Legal

PLEASE READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING OUR WEBSITE

These terms of use (the “terms”) govern the users (“you”, “your”, “users”) use of our website www.phes.ac.uk (the “website”).

Who we are and how to contact us

This website is operated by Professional HE Services Ltd (“we”, “us”, “our”, “PHES”). We are a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and are registered in England under company number 08080702. Our registered office and main trading address is at Professional HE Services Ltd, Charnwood Building, Holywell Park, Ashby Road, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, LE11 3AQ.

PHES is an umbrella company for membership organisations in Higher Education. There are currently seven sector organisations under the PHES ‘umbrella’: the Association of University Directors of Estates (“AUDE”), the Association of University Legal Practitioners (“AULP”), the British Universities Finance Directors Group (“BUFDG”), the Council for Higher Education Internal Auditors (“CHEIA”), the College and University Business Officers (“CUBO”), the Higher Education Strategic Planners Association (“HESPA”) and Universities Human Resources (“UHR”). BUFDG also includes the Higher Education Procurement Association (“HEPA”).

To contact PHES, please email info@phes.ac.uk or telephone us on 01509 975 197.

By using our website you accept these terms

By using our website, you confirm that you accept these terms and that you agree to comply with them.

If you do not agree to these terms, you must not use our website.

We recommend that you print a copy of these terms for future reference.

The information contained on our website is for general guidance only. You should neither act, nor refrain from action, on the basis of any such information. You should take appropriate professional advice on your particular circumstances because the application of laws and regulations will vary depending on particular circumstances and because tax and benefit laws and regulations undergo frequent change.

PHES does not take any legal responsibility for advice given to its member institutions or their representatives in response to a request for help or information. PHES is not an advice agency but will, from time to time on a discretionary basis, offer assistance to its member institutions or their representatives, in particular to assist them in working effectively with their professional advisers. Any member institution or their representative accepting that assistance is deemed to accept that PHES does not accept responsibility for anything which may be wrong, and members should always consider whether to engage professional advisers accordingly.

These terms apply only to users who are acting in a business capacity. If you are seeking to use of our website and access our services for purposes which are wholly or mainly outside your trade, business, craft or profession, please contact us.

You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our website through your internet connection are aware of these terms and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.

Use of discussion boards

You must use the discussion boards in an appropriate manner, and not to defame, slander or libel any person or organisation, or to provide false information or to bully anyone. You must not share information from the discussion boards with anyone outside of your higher education institution (HEI)/other PHES members. When using discussion boards, you must comply with the content of the ‘Prohibited Uses’ and ‘Content Standards’ paragraphs below.

Use of the member directory

You must only contact other members for legitimate business issues if using our member directory. You must not pass any contact details (including, for the avoidance of doubt, personal data) obtained from our member directory to anyone who is not a PHES member in an HEI.

There are other terms that may apply to you

Please note that our privacy notice forms part of these terms.

We may make changes to the terms

We amend these terms from time to time. Every time you wish to use our website, please check these terms to ensure you understand the terms that apply at that time.

Your continued use of this website after changes have been posted constitutes acceptance of the modified terms.

We may make changes to our website

We may update and change our website from time to time to reflect changes to our services, our members’ needs and our business priorities. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any major changes.

We may suspend or withdraw our website

We do not guarantee that our website, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. We may suspend or withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of our website for business and operational reasons. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.

Reliance on information and our responsibility for loss or damage suffered by you

The content on our website is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our website.

Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our website, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our website is accurate, complete or up to date. We will not be liable for any loss or damages (including, without limitation, damages for loss of income or business or increased liabilities, business interruption, loss of anticipated savings, loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation; or any indirect or consequential loss or damage arising in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise from the use of or inability to use our website, or reliance on any information contained in it, or from any action or decision taken as a result of using this website or any such information.

We will also not be liable for any loss, disruption or damage to your data or your computer system which may occur whilst using material from this website.

Nothing in these terms of use shall exclude our liability to you for fraudulent misrepresentation by us or our employees or for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence or that of our employees.

We are not responsible for viruses

We make every effort to check and test material at all stages of production. It is always wise for users to run an anti-virus program on all material downloaded from the internet.

We do not guarantee that our website will be secure or free from bugs or viruses.

You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform to access our website. You should use your own virus protection software.

We are not responsible for websites we link to

Where our website contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. Such links should not be interpreted as approval by us of those linked websites or information you may obtain from them.

We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources.

Passwords

If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures for the website or related content, you must treat such information as confidential. You must not disclose it to any third party and you are responsible for any loss or damage resulting from use of your password by any third party.

We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms.

If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your user identification code or password, you must promptly notify us.

Links to our website

We welcome appropriate and relevant links to our homepage, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it. For permission to use our logo, please contact us.

You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval, or endorsement on our part where none exists.

You must not establish a link to our website in any website that is not owned by you.

Our website must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our website other than the home page.

We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.

However, we may change the structure of our website without notifying you so any links you create may become out of date.

Intellectual property

All rights in the design, text, graphics, and other material on our website, including the arrangement, is copyright of PHES or other third parties (where relevant). You may read, download and print extracts from the information in whole or in part for your own use in research and education, or other non-commercial purposes but must not otherwise copy, reproduce or re-distribute the contents of these pages in whole or in part without our prior written consent. Ownership of the materials rests with the copyright owner. It is strictly prohibited to use the materials on our website for any purpose other than those listed above without obtaining our prior written permission. Should you require such permission, please contact us.

The intellectual property from any outputs created with PHES/as part of PHES projects or activity that you have contributed to can be used by PHES and other PHES members in perpetuity and free of charge for any appropriate purpose whatsoever, and you will not seek to monetise such IP without permission from PHES.

Prohibited uses

You may use our website only for lawful purposes. You agree not to use our website:

In any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation.
In any way that is unlawful or fraudulent or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect.
For the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way.
To bully, insult, intimidate or humiliate any person.
To transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam).
To reverse engineer, hack, decompile, copy or adapt any software or other code or scripts forming part of our website nor attempt to transmit to or via our website any information that contains a virus, worm, trojan horse, or other harmful or disruptive component designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.

You also agree:

Not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of our website.
Not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:
- any part of our website;
- any equipment or network on which our website is stored;
- any software used in the provision of our website; or
- any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party.

Interactive services

We may from time to time provide interactive services on our website, including, without limitation:

Chat boards, discussion boards; and
Bulletin boards (together the “Interactive Services”).

Where we do provide any Interactive Services, we will provide clear information to you about the kind of service offered, if it is moderated and what form of moderation is used (including whether it is human or technical).

We will do our best to assess any possible risks for users from third parties when they use any Interactive Services provided on our website, and we will decide in each case whether it is appropriate to use moderation of the relevant service (including what kind of moderation to use) in the light of those risks. However, we are under no obligation to oversee, monitor or moderate any Interactive Services we provide on our website, and we expressly exclude our liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any Interactive Services by a user in contravention of our content standards, whether the service is moderated or not.

Where we do moderate any Interactive Services, we will normally provide you with a means of contacting the moderator, should a concern or difficulty arise.

Content standards

These content standards apply to any and all material which you contribute to our website (a “Contribution”), and to any Interactive Services associated with it. The standards apply to each part of any Contribution as well as to its whole.

You warrant that any Contribution complies with the standards below, and you will be liable to us and indemnify us (and each member of the PHES association) for any breach of that warranty. This means you will be responsible for any loss or damage we suffer (or any member of the PHES association suffers) as a result of your breach of warranty.

We will determine, at our discretion, whether a Contribution breaches the content standards.

A Contribution must:

Be accurate (where it states facts).
Be genuinely held (where it states opinions).
Comply with the law applicable in England and Wales and in any country from which it is posted.

A Contribution must not:

Be defamatory of any person.
Be obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory.
Bully, insult, intimidate or humiliate.
Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.
Infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person.
Be likely to deceive any person.
Breach any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
Promote any illegal activity.
Be in contempt of court.
Be threatening, abuse or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
Be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person.
Impersonate any person, or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person.
Give the impression that the Contribution emanates from us, if this is not the case.
Advocate, promote, incite any party to commit, or assist any unlawful or criminal act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.
Contain a statement which you know or believe, or have reasonable grounds for believing, that members of the public to whom the statement is, or is to be, published are likely to understand as a direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
Contain any advertising or promote any services or web links to other sites.

Breach of these terms

When we consider that a breach of these terms has occurred, we may take such action as we deem appropriate.

If we believe that you have not complied with these terms, we may:

Contain any advertising or promote any services or web links to other sites.
Immediately, temporarily or permanently withdraw your right to use our website.
Immediately, temporarily or permanently remove any Contribution uploaded by you to our website.
Issue a warning to you.
Issue legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach.
Disclose such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary or as required by law.

We exclude our liability for all action we may take in response to breaches of these terms. The actions we may take are not limited to those described above, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.

Which country’s laws apply to any disputes?

Our website relates only to the laws of England except where expressly stated otherwise and is directed to people residing in England. These terms shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with English law and you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England in respect of any disputes which may arise in relation to our website.

These terms were most recently updated in October 2023.