Student feedback: complaints, suggestions and compliments

To achieve our mission and carry out our functions and activities as a university, AUT must collect, use, store, and disclose personal information relating to prospective, current and former students, as well as our university friends (alumni and donors), and guests.  AUT’s functions and activities include but are not limited to

• Our learning, teaching, research and other educational activities
• Our administrative, employment, and management activities;
• Our legal, regulatory and contractual obligations
• Providing an appropriate level of student and wellbeing support and pastoral care to meet the Education Pastoral Care of Tertiary and International Students Code of Practice 2021) requirements
• Providing a safe, secure and healthy environment
• Ensuring we can comply with government requirements and expectations (including in relation to emergency and public health measures)
• Monitoring, evaluating and improving our performance and effectiveness
• The recruitment, marketing and fundraising that we undertake

In some cases, collection of your personal information is required under New Zealand law (including the Education and Training Act 2020 and the Children’s Act 2014 for example). Without your personal information, we may not be able to enrol you as a student, or provide services and benefits to you.

Where possible personal information is obtained directly from individuals, or from their nominated agent(s). Data is collected when you provide it to us directly, like when you apply to study through our website or when you connect with one of our campuses.

Additionally, information may be obtained or verified through a third party such as a relevant government or education agencies, including the New Zealand National Student Index.

If you are a participant in a research project being managed by the AUT, you can read more about how your personal information may be used and shared in the Participant Information Sheet provided to you by the researcher. Please note, however, that the general information in this statement applies.

Our normal university operations are things that we legally need to do to conduct our day-to-day business and fulfil our obligations as a public sector provider, as well as the work we do to create exceptional experiences for our students. The data we collect is different depending on your enquiry, application, enrolment status or how you interact with us.

General information collected from prospects, applicants, students, alumni, donors and visitors/guests may include:

• Biological details (including full name, former name/s, preferred name, gender, preferred pronouns, date of birth)
• Contact details (including addresses (historic, current and future), telephone, email, emergency and alternative New Zealand contact details

As a visitor to the website we may collect personal data and click through data. The AUT App also collects information that you provide, and this is treated differently. Details on what type of data we collect when visiting our websites and apps can be found in the Web Privacy and Security Statement.

As a prospective AUT student applicant or current student, we may need to collect more information from you regarding your studies, demographics and preferences. The relevant information is important and necessary for us to support you in the consideration period, process your application to study, and use our facilities and services.

Information may include and is not limited to:

• Academic qualifications
• Career aspirations
• Citizenship or residence status
• Country of origin
• Course preferences
• Criminal convictions or police history (if necessary for certain programmes or work placements)
• Current or previous job information
• Demographic information
• Device ID and username (when you use a device to connect to our systems)
• Education record and academic/ research history
• Emergency contact information
• Feedback you provide us
• Financial information for tuition fees, charges and services
• Gender
• Health and travel insurance (if you are an international student or a student travelling overseas)
• Health and disability information (if necessary for certain programmes or work placements), where students have enrolled with AUT Student Medical Centre, Disability Services, or signed up to Student Accommodation, or sports and recreation services, applied for a field trip, student exchange or study abroad programme, or have otherwise consented to us collecting this information
• Iwi affiliation (if you are a Māori student)
• Information generated throughout your studies
• Information collected about you as you use our services and participate in student life
• Information provided to us by organisations which you attend for the purpose of workplace learning (including in respect of your performance on your placement or practicum, and any health and safety incidents or other issues that occur during our placement or practicum)
• Interactions and communications with us and our systems including voice and/or image where a lecture, workshop, tutorial or other presentation is recorded
• Language proficiency and skills
• Movement through any CCTV monitored areas of campus, or building access details collected from any swipe card issued to you
• National Student Number (NSN)
• National Health Number
• Passport and visa details
• Photograph (for student ID)
• School or previous institution
• Travel history
• Whether you have been suspended from another New Zealand tertiary institute
• Other information that you decide to share with us

Other data includes any information needed to complete your enrolment or fulfil tasks related to your studies and includes agreements made with third parties for services associated with the University and our partners, like applications to Studylink to help cover course fees.

This includes all information you provide on all types of application forms, like scholarship applications or application enquiries, AUT accommodation applications, your involvement with specific services that the University offers, your participation in student life, or any other way you decide to provide information to us.

Alumni

We collect and process personal information about our alumni (former students) for the primary purpose of connecting with you with University and other alumni.  The relevant information is important to meet our legitimate interests, including in making sure we can maintain our community with our alumni and promote university services and events.

We do not rely on consent to communicate with our alumni, as we believe this community is integral to the success of the University. However, you can opt out of these communications at any time by emailing alumni@aut.ac.nz.

The information we collect about alumni

The personal information we collect about you as alumni is initially that which you provided as a student and may include:

• Biographical details (including name, former name, alias, gender and date of birth)
• Contact details (including location, address, former addresses, telephone, email, social media and website links, and contact preferences)
• Education record and academic history (including your associations with us if you were a student – such as your hall of residence and club membership)
• Ethnicity (if we were required to collect this under NZ law from when you were a student)
• Iwi affiliation (if you were a Māori student)
• Interactions and communications with us and our systems
• Responses to our electronic communications (including what you open or click on, any comments you make, and your location), and
• Events you have been invited to and whether or not you have responded or attended

In addition, we may also collect the following information about you:

• Any people we link to you, including your spouse, partner or adult children, who are also alumni or friends
• Links with other organisations and individuals (including alumni, friends or donors)
• Employment and business details including positions, organisation, professional memberships and qualifications
• Career highlights and other lifetime achievements
• Outside interests and membership of groups
• Media articles, and
• Any other information that you have decided to share with us

How we use your information

We will use your personal information to:

• Correspond with you, including re-establishing contact when we appear to have lost touch
• Provide you with any services you have requested from us, including events or sport and recreation services
• Inform you about university courses or events
• Inform you about, and provide, alumni benefits
• Inform you about opportunities to engage with and support the University
• Conduct benchmarking, analyses, quality assurance, and planning to improve alumni and friend services
• Comply with contractual or legislative reporting and recordkeeping requirements and our obligations under the Official Information Act

How we share your information

We may share your information with:

• University owned or related entities
• Contracted service providers which the University uses to perform services on its behalf (such as mailing house services, advertising agencies, logistics and IT service providers), within and outside New Zealand (see more on this below)
• Affiliated agencies, such as clubs or associations, in order to meet the purposes set out above
• The University's legal advisers or other professional advisers and consultants engaged by the University, and
• Government agencies, where permitted or required by law

If we need to share your information with a third party that is overseas, we will ensure that this complies with principle 12 of the Privacy Act. If the third party is not located in a country that has comparable privacy laws to ours, we will require them to agree to protect your information to New Zealand standards.

Donors

Donations from our alumni make a real impact on our ability to retain our excellence in teaching, learning and research. We collect and process personal information about potential and actual donors for the primary purpose of soliciting and processing donations and to stay in touch with donors.

The relevant information is important to meet our legitimate interests, including in making sure we can maintain our funding and our high educational standards. We do not rely on consent to communicate with our donors, as we believe this community is integral to the success of the University. However, you can opt out of donor communications at any time by emailing foundation@aut.ac.nz or call 09 921 9234.

We may carry out research to assess your likely ability and willingness to make donations or gifts to the University so that we can better tailor our fundraising approaches or requests. This research, which is sometimes known as prospect research, may include collecting and storing information about you that is publicly available as well as information that you have provided to us. We may carry out this research ourselves or we may use a third party. If we use a third party, we will ensure that your information is held confidentially, with appropriate security safeguards and only used in accordance with our strict instructions.  If you would not like us to carry out the above activities in relation to you, please email foundation@aut.ac.nz or call 09 921 9234.

The personal information we collect about you as a potential or actual donor will include:

• Biographical details (including name, former name, alias, gender and date of birth)
• Contact details (including location, address, former addresses, telephone, email, social media and website links, contact preferences)
• Credit card details (if you have provided these to us)
• Interactions and communications with us and our systems

In addition, we may also collect information about your:

• Education record and academic history (including your associations with us if you were a student – such as your hall of residence and club memberships)
• Ethnicity
• Iwi affiliation (if you were a Māori student)
• Responses to our electronic communications (including what you open or click on, any comments you make, and your location)
• Events you have been invited to and whether or not you have responded or attended
• Any people we link to you, including your spouse, partner or adult children, who are also alumni or friends
• Links with other organisations and individuals (including alumni, supporters and potential supporters)
• Employment and business details including positions, organisation, professional memberships and qualifications
• Career highlights and other lifetime achievements
• Outside interests and membership of groups
• Wealth and philanthropic interests (see more on this below)
• Media articles
• Donations of time, expertise or money (including to organisations other than us), and
• Other information that you have decided to share with us

How we use your information

We will use your personal information to:

• Correspond with you
• Process your donation, or provide any other services you have requested from us
• Inform you about university courses or events
• Inform you about, and provide, friends benefits
• Inform you about opportunities to engage with and support the University
• Comply with contractual or legislative reporting and recordkeeping requirements and our obligations under the Official Information Act

How we share your information

We may share your information with:

• Your nominated financial institution for processing your donation
• The public, where we publicly identify you as a donor
• University owned or related entities
• Contracted service providers which the University uses to perform services on its behalf (such as mailing house services, logistics and IT service providers), within and outside New Zealand (see more on this below)
• The University's legal advisers or other professional advisers and consultants engaged by the University, and
• Government agencies, where permitted or required by law

If we need to share your information with a third party that is overseas, we will ensure that this complies with principle 12 of the Privacy Act. If the third party is not located in a country that has comparable privacy laws to ours, we will require them to agree to protect your information to New Zealand standards.

Guest

As a physical or virtual guest to the University, you may have to provide some personal information for statistical purposes or for safety, tracking, and security reasons.

As well as general information mentioned previously, we may also ask for more information such as:

• Demographic information
• Financial information (such as payment details)
• Job information

AUT takes great care with the data collected. Information will be stored on University files and database(s) and all practicable security measures will be maintained.

Students are issued with a unique identifier which is used in conjunction with a secondary means of identification or password/PIN to manage and protect their own personal information.

Data is kept for as long as we need it to fulfil university obligations. We are required under New Zealand law to retain information in accordance with the Public Records Act 2005.

Enrolled students at AUT may wish to engage with the Student Medical Centre and access the Counselling service.  Students have the right to request information held about them or request corrections to that information.

AUT’s Student Medical Centre and Counselling service take care to ensure that health and counselling information is always managed in accordance with the Health Information Privacy Code.  Electronic records held by these services remain confidential & accessible to those granted with specific access rights.

We make sure that students’ information is used and shared only in ways that support their health and wellbeing, or the health and wellbeing of other members of the AUT community. Where additional support is recommended and with the individual's consent, information may be shared with others at AUT.

AUT Student Medical Centre is a member of a Primary Health Organisation (PHO). The PHO collects individual data to apply funding and measure clinical outcomes aligned with NZ health authorities. The practice does not share students' consultation notes.

If you have any concerns about the collection, use or disclosure of your health information, please email counselling@aut.ac.nz.

In alignment with our core values and to fulfil our obligations as a university, AUT staff members and other personnel within the University or within agencies under contract to the University will have access to students’ personal information.

If you are a student, we will share your information (including information relating to your health and wellbeing) with appropriate staff members if we are concerned about your engagement, academic progress, behaviour, safety, security, or wellbeing (or the safety, security, or wellbeing of others) under the Education (Pastoral Care of Tertiary and International Learners) Code of Practice 2021. Appropriate staff members could include, for example, Student Hub, Disability Services, Student Accommodation (including staff employed in our Student Accommodation facilities), relevant teaching staff, and specialist student support teams.

We will use your personal information to:

• Correspond with you
• Inform you about your courses and other aspects of admission, enrolment and study
• Inform you of the availability of scholarships
• Inform you of the availability of AUT accommodation
• Enable you to apply for special entry consideration
• Inform you about opportunities to engage with and support AUT
• Facilitate and enable programmes relevant to your enrolment (such as cross-institutional study, student exchanges, student placements, voluntary workplace activities, internships, and industry experience)
• Facilitate and allow you to participate in activities relevant to your enrolment that support your academic achievement
• Facilitate and enable community engagement, work integrated learning activities and student-to-student learning
• Facilitate and enable international experiences and perspectives through study abroad
• Facilitate and enable scholarship programmes for which you may be eligible
• Provide associated services such as security, parking, information technology and (where used by you) student accommodation or sport and recreation services
• On programme completion, place your details on AUT’s alumni database so that you may be kept informed of alumni news, events and activities
• Assist you in the event of an emergency
• Communicate with your emergency contacts
• Conduct benchmarking, analyses, quality assurance and planning in respect of the products and services we offer
• Support our academic integrity and discipline processes, and the overall integrity of the tertiary education system
• Maintain relationships with schools
• Comply with contractual or legislative reporting and recordkeeping requirements and with obligations under the Official Information Act
• Conduct ethics committee approved research, the reporting or publication of which is in an aggregate non-identifiable form, or to seek your consent to participate in ethics committee approved research conducted on another basis
• After your enrolment with AUT ceases, contact you for the purpose of seeking your feedback in relation to benchmarking, analyses, quality assurance and planning activities

In order to conduct our day to day business as a university and to fulfil our responsibilities under the Education and Training Act 2020 and other laws, some personal information we collect needs to be shared with authorised people or groups at AUT, with external organisations or with universities that provide services and information to us. For AUT Student Accommodation where there is a third-party owner, resident information may be shared with the owner for the purpose of financial management and facility maintenance. We will only use your data in the ways we state here.  We would only share data outside of these guidelines if we are legally permitted to under the Privacy Act 2020.

Professional agencies include, but are not limited to:

• Government ministries, departments and agencies such as;
  • The Ministry of Education (information will be recorded on the National Student Index and used in an authorised information matching programme with the NZ Birth Register)
  • The Ministry of Social Development (including Work and Income NZ and StudyLink)
  • The Ministry of Trade and Enterprise
  • Education New Zealand
  • Immigration New Zealand (for students who are not NZ citizens)
  • Inland Revenue Department
  • Te Puni Kōkiri
  • Tertiary Education Commission

Other agencies may include, but are not limited to:

• In the event of an emergency or serious threat to health or safety, Police, medical or hospital personnel, civil emergency services, your legal representative or nominated emergency contact person, or any other person assessed as necessary to respond to the emergency
• Law enforcement agencies and emergency services as allowed under the Privacy Act and external welfare services in accordance with our obligations under the Education Pastoral Care of Tertiary and International Students Code of Practice
• Agencies for financial support
• Course moderation or accreditation bodies
• My eQuals
• Other universities for reporting purposes, or with which the University has entered into a joint venture or other contractual arrangement, such as conjoint teaching arrangement, including where required to enable other providers to meet their legislative obligations
• University student and alumni associations
• Agencies or organisations we have collaborative partnerships with (such as third party accommodation providers, insurers, recruiters and auditors)
• Other relevant professional bodies
• Ranking and benchmarking agencies
• On graduation, with the public (which lists your name and degree details), to support the integrity of the tertiary education system

Information provided to external agencies is either student-specific (typically name, date of birth, current contact details and academic/graduation details) or cohort-specific (aggregated or statistical information that does not identify individuals). We will only provide student-level information if absolutely necessary. Where possible, any information that we provide to outside agencies is aggregated or de-identified.

The University may only disclose personal information to an agency outside New Zealand if the receiving agency is subject to similar safeguards to those with Principle 12 of the Privacy Act.  If a jurisdiction does not offer similar protections, then we will communicate this to you that the information may not be adequately protected and will seek your authorisation.

Data is only collected and used for the purposes we have stated to you. If information we collect is going to be used outside of our normal operations as a university or needs to be disclosed to a third-party agency other than in the routine ways described above, then we will communicate this to you and ask for permission.

Students and individuals have the right to request information held about them or request corrections to that information. In some cases, we may need to verify the changes and corrections in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020. If a student withholds information or provides incomplete, false or misleading information the University may decline or cancel the admission or enrolment and may withhold the academic record if its veracity cannot be confirmed.

Some information may not be able to be shared, such as data that holds details of other students, is incomplete or still in progress. If information is to be withheld, we will tell you why.

If you would like a copy of any personal information we hold about you, or ask for it to be corrected  if you think it is wrong (and you are unable to update it yourself through a relevant online service), please email studenthub@aut.ac.nz or call 0800 AUT UNI (0800 288 864).

We may need to verify your identity or authority before responding to your request. You may need to provide specific details about the nature of your relationship with the University and the information you are seeking so that we can easily locate it for you. Once we’ve verified who you are we’ll respond to your request as soon as reasonably practicable and no later than 20 working days after we receive it.

Auckland University of Technology (AUT) has always analysed data collected routinely from students in order to improve how it operates. In recent years, the increasing amount of information generated by student interactions with online systems has seen the development of new analytics approaches, including learning analytics.

Learning analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about the progress of learners and the contexts in which learning takes place. It can improve the ways papers and programmes are developed, taught and assessed, and identify points on the student journey where individuals or groups of students may need additional support.

Data is collected in two ways:

1. Data collected as part of student enrolments and study to potentially support learning analytics.
   • Examples of student enrolment data include personal information such as age, ethnic background, last secondary school, sex and entrance qualification type.
   • Examples of study data include whether the student intends to study full-time or part-time, their programme of study, course results etc.
2. Data collected as part of student interactions with physical student support services and online interactions with the University’s systems.

   Examples of student engagement data include:

   • Logging into Canvas (the Student Learning Management System)
   • Using the Library, AUT App
   • Connecting to wifi
   • Making a room or equipment booking

Data quality and security

AUT brings together data from different data source systems in its Data Warehouse. AUT collects, uses, stores, and discloses personal information relating to students in accordance with the provisions of the Privacy Act.

Full details of privacy principles

All data selected for use in learning analytics is subject to data quality checks. These determine whether, for instance, the data is valid and the records are up to date.

Fields that could identify individual students such as email addresses or names are stored externally to the AUT Data Warehouse in the Data Vault. The Data Vault is a fully encrypted database with a number of access controls and security features and fulfils Principle 5 of the Privacy Act, which is designed to protect personal information from unauthorised use or disclosure.

Unfortunately, it is too administratively burdensome to have your data excluded. The University uses all student data to analyse patterns of behaviour. The analysis works on the dataset as a whole and does not identify an individual student by name or student ID number.

It is important to maintain a full dataset as any significant loss in student data could undermine the data validity of the predictive model.

Currently, AUT is only piloting the use of a learning analytics model based on student enrolment and study data. Student consent will be explicitly sought once the University begins to use student engagement data to provide targeted individualised learning and support interventions. Here, students are provided with the option to opt-out without attracting any negative consequences.

The potential adverse consequences of doing so will be clearly explained to students and they will retain the right to opt-in subsequently. Student consent for learning analytics interventions will be revised as the pilot project progresses.

Personal information procedures