Privacy policy

The Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) takes your privacy and the protection of your personal information extremely serious.

Students and alumni

The Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) takes your privacy and the protection of your personal information as a student or alumnus very seriously. That is why we make every effort to comply with privacy legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and to take the necessary security measures. With this privacy statement we inform you about how ITM handles your personal data.

What data do we process and for which purpose?

As a student, we need a lot of data from you; whether you are following a doctoral programme, master's programme, postgraduate course, short course or other programme. ITM processes student data in the student and education administration on a legal and contractual basis.

What data we collect depends on the course you are taking and its context (foreign student, scholarship applications, etc.).

We process the following categories of personal data:

  • Identification and contact details

  • National identification number/Royal registration number

  • Financial data (invoices, bank account number, etc.)

  • Personal characteristics (data such as age, gender, marital status, spoken language, etc.)

  • Data concerning your health (only if necessary for the provision of services)

  • Data on your level of education and professional career (diplomas, CV, home institution data, etc.)

  • Photographs of yourself

  • Video recordings (if applicable)

We process this data for various purposes.

Within the framework of training, study guidance and student facilities

For your registration and file as a student, of course, but also for e.g. whether you meet the admission requirements for a course and the selection procedure or for obtaining a scholarship. Furthermore, limited identification data, contact data and your photograph may be shared with the internal and external lecturers as well as the education coordination and secretarial offices responsible for the organisation and providing of the training.

Where necessary, we also process your data for all kinds of practical services in the surrounding area, such as RIZIV accreditations for trainee doctors, visa applications for foreign students, travel bookings and accommodation arrangements.

Alumni cooperation

At the start of your studies, you are invited to activate an account on ITM ALUMNI CONNECT, the online alumni platform that connects ITM students, alumni and staff. This allows you, after your studies, to stay involved in the network and informed about alumni activities. This online platform includes information about the activities of the network and its members, alumni travel grants, job opportunities and research opportunities.

When registering on the online alumni platform (with active opt-in), the following personal data of the user are required to activate his/her account:

  • First name

  • Surname

  • E-mail

  • Cluster (student, alumnus and/or staff)

  • Most recent or current ITM course

  • Year of graduation

  • Place of residence

When setting up his/her profile and during the use of the platform, the user is informed that the following personal data are collected:

  • Personal identification data: first name, last name, gender, ID/profile photo, date of birth, spoken language, nationality, e-mail, telephone, address

  • Electronic identification data (IP addresses, cookies)

  • Education

  • Work experience and CV (including professional qualifications and diplomas)

  • Your location

  • More generally, all user-published content on the platform

Data processing is clearly explained in the privacy policy of the online platform.

The provider of the online alumni platform, KIT UNITED SAS - HIVEBRITE, as well as ITM, are bound by European data protection legislation. The data protection of the platform is thus also fully GDPR-compliant.

Research, policy and quality purposes

Anonymised data can be used to make analyses about the educational offer and to improve the quality of our education.

When personal data is processed for research, or students or alumni are contacted for participation in an evaluation or research, this will always be submitted internally to ITMs Ethics Committee or to the Data Protection Officer for evaluation before data processing can begin.

Proctoring

For the administration of evaluations and exams, ITM may rely on proctoring solutions. These are software solutions that make it possible to conduct exams remotely. Depending on the context (e.g. reduced mobility of the student, travel restrictions such as during the covid-19 pandemic, etc.), it may be decided to use proctoring.

This means that it might be possible that you are electronically tracked and filmed in a private environment in order to exclude fraud. Strict attention will be paid to minimise any breach of privacy. You will be informed extensively about such a procedure beforehand.

When registering as a student at ITM, the student agrees that ITM reserves the possibility of proctoring. A strict data processing agreement was is concluded with the IT supplier of the system that prohibits the further use of collected data by them. ITM will also never process these data for any other purposes than control over student examinations.

You have a partial right of access to this collected data but usually no right to have it deleted. These data may be necessary to prove guilt or innocence in an investigation or court case.

Security and confidentiality

ITM ensures the security of central and decentralised IT through its data protection and information security policy. A strict authorisation management determines who is allowed to consult, modify and, if necessary, delete data. This is done on the basis of roles and tasks related to the functions of staff members.

Is your data also shared with others?

Your data may be passed on to internal and external recipients or processors where necessary and permitted. This can be done in the following ways.

Fellow students and others

No data about you will be shared with parents, relatives or other third parties, unless they can prove that they legally represent you or that you explicitly agree to the communication of certain data.

Students can only look up their fellow students' e-mail addresses, the course and the location where this course is taking place. They cannot consult or request any other personal data of their fellow students without their consent.

Credit transfers and results obtained may also be transferred to the student's home institution.

Legal obligations

ITM is legally obliged to make certain transfers to government bodies (e.g. for applications concerning grants and accreditations).

At the request of embassies or other (foreign) government institutions, we will never pass on personal data of course participants or alumni if there is no valid legal basis for doing so (e.g. a legal requirement or your consent).

When you apply for a scholarship, your personal data may be shared with the provider of the scholarship (e.g. the Directorate General for Development Cooperation).

At the request of the police and judicial authorities, personal data of students may be disclosed. To the extent permitted by law, you will be informed of this.

Transfers in the context of administration and monitoring

There may also be transfers for a number of administrative matters, such as the bank (for payment cards), embassies for visa applications, travel agencies, insurance companies, etc.

Authentication of diplomas

By registering, course participants agree to:

have documents they submit in order to obtain certain rights checked for authenticity and truthfulness by the issuing authorities;

confirm the authenticity of documents which ITM has (allegedly) issued to them if requested by third parties.

Training given in partnerships

For courses organised in partnership, transfer to the partner institution can take place (such as the Master in Global One Health in cooperation with the University of Pretoria or the course "Clinical Infectiology and Medical Microbiology" in cooperation with various Flemish universities). This will only be done for the data relevant and necessacy for organising the training. Eventually, some of your data may also be visible to external instructors and fellow students, for example.

Processors

Your data may - on behalf of ITM - be shared with processors such as suppliers of IT solutions. The degree of transfer or possible access by such suppliers (personal data processors) depends on the services provided but is always minimised as much as possible. Such processors are subject to very strict rules regarding access, transfers, security measures and permissible purposes for the processing by means of a data processing agreement. All suppliers are also bound by the European data protection legislation (GDPR).

Image policy

During the educational career of students, images are regularly made during and outside the educational moments (online lessons, receptions, graduation ceremonies, excursions, ...). For this purpose, ITM has drawn up a policy on video/audio recordings and photography in the context of educational purposes. External lecturers and students are informed by the course secretariat and/or the organiser of seminars & debates that photographs are regularly taken at ITM during educational activities. Acceptance to pose for a photo is considered as verbal or tacit permission. For publication of a portrait photo, written permission is requested from the person depicted, including a description of the intended purpose.

How long will your data be stored?

Your data will not be kept longer than necessary to achieve the purposes of the processing. However, educational institutions are subject to many legal obligations with regard to the authenticity and maintenance of data on who has taken which courses, whether they have passed or not, etc. It is also important for you, in view of your later career, that these data remain available in a correct manner.

Thus, results (credit certificate or diploma obtained or not) are stored indefinitely.

Alumni data (name, e-mail address, country, course and year) will also be stored in the alumni database until you decide to unsubscribe. You can do this at any time. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter and/or the newsletter of the online alumni platform or change your subscription preferences via the link at the bottom of both newsletters. You can unsubscribe as a member of the Alumni Network by sending an email to alumniITM@itg.be. 

What are your rights?

The personal data of course participants is protected in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 and the ITM Data Protection Policy. All learners may, in accordance with data protection legislation, request access to and, if necessary, correction and copying of the personal data held electronically about them by ITM once a year. This can be done by sending a request to the Head of the Education Office.

Via My Applications and our Moodle training platform, you can log in at any time and view and correct your own entries.

You may also ask us at any time what data of yours we are processing and to whom we are passing it on. Please send an e-mail to informatieveiligheid@itg.be or call +32(0)3 247 07 43. General complaints can be made via complaints@itg.be

If you believe that ITM is not handling your personal data correctly, you can always lodge a complaint with the Belgian Data Protection Authority.

Contact

Information security

informatieveiligheid@itg.be
+32 (0)3 247 07 43

If you have any questions about our privacy policy, don't hesitate to contact us.