Privacy Policy – Tampere University career monitoring

The University of Tampere and Tampere University of Technology merged to create the new Tampere University on 1 January 2019. Together, the new Tampere University and Tampere University of Applied Sciences comprise the Tampere Universities community (hereinafter the “Community”). Each university is a controller in terms of the personal data of their staff in its own sub-register.

Why we process your personal data?

We process your personal data to conduct career monitoring surveys. The purpose of these surveys is to monitor the early career stages of university graduates and their situation in the labour market (five years for master’s degree graduates or discontinued bachelor’s degree programme graduates, for example, nursery school teachers and pharmacists, and three years for doctors) and utilise the monitoring data in research, highlighting the early career stages of people with an academic education, the development of higher education and students’ guidance, as well as for offering information to potential students, current students and graduates when they plan their own studies and career. In the career monitoring surveys, these data are produced and used – without the respondents’ personal data on a university-specific basis – for cooperation between universities, with cooperation partners (eg professional organisations such as AKAVA, the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff in Finland, and the Finnish Business School Graduates), and for research via the Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD).

A register for career monitoring surveys at Tampere University for graduates with a master’s degree or discontinued bachelor’s degree and for graduates with a doctor’s degree.

What are the legal grounds for processing your personal data?

Grounds for processing are duties in accordance with public interest pursuant to Article 6, Section 1 e of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation ((evaluation and development of university education (Sections 2 and 87 of the Universities Act (2009/558)) and production of related statistics. Decree of the Ministry of Education and Culture on Calculation Criteria for Universities’ Core Funding (119/2019).

What personal data do we process and how do we collect your data?

The career monitoring surveys are conducted using both paper surveys and electronic online surveys. The electronic online survey is made in the Education Administration’s information service Arvo, which is maintained and developed by CSC - IT Center for Science Ltd. The collection of the survey data on paper and the compilation of the data is coordinated by Research Stats Service TUPA.

The register contains identification and background data as well as survey responses, which are compiled by CSC and TUPA on behalf of Tampere University. These data include:

Survey ID/online survey response number, response time
identifying information, which will not be recorded with the responses and will be used exclusively for the management of the target group and mailings and for the collection of background data
- first name, last name, personal identity code, possible date of birth
- postal address, postal code, telephone number
- student number/student identification code
background data, which will be recorded together with the survey responses
- gender, nationality, first language
- code of municipality of residence, municipality of residence, postal code, state, home municipality code, language at the home address
- degree level, (according to VIRTA database), major subject, place of study, place of study code, grade (pass/fail)
- university, year of starting studies, home municipality, month of graduation, duration of being a registered student, duration of actual studies, field of study (level 1,2,3)
- Further information from academic registers of Tampere University: major subject, degree programme, faculty

Respondents who would like more information on where the results of the survey will be published can provide their email address when responding to the survey. The email address will be recorded separately from the survey response in the register of Tampere University.

The background and identification information of the group of respondents will be gathered in a centralised manner from the national VIRTA study information service and, in supplementary parts, from the student information systems of universities (studied subject, faculty). Address data: from the Population Information System/Digital and Population Data Services Agency. Telephone numbers: Consumer data from Suomen Asiakastieto Oy’s service database. Email addresses: from the student and/or alumni register of Tampere University and the email addresses provided by the respondents. Response data will be gathered from participants’ answers. The participants can fill in a paper survey or an electronic online survey. Data from the paper surveys will be recorded in the electronic system as subcontracted by TUPA on behalf of Tampere University.

Paper copies of the surveys returned by respondents will be mailed directly to TUPA for registration. After registration, they will be sent to Tampere University, which will keep the paper surveys for ten years. The purpose of the recording is to allow the digitised version to be checked in case of suspected errors while recording. The paper surveys will be destroyed 10 years after their digital registration.

How do we process your data?

Your data will be processed by our systems for the purposes of collection. The data may also be used for statistical and research purposes. Data used for statistical, or research purposes will be rendered anonymous in a way that no single individual can be identified. The data shall be stored in accordance with appropriate security requirements

To whom we may disclose your personal data?

The processing of personal data in the register has been outsourced with a subcontract agreement:

Based on subcontracting by the controllers of sub-registers, the register is processed by Research Stats Service TUPA , and CSC - IT Center for Science Ltd.

CSC - IT Center for Science Ltd selects the target group, enriches the contact information, creates the survey links, and collects the online answers, as well as combines the material for reporting. CSC processes direct personal data during data collection and the survey data without the direct data when reporting the results. CSC discloses the personal data (contact information, background information and survey IDs) to TUPA for the purposes of sending the survey, reminders, and data analysis.

TUPA - Research Stats Service of Tampere University, coordinates the implementation of career monitoring and processes personal data for sending, analysing, and reporting the survey. TUPA discloses university-specific data to each university and national data for national reporting of the survey to Aarresaari, Career Services Network of Finnish Universities and to CSC. Data may be disclosed to partners (such as professional associations) for research purposes, excluding any personal data from which data subjects can be directly identified.

In addition, data are also disclosed, without any identifiable personal data, to the Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD) for archiving and more detailed anonymisation for later research use. Public reporting of the data will be conducted in a way that no single individual can be identified from the results.

Transfer of personal data outside the EU/EEA

Personal data will not be transferred outside the EU/EEA.

How long do we retain your personal data?

The retention periods for personal data stored in the systems and for manual records are based on legislation and the University’s records management plan or data management plan.

Identification information enabling the identification of respondents is retained in the register only until data is combined and later destroyed after the data has been processed.

TUPA will retain data from different years for the purposes of compiling time datasets without any direct identification data for ten years.

Tampere University will retain data from different years for the purposes of compiling time series without any direct identification information in its sub-register for ten years.

The University will also retain data with identification information in its sub-register for five years at the most. In the Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD), the data are stored anonymously, so it is not possible to link them to a specific individual.

Automated decisions and profiling

Your rights as a data subject

Right of access (right of access to your data, Article 15)

You have the right to know whether your personal data has been processed and what personal data concerning you has been recorded. In several application systems, you can, when logged in, view the recorded data concerning you yourself.

Right to rectification of data (Article 16)

You have the right to request that incorrect, inaccurate, or incomplete personal data concerning you be corrected or completed without undue delay. In addition, you are entitled to have any unnecessary personal data deleted.

Right to have data erased (Article 17)

In irregular situations, you have the right to have your personal data erased from the University’s register (right to be forgotten). This right does not apply, for example, in cases where the processing of your personal data is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation or for the exercise of official authority vested in the institution.

Right to restrict processing (Article 18)

In certain circumstances, you have the right to request the University to restrict processing your personal data until the accuracy of information that handling for substitution based on has been appropriately reviewed or supplemented.

Right to data portability (Article 20)

You have the right to receive the personal data you provide to the University in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and the right to transfer such data to another controller without the University’s prior consent. This right applies to situations where the processing is automated and based on consent or contract.

This right does not apply, for example, to the processing of personal data necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest, or in the exercise of a legal obligation incumbent upon the controller. Thus, as a rule, the right does not apply to personal data files held by the University.

Right to object (Article 21)

You have at any time the right to object to the processing of your personal data for compelling personal reasons, where the processing is based on the performance of a task carried out in the public interest, in the exercise of official authority or in the legitimate interest of the University. In this case, your data may only be further processed if there is a substantial and legitimate ground for the processing which can be demonstrated.

Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority

You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you consider the processing of your personal data to violate the provisions of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (EU 2016/679). In addition, you may follow other administrative procedures to appeal against a decision made by a supervisory authority or seek a judicial remedy.

Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman
Visiting address: Lintulahdenkuja 4, 00530 Helsinki
Postal address: PL 800, 00531 Helsinki
Email: tietosuoja [at] om.fi (tietosuoja[at]om[dot]fi)
Switchboard: tel. +358 29 566 6700

Requests concerning the rights of data subjects

The contact person in matters related to the register is Hanna-Leena Hietaranta-Luoma, Education and Learning, Services for Educational Leadership, FI-33014 Tampere University, tyoelamapalvelut.tau [at] tuni.fi (opintopalaute[dot]tau[at]tuni[dot]fi).

Please send all access requests by email to the generic email address of Tampere University (dpo [at] tuni.fi) or by post to the following address:

Data Protection Officer, Tampere University
FI-33014 Tampere University, Finland

This privacy notice was updated on 26 August 2022.