Cookies policy
Structure and governance
Information about our use of cookies
Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer or device. It gets stored if you agree to our Cookie’s policy when first visiting our website. Cookies contain information that is transferred to and from your computer's hard drive. First-party cookies are set by the port.ac.uk domain. Third-party cookies are set via the domain of a product partner. Each cookie includes a duration - this is how long the cookie will remain active on your computer. You can use your browser’s “clear history” tool to remove cookies before their expiration date.
We use the following cookies:
Strictly necessary cookies
These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website.
| Cookie | Duration | 1st or 3rd party? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| ASP.NET_SessionId | Session only | 1st | Used by our servers to create an anonymised user session |
| __RequestVerificationToken | Session only | 1st | An anti-forgery cookie set by web applications built using ASP.NET MVC technologies |
Functionality cookies
These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
| Cookie | Duration | 1st or 3rd party? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alert | Session only | 1st | Used to determine whether or not you have dismissed a homepage alert |
Tracking cookies
These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.
You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the below:
Google Analytics/Google Tag Manager/Google Signals tracking cookie
Google Analytics is a web analysis service provided by Google. Google sets cookies to be able to identify unique users and sessions so that we are able to track behaviour and usage of visitors to our website. We use Google Tag Manager to help us load these tags and scripts on our website pages and Google Signals to track the behaviour of signed-in users across devices.
These cookies conform to Google’s privacy policy.
| Cookie | Duration | 1st or 3rd party? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| _dc_gtm_UA-265018-20 | 2 minutes | 1st | Associated with Google Tag Manager - a tool used for launching scripts and code on a web page |
| _gat_UA--265018-20 | 1 minute | 1st | Used to throttle the request rate |
| _ga_L13S650EX5 | 2 years | 1st | Used to enable Google Universal Analytics |
| _ga | 2 years | 1st | Used to enable Google Universal Analytics |
| _gid | 24 hours | 1st | A unique user ID used by Google Universal Analytics |
Hotjar Tracking cookie
Hotjar is a behaviour analytics and user feedback service that helps the University understand the behaviour of our website users and get their feedback through tools such as heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys. We use it to improve our website’s content and usability. Hotjar stores first-party cookies on your browser and these are set by the Hotjar script, or by visiting Hotjar's website. These cookies do not personally identify anyone. If you want to opt-out of being tracked by Hotjar, read how to do this here.
| Cookie | Duration | 1st or 3rd party? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| _hjid | 12 months | 1st | A unique user ID that enables Hotjar heatmaps, session recording and user feedback popups |
Advertising and re-marketing on third party websites tracking cookies and pixels
As part of our marketing activity, we place adverts on third party sites and use technologies to track and retarget traffic that these adverts generate to our website. This includes the use of:
- Snapchat
- YouTube
- Amazon
- DoubleClick
- Adwords
- Quora
- Oribi
To find out more about cookies, visit allaboutcookies.org.
You can opt out of cookie-based advertisements from many advertising platforms by visiting Your Online Choices and switching off behavioural advertising from the organisations of your choice.
| Cookie | Duration | 1st or 3rd party? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| _gcl_au | 3 months | 1st | Used by Google AdSense for experimenting with advertisement efficiency across websites using their services |
| oribi_user_guid | 12 months | 1st | A unique user ID used by Oribi |
| oribi_session | 24 hours | 1st | A unique session ID used by Oribi |
| _fbp | 3 months | 1st | Used to enable Facebook marketing products |
| MUID | 24 months | 3rd | A widely used tracking cookie set by Microsoft. Contains a unique user ID that can be used to track your movement between microsoft apps and services. |
| sc_at | 12 months | 3rd | Used to enable Snapchat marketing products |
| vuid | 2 years | 3rd | Used by Vimeo to provide analytics on video consumption |
| bridge_sid_XzExODU1MDE4NTk | 2 hours | 3rd | A unique user ID used by Oribi |
| bridge_uid_XzExODU1MDE4NTk | 1 minute | 3rd | Used to throttle Oribi request rates |
| tuuid | 12 months | 3rd | Used to optimise programmatic advertising |
| c | 12 months | 3rd | Unique ID associated with Admedo programmatic advertising |
| tuuid_lu | 12 months | 3rd | Used to optimise programmatic advertising |
Sitecore functionality, performance and analytics
Our website uses Sitecore cookies for the operation of our websites, for example, to enable you to move around the website and use its features, including giving you the right information and personalising your experience.
We have Sitecore cookies that enable us to anonymously analyse users’ activity on our sites so we can improve the way they work.
| Cookie | Duration | 1st or 3rd party? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| _scid | 12 months | 1st | A unique user ID used by Sitecore |
| SC_ANALYTICS_GLOBAL_COOKIE | 10 years | 1st | Used to enable Sitecore Experience Analytics |
Additional cookie information
Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.
You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.
Except for some essential cookies, all cookies will expire after 36 months at the most.
Additional miscellaneous cookies are listed below:
H5P
We use H5P for interactive quizzes, games and other content on our website.
| Cookie | Duration | 1st or 3rd party? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| XSRF-TOKEN | 7 days | 3rd | Used to enable H5P interactive widgets |
| h5pcomsession | 7 days | 3rd | Used to remember your H5P preferences |
| CloudFront-Created-At | Session only | 3rd | Used to ensure only verified users can access H5P widgets |
| CloudFront-Region | Session only | 3rd | Used to ensure only verified users can access H5P widgets |
| CloudFront-Policy | Session only | 3rd | Used to ensure only verified users can access H5P widgets |
| CloudFront-Signature | Session only | 3rd | Used to ensure only verified users can access H5P widgets |