Privacy of Personal Information

Massey University will collect, use, store, and disclose personal information relating to students in accordance with the provisions of the Privacy Act 1993.  Where practicable all such personal information is obtained directly from students, or from their nominated agent(s).  Additionally, information may be obtained or verified through relevant government or education agencies, including the New Zealand National Student Index.

Information will be stored on University files and database(s) and all reasonable security measures will be maintained.  A unique identifier will be assigned to each student, which will be used in conjunction with a secondary means of identification or password/PIN.

Staff members and other personnel within the University or within agencies under contract to the University will have access to students’ personal information for purposes relevant to normal university operations including but not limited to: student recruitment, marketing, admission, enrolment, study, academic progress, tuition fees and charges, establishing and maintaining academic and graduation records, assessment, academic agreements (exchange/ study abroad partners, scholarship providers or sponsors, programme delivery partners), academic advice & support, student services, discipline, security and safety, Library and IT services, managing students’ association(s) membership and records, managing records of graduates, and other alumni, and managing and improving the quality of services provided by the University.

In order to conduct its proper business and as required under the Education Act 1989 and other laws, regulations, and contractual agreements by which it is bound, the University may use the student information it holds and may disclose information to external agencies such as government departments, bodies responsible for course moderation and professional accreditation or membership, agencies for financial support and pastoral care, and university student and alumni associations.

Such agencies include, but are not limited to:

• 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)
• Inland Revenue Department
• Te Puni Kōkiri
• Immigration New Zealand (for students who are not NZ citizens)
• Relevant Professional bodies
• Course moderation or accreditation bodies
• Tertiary Education Commission
• Ministry of Trade and Enterprise
• Education New Zealand

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).

Where provision or disclosure of information is voluntary or falls outside the scope of information the University is permitted to collect, store, use and disclose under the Privacy Act 1993, students will be advised and their consent will be obtained prior to the provision or disclosure of information.

The University will make information held about students available to them upon request and in accordance with the Privacy Act 1993, which also describes the conditions under which information may be withheld. Students have the right to request correction of personal information held in accordance with the provisions of the Privacy Act 1993. 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.

This privacy statement operates in conjunction with any other privacy statement.

Website privacy

The University uses a number of tools and mechanisms to record the following non-identifying information in relation to website users:

• The internet address of the browser being used
• The user’s  internet server address
• The user’s domain name
• The IP address of the user
• The date, time and duration of the user’s visit to our web site
• The pages accessed and the documents the user downloaded
• The previous site the user visited
• The type of web browser software used

The University uses this information to: aggregate website statistics and measure traffic patterns to, from, and within this site; help us to better understand our website audience; improve our services to students, and; for targeted marketing and student recruitment purposes.

A cookie is a small text file which has a limited lifetime. Information supplied by cookies helps us to understand our visitors and how they use our site, and provides users with a better experience. The Massey University website uses first-party and third-party cookies in the following ways:

1. to personalise your visit to the Massey website
2. to provide information about Massey to you throughout your browsing experience
3. to obtain non-identifying information about your demographic group and general interests
4. to serve ads based on your past visits to our site

You can choose to opt out of Google Analytics for at any time by changing your ad settings. You can also use the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on so your visits are not tracked into Google Analytics.

Page authorised by Web Content Manager
Last updated on Friday 19 August 2016