacy decision for the UK under the GDPR. This means transfers of personal data from the EEA to the UK can continue without the need for further safeguards, such as SCCs. Data transfers from the UK to the EEA can also continue to flow freely, since the UK recognises EEA member states as providing an adequate level of protection of personal data.
i. What personal data is processed by, and shared between, Unifrog and the partner institution?
Clause 15.2 of our
Service terms
sets out the types of data that we and our partner institutions process and share with each other in relation to the Unifrog platform, and the categories of data subjects.
Our
, including the sections headed “
INFORMATION WE COLLECT (INCLUDING WHEN AND HOW WE COLLECT IT)
” and “
SHARING / ENABLING OTHERS TO PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION
”, provides full details of our processing.
j. When processing special category data, what GDPR conditions do Unifrog and the partner institution rely on?
Clause 15.8 of our
Service terms
states that Unifrog and the partner institution rely on either the substantial public interest condition or the statistical purposes condition, when processing data concerning health, ethnicity, "SEN" and "looked after" status. The substantial public interest is the equality of opportunity or treatment. We have put appropriate safeguards in place to protect special category data.
k. What security measures does Unifrog have in place to protect personal data?
We make sure we comply with the GDPR’s “security principle” when we process personal data. We use security measures that (a) ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our systems, and the data we process within them; and (b) enable us to restore access to data quickly in the event of any incidents. Further details about our security measures can be found
here
l. Do we need to alter our own privacy policy to explicitly name Unifrog as a third party with which we share data?
Yes. And this is the case whether you choose to upload students and teachers onto the Unifrog platform, or choose to have students sign up to the platform using a unique code.
m. Do students give their consent for Unifrog to process their data?
No. Because of the type of data we collect, the purposes for which we collect it and the processing we carry out in operating the Unifrog website, we are not required to obtain consent from students to collect, store and use their data. Instead, we rely on other lawful bases under the GDPR for processing, including pursuing our (or the institution’s) legitimate interests and the need to process it to perform our contract with the institution.
However, we do ask students to acknowledge that they have read and understood our
, which sets out all of our processing activities.
n. Do students have to give consent for our teachers and staff to see their Personal statements, CVs, Activities etc.?
No, for the same reasons set out above; please see “
Do students give their consent for Unifrog to process their data?
”.
Our
describes in detail all types of student personal data (including personal statements, CVs, activities, etc.) which will be shared with, and accessed by, teachers and others.
o. Do we have to delete students’ or teachers’ data obtained in connection with the Unifrog Website when they leave our school/college?
The general principle under the GDPR is that you and we should only keep this personal data for as long we each need it.
In respect of the student and teacher data that you hold and process, there is no specified retention period, and no express requirement to delete data after the individual has left the institution. However, you will need to comply with your own data retention policy, and the general principle above. Please also see
“What do we do if a student or teacher asks us to delete their data in connection with the Unifrog Website?”
In respect of the student data that we hold and process, for schools using our standard settings, we keep this for 4 years after the student had graduated high school / sixth form (increased to 6 years for 2022 leavers and later), after which we delete it and retain only alumnus information, such as students' destinations. For schools not using our standard setting, we delete student information after 12 years. We keep users' information and their accounts live for this period so that they can continue to access useful information, such as personal statements and CVs after they have left the relevant institution.
In respect of the teacher data that we hold and process, you can choose to delete this from the platform in accordance with your own data retention policy, and the general principle above. Deletion is possible 4 years after the last student the teacher has written important material for (eg university recommendation letters) has graduated high school / sixth form (increased to 6 years for 2022 leavers and later).
p. If we delete students’ or teachers’ accounts from the Unifrog Website (for example, after they have left the school), does Unifrog retain a copy of their data within those accounts?
When a
teacher
account is deleted, it is instantly removed from the live database.
When a
student
account is deleted, there is at 180-day holding period in case it was deleted in error. After 180 days, the data is deleted from the live database.
In each case, after account deletion, both student and teacher data remains in our monthly database backups for a further 365 days. These database backups are not easily accessed, and are only retained for disaster-recovery purposes.
q. What do we do if a student or teacher asks us to delete their data in connection with the Unifrog Website?
Typically student and teacher data is deleted by the relevant school or college rather than by us, however - depending on the circumstances - we may need to delete the relevant data. We will generally notify you if a request is made to us. Before deleting a user's data we will normally ask the user to prove their identity.
r. What happens if a student asks Unifrog to access his or her personal information (known as a ‘subject access request’)?
We will acknowledge receipt of the request and, if necessary, request proof of ID (e.g. a copy of their passport). After obtaining proof of ID, we will normally disclose to the student all personal information that relates to him- or herself (including everything that teachers have written or uploaded about that student on the Unifrog Website,
but not references
). For more information, please see “
If a Student makes a subject access request to Unifrog, will he or she be given access to all relevant predicted grades, and interactions, etc. recorded by teachers and other staff on the Unifrog Website?
” below.
We will normally try to notify the partner institution if we receive a subject access request from one of its students, but we cannot do so in all cases.
s. If a Student makes a subject access request to Unifrog, will he or she be given access to all relevant predicted grades, and interactions, etc. recorded by teachers and other staff on the Unifrog Website?
Broadly speaking, yes. This will be the case whether teachers record this information in Microsoft Word or Excel, SIMS or on paper before they upload it, and even if a partner institution has chosen not to permit students to access their predicted grades on the website.
As explained above (see
What happens if a student asks Unifrog to access his or her personal information (known as a ‘subject access request’)?)
we will normally disclose all data relating to the student in question, with the exception of references given by teachers and others. This includes everything (other than references) that teachers have written or uploaded about them on the Unifrog Website (including predicted grades, interactions and any other comments or opinions). As such, teachers should not write or submit anything that they would not want a student to see.
It is our policy not to disclose references about students given by their teachers or others.
t. What happens if a parent requests access to their child's data?
We will acknowledge to the parent receipt of the request, and we will refer the parent to the child's school or college. The school or college should then review the request, taking into account its own obligations under data protection law, as well as any safeguarding issues. Under the UK GDPR and the GDPR where a child is competent to exercise their rights over their personal data, such as the right to access their data, a parent has no right to access it.
u. Should students be granted access to the “teacher-only” side of the Unifrog Website to access data that relates to them, if requested?
No. The “teacher-only” sections of the Unifrog Website include personal information relating to other students and teachers, some of which may be sensitive. As such, we do not permit students to access these sections in any circumstances.
Instead, we deal with requests from student to access their personal data on a case-by-case basis. Please see
What happens if a student asks Unifrog to access his or her personal information (known as a ‘subject access request’)?
v. We would like to keep in touch with students after they leave our school. Do we need consent to do this, and can Unifrog help?
Yes, you do, and yes, we can! When students complete their registration and log in to the Unifrog Website for the first time, they will be presented with an optional tick-box requesting consent to allow us to share certain basic contact details with their school/college so that it can keep in touch with them after they have left. We clearly identify the types of information that Unifrog will share with the school/college for these purposes, so that the student can give informed consent.
This is explained in further detail in the section “
SHARING / ENABLING OTHERS TO PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION
” in our
Please remember, if you decide to send emails to students after they have left your school/college, you need to ensure there is an ‘unsubscribe’ option in each email you send, in order to comply with the rules on direct marketing. Also, you should tell us if any students change their mind about being contacted for alumni purposes (i.e. if they “opt-out”).
w. Will Unifrog share information with us about our students’ further education or employment after they have left our school? Does Unifrog need consent to do this?
We may give our partner institutions details about where their students go to university or where they start work, so that the institutions can see how their students progress after they have left.
There is no requirement to obtain consent for this. Instead, we rely on the lawful basis of “legitimate interests”. Specifically, we share this information to enable the institution to pursue its legitimate interests in analysing how its students progress after they have left the institution. This is set out in the section headed “
HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION AND OUR LEGAL BASIS FOR DOING SO
” in our
x. We note that Unifrog uses certain service providers to operate the Unifrog Website and shares personal data with them. Which companies are these?
We describe our service providers by category (e.g. survey providers) as we may change them from time to time. We select these providers carefully and we only share personal data with them to the extent necessary to operate the Unifrog Website. We also give very specific instructions to them about how they must handle this data, and ensure that they take security measures to protect it in line with our policies. For example, we use:
survey providers, e.g. SurveyMonkey;
newsletter sending services, e.g. Campaign Monitor; and
servers, e.g. Amazon Web Servers.
y. Do we need to get consent from our teachers and other staff to give their data to Unifrog to create their accounts?
No. As with students’ personal data, since we are only collecting and processing certain types of personal data relating to teachers, we are not required to obtain their consent.
We rely on other lawful bases under the GDPR for processing, including pursuing our (or the partner institution’s) legitimate interests, and the need to process this data to perform our contract with the partner institution.
z. What about parent accounts?
On Unifrog, as well as accounts for students and teachers, there are parent accounts. Here's how parent accounts are created:
First
: A parent has to have their email address added by the school/college to their child’s Unifrog profile, in the dedicated fields for these;
Then
: a parent can create their account either by using SSO on the normal Sign in page, or by using their email address
on this page
The school/college must:
Only add the details of parents who have parental responsibility for students;
Remove the link between a student's account and their parent's account on Unifrog after receiving notice that the relevant parent has ceased to have parental responsibility for the student;
Remove the link between a student's account and their parent's account on Unifrog if that student asks the school/college to do so; and
Not add to Unifrog or otherwise share with Unifrog any personal data about a student which creates a safeguarding risk or is otherwise capable of causing mental or physical harm to any student.
aa. On what basis can schools/colleges add parent email addresses to Unifrog?
The school/college can rely on legitimate interests to add parent email addresses to Unifrog; they do not need to get parents' consent beforehand. This is because the school/college and Unifrog have a legitimate interest in inviting parents to create their own Unifrog accounts, so that parents can view more information about their child's activities and opportunities on Unifrog, helping parents to support their children in relation to their decisions about careers, apprenticeships and higher education, improving outcomes for children. Parents can ask for their email addresses to be removed at any time, which is explained in our privacy policy. Unifrog has conducted a legitimate interest assessment as required by the GDPR;
read it here
ab. How should we send the teacher and student data to Unifrog?
Send teacher and student data to us in a password protected format with the password sent via a separate channel of communication. For example if you email us a password protected file, give us the password over the phone.
ac. I want to know more about users' rights regarding their data!
No problem! You’ll find everything you need in our
ad. Can I see the data processing agreement you have with the Common App?
Yes, you can
download it here
. The Common App is an optional licence that schools can choose to switch on, which facilitates students making applications to universities in the USA. Students agree to the Common App's terms when they create their Common App account individually. You can see if your school has the Common App licence switched on here in
the Unifrog setup page
. You can read about our Common App integration
in our guide here
Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China (PIPL)
We prioritize the privacy and security of personal information in compliance with the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) of the People's Republic of China. Our
incorporates the requirements of PIPL, and as part of this users in China individually consent to Unifrog processing their information, and the manner in which we process it.
Service terms.
You can read our
Service terms here
Data Sharing Agreement and Data Transfer Impact Assessment.
Only
if a school is not in the EEA, the UK, or in Guernsey, Israel, Jersey or New Zealand: in addition to our normal terms we have in place
this Data Sharing Agreement (DSA)
, which includes a Data Transfer Impact Assessment (DTIA).
How secure is my customer information?
We use the Salesforce CRM platform to record customer information, like your subscription term, school type and contact details. Read about Salesforce's
data security policy here
How secure is the platform?
Very. Below is more information.
Security
We take data security very seriously
Only UK and EU data centres
Student data and backups are only stored and processed in UK and Ireland data centres. All data is stored in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018. Our ICO registration reference is Z357522X. For users applying to universities in the USA, Canada and Europe via our partners Parchment and the Common App, we send data to the country of the institution a student is applying to via the USA.
Multiple firewalls
Servers sit behind multiple firewalls within a VPC which is only accessible via a VPN; only ports 80 and 443 are publicly accessible. The database server is not accessible outside the VPC.
Encryption
Student data and backups are encrypted at rest and in transit using 256-bit SSL/TLS.1.2 encryption. You can check our supported
protocols and ciphers here
. Sensitive data such as passwords are hashed and salted.
Layered access security
Administrators have limited access to student data, and only when strictly necessary. We use user-type appropriate password rules regarding password length, complexity, age, number of allowed failed logins per day, re-use of old passwords, and 2-step authentication.
Secure servers
Our servers and technology infrastructures are provided by Amazon Web Services. Only our lead developers and our Managing Director have access to this environment. Servers are automatically updated as soon as security patches are released.
Database backups
Backups are made daily, and retained in reducing granularity for a minimum of 3 months. Point-in-time recovery is also available up to 5 minutes behind current time. Backups are held in multiple geographical locations.
File backups
Files uploaded to our Locker tool are not deleted until 180 days after a student has been removed from the Unifrog platform. Our storage gives files 99.999999999% durability, and we store in multiple regions.
Server backups
Snapshots are taken at 1 hour intervals, are retained in reducing granularity for a minimum of 3 months, and are held in multiple geographical locations.
Vulnerability assessments
Penetration Testing is performed regularly, both manually and automatically by our developers. Realtime protection is provided by Amazon Web Services and other third-party providers.
Lost data
We keep complete version histories of our application creation tools like our Common App Essay, personal statement and Teacher Reference tools. If users delete student accounts by accident, we can bring the student accounts back again as long as we are alerted within one month.
CSP, Clickjacking and XSS
The platform uses a strong Content Security Policy (CSP) to help prevent Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), clickjacking and other attacks resulting from code injection. We recommend using a modern, up to date browser that supports the latest CSP specifications.
We use 'strictly necessary' cookies that contain no tracking or personally identifiable information to enable the even load balancing of our servers. We only use cookies to enable users to remain logged into their account. When users sign in for the first time they agree to our terms, which explains in detail what cookies we use.
Who's behind the frog?
Here's our senior team
Daniel Keller, CEO
Daniel joined Unifrog in 2015 and has played a pivotal role in our growth and success. He firmly believes that Unifrog can revolutionise careers and university guidance around the world and is on a mission to make that a reality. Previously he worked in the business development team at the Open University in the UK, and coached skiing and climbing in Switzerland.
Daniel's love of outdoor sports has taken him everywhere from Canada to China, and has included first ascents of 5,000m peaks in Kyrgyzstan. His next major objective is in the Fitz Roy massif in Patagonia.
Stuart Valentine, Technical Development Lead
Stuart is Managing Director of
SAV
, the software company that developed the Unifrog platform. In 2012 Stuart and the team at SAV helped Alex and Coralie turn their initial ideas for Unifrog into the first working version of the platform.  Since then SAV and Unifrog have continued to work together to develop the Unifrog platform to its current scale.
When not leading the technical development team at SAV, Stuart is a keen swimmer.  He lives in London with his husband and young son.
Stuart studied PPE at Oxford University and founded SAV in 2002.
Coralie Colmez, Co-Founder
Coralie is the author of YA novel with maths
The Irrational Diary of Clara Valentine
, and the co-author (with her mother, mathematician Leila Schneps) of popular maths book
Math on Trial.
Coralie began her career as a research assistant on Carol Vorderman's task force, commissioned by the UK government to study the state of mathematics education in the United Kingdom.
Coralie read mathematics at Cambridge University under a Cambridge European Trust scholarship, graduating with a first-class degree and winning the Ryan Prize in Higher Mathematics.
Alex Kelly, Co-Founder
Previously Alex founded and led the charity The Access Project, which matches high-flying graduates with students from disadvantaged areas for weekly academic tutorials. These sessions help the students achieve better grades and progress to top universities. Each week the charity delivers just under 1,000 hours of free tutorials.
Alex worked as a researcher for the UK’s then shadow Secretary of State for Education, focusing on initial teacher training, and what international school systems can teach the UK.
Alex’s first job was teaching English at Highbury Grove School in London. During his five years in the classroom, he developed what seems to have become a lifelong love for working in the sector.
Alex studied English at Oxford University.
Our values
These are the principles
we work by
We put having a positive social impact before anything else.
We will never stop trying to improve our service or our platform.
We hugely value our customers, and respond to their input.
How we work
The Unifrog Way of Working
Our mission is to level the playing field when it comes to young people finding the best opportunities for them; we put having a positive social impact before anything else.
Within the company we try to foster a culture of innovation, and a happy working environment, both because this is the right thing to do, and because we think this results in the most effective team. To this end we believe in open communication, celebrating successes, supporting each other, not being afraid to be wrong or to fail, and promoting good ideas wherever they come from. We also believe in the power of diversity in all its forms, including in terms of culture, religion, age, socio-economic background, race, gender, sexual orientation, personality, life experiences and disability.
We are dedicated to continually improving our platform and how we deliver our services. We hugely value our customers, and respond to their input. When you interact with us, you will find us to be prompt, polite, straightforward and positive. Anything less would not be the Unifrog way of working!
WHERE WE'VE COME FROM
And where we're going
It started with some smart students
When he was an English teacher at Highbury Grove School in London, Alex was inspired by an exciting group of students to start The Access Project, a charity that helps disadvantaged kids get into prestigious universities.
The Access Project's main focus was organising free one-to-one tuition, but it soon became clear that the students also struggled with making the best choices on which universities to apply to.
Talking it over while on their honeymoon, Alex and Coralie realised that there was already a wealth of data available to students to make these choices, but nowhere that actually helped them navigate all the information. This was the beginning of Unifrog! After getting back from honeymoon, Alex left The Access Project (which is still going strong) to focus full time on Unifrog with Coralie.
Common mistakes
The first challenge Alex and Coralie took on was how to help students make smart choices when it comes to picking the 5 UK universities to put on their UCAS forms.
There were a few issues in particular they wanted Unifrog to support students with - like encouraging students to choose courses offering a range of entry requirements, think more widely about what subjects might be appropriate for them, and to take into account data that was newly available at the time, like results from the UK's National Student Survey.
From the very start, Alex and Coralie realised that the best vehicle through which to engage students is their school - this way you can partner with teachers and counselors to access even the hardest to reach students. Also, rather than allowing algorithms or advertising to have any influence, they always knew they wanted to present information clearly and impartially, and put the power for decision making in the hands of students and teachers.
Building a team isn't easy
The challenge that Alex and Coralie found hardest was building the right team. However, one constant strength is that from the beginning Unifrog's programming has been led by Stu, who has been a crucial and inspiring creative force behind the development of the platform.
These days, the Unifrog team is a wonderful thing, where everyone shares deep commitment to our mission, belief in innovation, and integrity. We are very picky hirers because we want all new people to match the standards of the existing team!
Staying close to teachers and students
Unifrog came about through an effort to fix a problem that Alex and Coralie perceived first hand, and we have always been clear that as the platform develops we want to solve real problems experienced by students and teachers.
How do we ensure this is the case? By staying very close to our users. We encourage students and teachers to give us feedback, and when we get it, we act on it. Many of our ideas for both product development and service delivery have come from our users.
We've taken this to the ultimate degree by hiring into the Unifrog team both teachers and students who were Unifrog users! We think of ourselves as an education company that works with technology, not a technology company that works in education.
One-stop-shop
The platform has now grown to encompass apprenticeships and Further Education colleges in the UK, as well as US and Canadian universities, and degrees taught in English in Europe, Asia, and Australasia.
In parallel, we have expanded our functionality to help both students and their counselors with the whole application process - from deciding on a subject area and writing application essays or teacher recommendations, to building an application and sending it.
Throughout our growth, our aim has stayed the same: to bring all the available information into a single, impartial, user-friendly platform that helps students to make the best choices, and submit the strongest applications.
Our goal is to create a one-stop-shop for finding and applying for any opportunity taught in English, anywhere in the world. Join us!
Partnering with universities and employers
After seven years of working just with high schools, we started to partner with universities and employers to make the best use of their insight and expertise, and to help directly connect students with the opportunities they offer.
A key element of these partnerships is the events we collaborate on. We started running interactive, online events during the covid lockdowns, ranging from international university fairs to skills and employability workshops.
We've now greatly expanded the work we do with our university and employer partners - this ranges from co-creating content like online university taster courses and virtual work experience, to live dashboards that give universities and employers insight into what students care about.
Want to learn more? See our
universities page here
, and our
employers page here
WANT THE FULL STORY?
Where Unifrog came from and where it's going.
For the full story,
read the interview with Unifrog co-founders Alex and Coralie here
We're building the universal destinations platform, together.
We want to level the playing field when it comes to students finding and applying successfully for the best opportunities for them. We're building a platform that can enable this to happen by working closely with our community of students and teachers. Join us!
I want a demo
Partner organisations
Here are some of the professional organisations in our sector with whom we have partnered.
Help us build something
fantastic
We are building the one-stop-shop for destinations, together. Request a demo and we'll get back to you right away to arrange a time.
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