Data privacy notice – Student councelling services

The data privacy notice applies to the personal data of counselling clients processed by the University of Oulu student counselling services.

Data privacy notice updated 13.10.2026

Data controllers

University of Oulu
Pentti Kaiteran katu 1, Linnanmaa
P.O. Box 8000
90014 University of Oulu
Phone +358 294 48 0000

Unit in charge of the processing

Learning Support and Wellbeing Centre
Director
Kauko
Keskisärkkä
opiskeluntuki@oulu.fi
Contact person for more information
  • Contact details of the student support services
    opiskeluntuki@oulu.fi

University Data Protection Officer:

dpo(at)oulu.fi

Purpose of processing personal data and legal basis for processing personal data

Purpose of processing personal data

The purpose of the processing of personal data in student support services is to facilitate the design and implementation of the counselling. In addition, pseudonymised personal data are processed for statistical purposes. Statistics are gathered for the purpose of developing the activities of the University of Oulu’s support services to students.

Legal basis for data processing

The consent of the data subject

The processing of personal data is based on written consent to the counselling obtained in conjunction with the request for an appointment.

Personal data to be processed

Name of the student
Telephone number
E-mail address
Faculty
Major subject
Year of commencement of the studies
Number of credits
Grounds for seeking the counselling
Summary of the counselling
Proof of visits on the student’s request
Additional data provided by the students themselves

Data source and description of the data source (if the personal data has not been obtained from the data subject)

Information is collected from the following sources:

Data reported by the client.
Data generated during the counselling.
Subject to the client’s consent, data received from the client’s relatives.
Subject to the client’s consent, data received from referring parties and care providers.

Recipients or categories of recipients of personal data

Transfer of data only takes place within the scope of the counselling plan prepared under the client’s consent. Data is processed only in connection with the counselling relationship.

In case of further referral, data may, subject to consent stated in the client documents, be transferred to a health care unit/professional or other parties, such as the education planners of the university, as specified by the client.

Information of transfers of personal data to third countries or international organisations

The data is not transferred outside the European Union.

Information of data storage time

Personal data is stored for four years after the last counselling session.

Data subject rights

You have the following rights as a data subject:

  • Right to access your data
  • Right to have inaccurate data corrected (make sure to keep your contact information up to date)
  • In certain situations, the right to have data erased ("right to be forgotten")
  • In certain situations, the right to restriction of processing
  • In certain situations, the right to object to processing
  • In certain situations, the right to have data transferred from one system to another if the processing is based on consent or agreement and is performed automatically.

Please note that the applicability and scope of your above-mentioned rights will be specified on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation, depending on e.g. the grounds for processing the data, and that you do not have the above-mentioned rights in all cases.

How can you exercise your rights?

If you have questions concerning your rights, you can contact the data protection officer or unit’s contact person.

If you wish to exercise your rights mentioned above, please send your request to: kirjaamo(at)oulu.fi.

You will get a reply with necessary instructions.

To exercise the rights stated hereinabove, contact the student support services after which your request shall be processed in accordance with the university’s practices.

  • In the request, state your name, contact details (e.g. email address or telephone number) and how you would like to exercise your rights mentioned hereinabove.

Right of appeal to the supervisory authority

In addition to the rights mentioned above, you have the right to file a complaint about the processing of your personal data with the Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman as the supervisory authority.

The contact details and opening hours can be found on the website of the Data Protection Ombudsman.

Automated decision-making or processing the personal data for other purposes

No

General description of the technical and organisational protection measures

The University as the Data Controller uses appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against damage or loss of personal data.

Processed data is confidential. Personal data may only be processed by persons whose work requires it (career counsellor, system administrator). All persons who process your personal data are obliged to maintain confidentiality.

The data comprises manual (paper records) and electronic material. Paper records are stored during the counselling and four years after the counselling has ended in locked cabinets inside locked offices with access only by persons involved in the counselling (psychologist, psychologist trainee, career counsellor).

Electronic material consists of data gathered when the appointment was made. The appointment form is SSL secured and accessed using the student ID. Appointment data is stored 24 hours starting from the time of submission in the service provider’s password-protected system with access only by persons involved in the counselling, or the system administrator, when necessary. After this, the data will be sent via SSL secured e-mail to the Service Desk system of the university. During the counselling relationship, the data is stored in the Service Desk on a university server with access only by persons involved in the counselling and system maintenance, when necessary (career counsellor, system administrator). After the counselling has ended, the data is deleted from the system.