Your personal details
Who can access your personal details?
Protection of your personal details
Privacy legislation obligations
Grievance procedures
Further information
Your personal details
All of your personal details in relation to your Commonwealth assistance are protected. Accessing these details is subject to Commonwealth privacy legislation when handling personal details. Your higher education provider (provider) is responsible for giving you appropriate privacy notices at the time that you provide your personal information.
All personal details held in the Higher Education Information Management System (HEIMS) are subject to the strict privacy requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 and the Higher Education Support Act 2003. These privacy requirements govern the:
Who can access your personal details?
Your personal details can be accessed by:
- Your provider and their officers, employees and anyone that performs services by or on their behalf;
- you, in a procedure that must be made available, at no charge, by your provider
- the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) in the course of official employment; and
- the Tax Office (ATO) where you have incurred a debt under the Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP).
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Protection of your personal details
To ensure a high level of data security of all IT systems and data the HEIMS system will use DEEWR’s existing IT security framework based on Commonwealth Guidelines.
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Privacy legislation obligations
Higher education providers and their officers, employees and anyone that performs services by or on behalf of the provider are required to comply with Commonwealth privacy legislation when handling personal details relating to your Commonwealth assistance. There are strict penalties for officers of providers and the Commonwealth who misuse your personal information.
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Grievance procedures
All higher education providers must have grievance procedures in place for dealing with your complaints about non academic matters. If you have a complaint about your provider misusing your personal details you should follow this grievance procedure.
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Further information
For more information on privacy legislation you should check the following:
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