Postcorona 2
Privacy Notice for Scientific Research
Published: 1.12.2020
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
Follow-up on 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, henrika.franck
Corresponding researcher in matters regarding processing of personal data
Researcher in Education, M.Ed. Tore Ståhl, tore.stahl
Data protection officer
Data protection officer, lawyer Anna Härmä, dpo
4. Research partners and distribution of responsibilities
Yrkeshögskolan Arcada Ab (Arcada University of Applied Sciences)
5. Researchers
The researcher in education, the unit for Guidance and student well-being, the unit for Study Services and researchers and research assistants who are affiliated to the research project at Arcada. The persons processing the material do it for exploring the research project's issues, as well as any new issues and phenomena that emerge from the material or are observed in the university or society.
The material can also be used in the university's other research projects as well as current and upcoming doctoral dissertations made by people who are affiliated to the university.
6. Description of the research project and the purpose of the processing of personal data
The aim of the research project is both descriptive and prognostic. Data may be collected among Arcada's staff and students and, in the light of the protracted and ongoing pandemic, the purpose is to:
- Describe and evaluate the informants' experiences of distance work/studies during the autumn of 2020 and to follow up the survey conducted in the spring of 2020, in order to benefit from good practices that have emerged and to identify such practices that require improvement.
- In case of a prolonged pandemic, follow up with repeated surveys.
- identify and refine such practices that contribute to improving Arcada’s preparedness to face future pandemics or similar circumstances.
- Identify what forms of support need to be developed.
The results are primarily reported internally, but possibly also in scientific or professionally oriented publications. In all cases, only group trends are described and reporting is done with respect for established research ethics. Reports generated from the material will never disclose the identities of the informants.
7. Nature and duration of the research project
The research is by its nature a follow-up of the first data collection made among students and staff in May-June 2020. Since the Corona pandemic has continued throughout the autumn, a follow-up data collection will be carried out in December 2020. As there is great uncertainty about how long the pandemic, and shutdown measures caused by it, will continue, cumulative data collections may be repeated in the coming semesters for comparisons over time. The instruments for data collection can be fine-tuned during the project on the basis of the analysis results, how the pandemic develops and what measures with consequences for the university's activities are taken.
8. Legal basis for the processing of personal data
The legal basis for the processing of personal data is in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation, Article 6.1
- the university's legitimate interest based on the university's mission,
- the university's legal obligation to constantly follow up and develop its activities (Universities of Applied Sciences Act 14.11.2014 / 932, sections 4 and 62),
- a public interest in terms of scientific research and statistics.
Participation in the survey-based data collection is voluntary. To open the questionnaire, the informant will provide her/his consent to the processing of the data by ticking a box (see also section 17).
9. Sensitive personal data
The research does not involve processing of sensitive personal data.
10. Personal data in the research material
The informants are invited to participate through a personal e-mail, which contains a unique link to the participant's personal survey form. Thus, the informant's name and e-mail address will initially be stored together with the informant's responses. The following background data is used for grouping purposes:
- staff; staff category and department / unit.
- students; educational program (and hence language and department), year of enrolment, right to study (bachelor, master, open university), year of birth, gender, nationality.
After data collection, all identification data (name, e-mail address) will be removed and the material thus contains no direct identification data. In addition to the background variables mentioned above, research data will only contain the cumulative responses that the informants themselves have provided.
The accumulation of data can continue as long as the pandemic continues and even after it has ceased for follow-up purposes, which presupposes that the informant's username is used as identification data at each collection stage. At each cumulation phase, collected data is pseudonymized (see p. 15) before new data is added to existing data. The pseudonymization key is saved separately and destroyed after the data collection is completed.
11. Sources of information
The research material mainly consists of the informants' responses to the questions in the questionnaire. The background variables (section 10) are retrieved from Arcada's HRM service and from Arcada's student registry.
The register contains the informants' responses to the questions in various surveys. Access to each survey is based on a unique link in a personal invitation to the informant's Arcada email, and the informant's username is saved together with the questionnaire responses during the collection phase.
Demographic data and background data (p. 10) are retrieved from Arcada's student registry and HRM service, respectively. The register accumulates questionnaire-based data, and performance data from the study register may be added to the register.
12. Disclosure of information outside the research group
The researcher may provide other units at Arcada (eg the departments, Arcada Study services, the 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 the research group at Arcada.
13. Transmission of data outside the EU and the EEA
Research data and personal data are not transferred outside the EU or the EEA.
14. Automated decision making
Automated decisions are not made on the basis of collected research data.
15. Principles for the protection of personal data
Material protection
All research data is in electronic format and is processed in information systems that only the project researchers have access to. The access is based on Arcada login with username and password, and the information systems track the use of data.
Pseudonymisation and anonymisation
The material is pseudonymised at each collection stage, which means that direct identification information is removed: first name and last name (p. 11) are removed and the username is replaced with a pseudonym that only named persons have access to (p. 10).
16. Processing of personal data after the research has been completed
Materials containing personal data are destroyed after they have been pseudonymised and merged with previous (pseudonymised) data.
Research data is archived without identification data in a pseudonymised format at the university, possibly also in the Finnish social science data archive in an anonymised format (without a pseudonymisation key).
17. The informant’s rights
The informant’s rights
Information about the informant's rights can be found here.
Exceptions to the informant's rights
Exceptions from the informant's rights are made in this research project to the extent that the informant can exercise her/his rights only within a limited time after each data collection. At a later date, the exercise of the right would partly require a disproportionate amount of work effort, and partly make it impossible to replicate analyses due to the changed content of research data.