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Information on the source and use of personal data in the AQU Catalunya employment outcomes survey
We asked those graduating with bachelor's degrees in 2019 and 2020 (and with a degree in Medicine in 2016 and 2017) and with master's degrees, doctoral degrees and higher arts education degrees in 2018 and 2019 to take part in the survey, so that future students have information about the professional opportunities offered by these degrees.
The responses will aid both the degree programmes and the universities that offer them in assessing and improving the education provided. The survey also allows the media, researchers, government and higher education institutions to understand the related sector and graduates' transition into the labour market, thus enabling them to design relevant education and employment policies.
Frequently asked questions by respondents:
- Why do you not have to ask me for consent?
- How will my contact information be used?
- How did the fieldwork company get my contact information?
- What does it mean that the survey is for statistical purposes?
- What will happen to my contact information?
- What are my rights?
- What safeguards does the processing have?
- Is my data securely managed?
- What will you ask me?
- How will I be contacted?
- Who conducts the employment outcomes survey?
- Is it mandatory to answer all the items?
- Will I be contacted for future surveys?
- Questions regarding release of data
- How will my information be used and by whom?
Why do you not have to ask me for consent?
- AQU Catalunya may process the personal data of the graduates in this study without requesting their consent, for statistical purposes and in the public interest, in accordance with CNS Opinion 49/2018 of the Catalan Data Protection Authority (APDCAT).
How will my contact information be used?
- Your personal data will be used to contact you and to carry out statistical processing; for instance, to assess the employment rate and suitability according to the socio-demographic profile and academic profile on an aggregate basis.
- In accordance with Law 23/1998, of 30 December, on statistics in Catalonia (LEC), all individualised data of a private, personal, family, economic or financial nature used to prepare this statistical study are protected by statistical confidentiality (Article 24 and 25). Thus, all persons, bodies and institutions involved in the employment outcomes study are obliged to keep the statistical information secret. This duty must be maintained even after the persons obliged to store it have terminated their professional activities or their connection with the bodies that process or hold statistics (Article 25 et seq. of the LEC).
How did the fieldwork company get my contact information?
- The universities and affiliated centres have provided AQU Catalunya with contact details to carry out the study. AQU Catalunya has verified and used them to contact participants electronically. Subsequently, in cases where contact through electronic means has not been possible, it has sent the contact data to the company in charge of conducting the telephone surveys
- The data sent are those essential to carrying out the study, in accordance with the principle of minimisation of the GDPR.
- Specifically, the following data are collected: gender, age, nationality, name, email, telephone number and municipality. And academic data: admission option used to access the studies, entrance mark, start and end year, qualification and degree obtained.
- According to the APDCAT Opinion (CNS 49/2018), the data obtained are considered adequate for the statistical purpose pursued by the survey or mission carried out in the public interest.
What does it mean that the survey is for statistical purposes?
- A survey for statistical purposes, such as the employment outcomes survey, is any operation for the collection and processing of personal data necessary for statistical surveys or for the production of statistical results. The statistical purpose implies that the results of the processing are not personal but aggregated data, and that the personal results are not used to respond to measures or decisions relating to specific natural persons (recital 162 of the GDPR).
- The employment of university graduates is a statistic of interest to the Generalitat de Catalunya and is considered an official statistic, and the survey of this by telephone has been entrusted to AQU Catalunya, which has contracted the company INSTITUTO DYM, INVESTIGACIONES Y ASESORAMIENTO ECONÓMICO EN DISTRIBUCIÓN MERCADOS Y VENTAS, SA. (hereinafter referred to as Instituto DYM) to carry out the field work.
What will happen to my contact information?
- Both the company in charge of the fieldwork and AQU Catalunya will delete the personal data used to contact you (such as name and surname, telephone number, e-mail address, etc.) within a reasonable period of time, which is expected to be about six months from the end of the fieldwork by the fieldwork company and eighteen months by AQU Catalunya, thus anonymising the data collected.
What are my rights?
- You are not required to complete the survey.
- Data protection legislation gives you the rights of access, rectification, erasure, opposition to processing, restriction of processing, portability and the right to be forgotten in regard to your personal data. However, these rights are limited in certain circumstances when the data are only processed for statistical purposes; for example, if an organisation requests not to be contacted, the record will be blocked, but it will still count as part of the study population.
- If you have questions about how the information held by AQU Catalunya is processed, you can contact ocupadors@aqu.cat
- If you wish to exercise your rights regarding data protection, you can speak to the company when they contact you, or fill in the help desk form and attached the form for the corresponding right, which you will find by following this link.
What safeguards does the processing have?
In accordance with Article 89.1 of the GDPR, processing for statistical purposes must comply with certain safeguards:
- Personal data will be adequate and relevant to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed (data minimisation).
- Only data that are essential for the Employment outcomes survey will be requested.
- In addition, whenever these purposes can be achieved through other processing that does not allow data subjects to be identified, they will be achieved in this way.
Is my data securely managed?
- Yes. AQU Catalunya takes data security very seriously and is committed to keeping data secure. We have ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 27001 (information security) certification, which ensures the quality of our activities and our commitment to information security.
What will you ask me?
- During the survey you will be asked about your current employment situation, the characteristics of your job and, failing that, the reasons why you are currently unemployed. You will be asked for your opinion on training aspects and their usefulness on the job.
- If you are working, you will be asked about the range within which your gross annual salary falls.
- You will also be asked questions related to socio-demographic elements such as your parents' level of education, occupations and place of birth. This block of questions aims to assess the fairness of employment outcomes.
- You can view the survey questionnaires here.
How will I be contacted?
- During the month of November 2022, fieldwork will begin with the electronic surveys. Each person with a degree in the different types of studies specified above, and with the necsary information available, will receive an e-mail invitation with a link to complete the survey, which can be completed until December 2022.
- All those who have not completed the electronic survey will be contacted by telephone between January and May 2023 by the external company contracted (Instituto DYM) so that they can complete the survey.
Who conducts the employment outcomes survey?
- The survey is coordinated by AQU Catalunya, at the request of the participating universities, in order to help the universities and centres to comply with the obligation to provide information on the employment outcomes of the degree programmes they offer. AQU Catalunya, by means of a public contract under the framework agreement for services to carry out surveys for the Centre for Opinion Studies, has contracted the company Instituto DYM, to carry out the fieldwork (telephone interviews).
- Instituto DYM is working on behalf of AQU Catalunya to carry out the telephone surveys.
- In the case of electronic interviews, it is AQU Catalunya who has programmed the surveys and the sending of the same.
Is it mandatory to answer all the items?
- In the case of electronic interviews, all questions are mandatory except for the question on gross annual salary and the clauses on release of information for purposes other than the survey itself (see section: "Questions regarding release of data"). Should the respondent not want to answer all the items, they have the option of doing so during the phone survey, skipping the questions they do not want to answer.
Will I be contacted for future surveys?
- Any future contact by AQU Catalunya would always be through a new release of data by your higher education institution.
- There may be statistical agencies that want to contact you at a later date for public interest surveys. If you are contacted again, this contact will come from your higher education institution or the organisation conducting the research and will include the appropriate privacy information.
Questions regarding release of data
- Bachelor's and master's degree graduates who are working at the time of the survey are offered the option of providing contact information (name of the company or institution and an e-mail address) of the company or institution where they are working. The purpose of this information is to enable AQU Catalunya to obtain contacts for the study it is carrying out on the employers' opinion regarding the suitability of university training.
- All respondents have the possibility of being entered in a prize draw as an incentive for having answered a minimum number of survey questions (see the Terms and Conditions of the draw for more information). However, to be eligible, acceptance of data processing for this new purpose is required.
How will my information be used and by whom?
- Your answers will be given to the university or institution where you have studied, ensuring that personal results are not used to respond to actions or decisions regarding specific individuals but for statistical purposes only. The aim is that the centres use the data to reflect on, assess and improve employability after completing their degree programmes.
- AQU Catalunya will use your answers to draw up key statistical indicators for the diagnosis and assessment of degree programmes, aimed at university managers and other university governing and assessment bodies.
- It is expected that data will be communicated to the Ministry of Research and Universities of the Generalitat de Catalunya for the processing activity "UNEIX University Community", which has as its purpose the compiling of both public and internal statistics, as well as to Idescat, also for statistical purposes.
- These indicators will be publicly disseminated on an aggregate basis (by degree programme, centre, etc.) through AQU Catalunya's web portals, in order to produce public statistics and account for the activity of AQU Catalunya and the higher education system.
- The data will also be accessible, in an anonymised form, to research groups that request it for the drawing up of studies concerning equal opportunities, educational quality and other research objects. You can consult the research carried out so far here.