Postcorona
The informant (the person being investigated, the data subject) should be informed of the processing of personal data in accordance with Articles 12-14 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Personal data is defined as such data, by means of which one can identify an informant, either directly or indirectly, for example by combining pieces of information. The Privacy Notice for Scientific Research contains the information that the informant should be given when personal data is processed in scientific research.
1. Name of the research
Corona in the rear-view mirror
2. Data controller
Yrkeshögskolan Arcada Ab (Arcada University of Applied Sciences), Jan-Magnus Janssons plats 1, 00560 Helsingfors
3. Contact information
Researcher in charge or research group
Research vicerektor, PhD Henrika Franck, E-mail: henrika.franck
Corresponding researcher in matters regarding processing of personal data
Researcher in Education, M.Ed. Tore Ståhl, E-mail: tore.stahl
Data protection officer
Data protection officer, lawyer Anna Härmä, E-mail: dpo
4. Research partners and distribution of responsibilities
Yrkeshögskolan Arcada Ab (Arcada University of Applied Sciences)
5. Researchers
Arcada’s Researcher in Education.
6. Description of the research project and the aim of processing personal data
The aim of the research project is both descriptive and prognostic. Data will be collected among Arcada’s staff and students. The purpose is:
- to describe and evaluate the respondents’ experiences of distance work/studies during period 4/2020 in order to take advantage of good practices that have emerged, and to identify practices that require improving.
- to identify and refine such practices that contribute to improving Arcada’s preparedness to meet future pandemics or similar circumstances.
Results are primarily reported internally, but possibly also in scientific or professionally oriented publications but in all cases, only in terms of group-wide trends and with respect for established research ethics. Reports generated from the material will never disclose the informants' identities.
7. Nature and duration of the research project
The research is by its nature a one-off research.
8. Legal basis for processing personal data
The legal basis for the processing of personal data is in accordance with the EU GDPR Art 6.1
- the legitimate interest of the university based on the university's mission,
- the university's legal commitment to continuously monitor and develop its activities (Universities of Applied Sciences Act 14.11.2014 / 932, sections 4 and 62),
- a general interest in terms of scientific research and statistics.
Participation in the survey-based data collection is voluntary. At the beginning of the questionnaire, the informant will use a checkbox to provide her/his consent to processing of the data (also see section 17, after which the survey opens.
9. Sensitive personal data
The research does not involve personal data of sensitive nature.
10. Personal data in the research material
Respondents are invited to participate over a personal email message, containing a unique link to the participant’s personal survey form. Thus, the respondent’s email address will initially be stored together with the respondent’s responses. The following background data are used for grouping purposes:
- staff; staff category and department/unit
- students; degree programme (and department), year of enrolment, student category (bachelor, master, open university).
After data collection, identification data (the email address) will be removed and thus, the material will not contain actual identification data. In addition to the above-mentioned background variables, the research data will contain responses provided by the respondents themselves.
11. Data sources
The research data mainly consists of the respondents' answers to the questions in the survey. The background variables (section 10) are retrieved from Arcada’s HRM service and from Arcada’s student registry.
12. Disclosure of personal data outside the research group
The researcher may provide other units at Arcada (e.g. the institutions, Study services, Arcada library) with anonymised and limited data sets in order for those to explore feedback provided regarding the services they provide.
Research data are not disclosed to actors outside Arcada. An aggregated data set will be disclosed to the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC [1] External link ), that will be collecting experiences from all Finnish universities in connection to the exceptional circumstances due to the Corona pandemic.
13. Transfer of personal data outside EU and ETA
Research data and personal data are not transferred outside EU or ETA.
14. Automated decision-making
Research data are not used for automated decision-making.
15. Principles regarding protection of personal data
Data protection
Research data are in electronic format and processed in information systems that only the researcher has access to. The access is based on Arcada login with username and password, and the information systems track the use of data.
Pseudonymization and anonymization
The material is anonymized immediately after the collection stage.
16. Processing of personal data after the research project is terminated
Research data are archived in anonymised format at the university, possibly also in the Finnish social science data archive.
17. The informant’s rights
The informant’s rights
Information about the informants rights can be found here.
Exceptions from the informant’s rights
The current research deviates from the informant's rights by allowing the informant to exercise her/his rights only within a limited time after data collection. At a later point of time, the responses can no longer be connected to the informant since at that stage, research data have been anonymised and will no longer contain any actual identification data.