As a QUT student, you are asked to provide personal information, like your address and contact details, educational background, and course, unit and class choices. This explains why we collect your information, what we do with it and who we share it with.
We need to stay in touch with you and ensure that the information we hold about you is accurate and current. We ask that you please keep this updated during your studies and engagement with us. Your personal information will be managed in accordance with our obligations.
This statement should be read in conjunction with QUT’s Privacy Collection Notice, Information Privacy Policy (MOPP F/6.2), Privacy webpage, our Alumni, donors and partners and Staff privacy statements, which further outline how the University handles personal information.
What is the legal basis for collecting your information?
QUT is governed by the Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) when processing your personal information. To the extent that they apply to our activities, the University is also subject to the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cwth) and the European Union General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (which relates to individuals located in the European Economic Area). (Together, ‘Privacy Laws’).
QUT collects and uses your personal information to perform functions defined in the Queensland University of Technology Act 1998 (Qld) and in accordance with its obligations under tax, higher education funding and Australian migration law. This includes, but is not limited to, the Higher Education Funding Act 1988 (Cwth), Higher Education Support Act 2003 (Cwth), the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (Cwth) and the Migration Act 1958 (Cwth).
How do we collect your personal information?
Your information may be collected directly from you or from third parties including schools, the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre (QTAC) or equivalent interstate or overseas bodies, or from other tertiary education institutions. We may also collect information from you through our information technology systems or our website.
What do we do with your personal information?
Academic administration
Your information is principally used to administer your admission, enrolment and academic progress through the university. We collect additional information about international students to assist with visas and other requirements for study in Australia.
Financial administration
Tax file numbers, bank account details and credit card details are collected only where necessary to enable you to discharge fee or Commonwealth support or assistance liabilities, or where you make payment online (for example, ordering from the bookshop).
Learning and support services
Information about you as a student is used to facilitate your access to student support services, and to library and information technology facilities including email, online tutorial allocations, library resources and online teaching web sites. Your personal information will be used to enable you to study with other students. This will include providing class lists to other students enrolled in the same unit and giving you and other students access to collaborative learning platforms
We receive and store certain types of information when you interact with our information systems. We may use this information, together with other information we hold about you, to support your study or to improve and develop the services we provide to our students more generally.
Quality assurance
We may use your information for quality assurance and evaluation purposes to help ensure that our courses and programs are of high quality. This will include surveys and questionnaires that ask you about your experience at QUT.
Keeping in touch when you graduate
We may also use the information we hold about you to inform you of QUT services and activities, to advise you of other study opportunities at QUT and to maintain contact with you upon graduation.
Recording lectures
We record lectures and teaching activities to aid student learning activities. This may involve the collection of personal information about you, if your image or voice is captured during participation. Recordings will be disseminated to other QUT students and that may be through internet sites that are hosted outside of Australia.
Online examinations
QUT offers examinations both on-campus and online. In order to ensure academic integrity and fairness, QUT has implemented a digital invigilation examination tool. We use information that we hold about you to create accounts with our vendor, ProctorU. During the online examinations, this technology will be required to verify your identity, monitor and record examination sessions to ensure academic integrity. These recordings and your information are managed in accordance with QUT’s privacy policy and retention schedule.
Student elections
As a QUT student you are entitled to vote for student members of the QUT Council and in other student elections. We will use your personal information to administer nominations and voting.
How long do we retain your information?
As a Queensland government agency, QUT must maintain records for its legitimate business use or to support other legal, corporate or evidential requirements. The personal information we hold about your admission, enrolment, academic progress and graduation will form part of an official record. We will hold the information in these records for as long as that record must be retained under the relevant retention and disposal schedule authorised under section 26 of the Public Records Act 2002 (Qld) or for as long as required under another relevant law.
Transfer of your information outside Australia and data in the cloud
We will process your personal information in Australia and may transfer it to a country that does not have the same levels of privacy protection as apply in Australia. This may happen when you undertake studies with an institution outside Australia, or where QUT stores your information using an external data hosting or cloud service. Any transfer outside Australia will be subject to a legally binding agreement that upholds principles for the fair handling of personal information or otherwise be in compliance with the Privacy Laws.
Who do we give your information to?
Student academic records
We disclose personal information about our students to:
- education providers to administer cross-institution enrolments (where you are a cross-institution student or student enrolled with QUT and another provider under an approved arrangement)
- education providers, postgraduate@QTAC, My eQuals and admission centres to verify academic information or transcripts
- scholarship providers and student sponsors where there is a written agreement between the student and the provider or sponsor, or the student has authorised the release
- the Australian chapter of the Golden Key Honour Society (an organisation which recognises high achievement in university studies).
Verification of qualifications
We disclose personal information about our graduates to any member of the general public via the online verification of qualification service. The public register of graduates is maintained in the student information system.
Required by law
We are required by law to provide certain information to relevant departments of the Australian Government and other bodies. This includes:
- statistical information about your enrolment and educational background
- financial information in relation to your HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP and other loan schemes where you may defer fee payments through the taxation system
- personal, identifying data, including your Tax File Number for the allocation of a unique identifier - USI (Unique Student Identifier), CHESSN (Commonwealth Higher Education Student Support Number) and the management of your Commonwealth assistance (you will be asked for your consent to this by submitting an electronic Commonwealth Assistance Form (eCAF) via HiQ)
- on all matters to do with international student visa conditions
- information to monitor domestic student entitlements to Centrelink benefits
- to the Fund Manager of the ESOS Assurance Fund, for international students
- to health care providers (Medibank Private and/or Worldcare Assist) if international students undertake to pay Overseas Student Health Cover through QUT
- to other governments and private loan schemes where students are granted approved loans
- to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) for students enrolled in relevant courses under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act 2009.
Authorised by you
You may authorise QUT to release information to a third party (for example, a relative or insurer), or enable someone to collect student information on your behalf, by completing the Third Party Authorisation For Student Information (TPA form).
Permitted under the Information Privacy Act 2009 or relevant privacy laws
In very limited circumstances, privacy principles permit disclosure without consent or prior notification. Examples include: if we are asked for the information in connection with a police investigation; if we receive a writ, subpoena or similar document legally requiring us to disclose the information; or if disclosing the information will prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to a person's life or health.