Why we collect and use student information

• To provide services and enhance the student
• Program evaluation to improve services and outcomes for students
• Infrastructure and supporting services
• University planning and reporting needs

Once a student is enrolled in the University, a student record is created. Information from the application process is brought into the record and is continually updated throughout a student’s time at the University. Information in the record may pertain to the student’s academic and campus/student life experiences. 

1. To provide services and enhance the student experience at the University

In many instances, we may need to use information that directly identifies you to confirm your eligibility. This includes your name and contact information, and your UTORid. It may also include your academic program information, depending on the service being provided. This information is shared only with those staff/faculty who need this information to provide a particular service.  For example:

Academic life

• Registering for programs and courses through ACORN
• Academic advising and support services
• Graduate academic communication services
• Library services
• Searching or applying for scholarships and awards
• Supporting student self-assessment and management of their learning – e.g., through Degree Explorer or providing student’s grade compared against class distribution
• ACORN, Quercus, and other student web services
• Accessibility and accommodations
• Opportunities for learning abroad

Campus/student life

• Student orientation (domestic and international)
• Athletics centres
• TCard
• Housing
• Understanding student engagement and participation in services and programs through the Co-Curricular Record
• Graduate professional development resources
• Career exploration and advice

2. Program evaluation to improve services and outcomes for students

The University uses data to help continuously improve curricular and co-curricular programming for the purpose of improving the student experience and supporting academic success.  

Examples of program evaluation activities include:

a. Your instructor may use information from Quercus and other sources directly related to a course they are teaching to help inform changes to the content or improve the design and delivery of the course. This may include identifying student information but only the information the instructor would normally have access to in their role as a course instructor.

b. Faculty and/or staff in a particular program may come together to examine student success across several courses to inform course design and delivery, including what courses should be pre-requisites for others. For these purposes, the University routinely works with [no-glossary]de-identifiedde-identified
Information about an individual that has had personal details removed or altered to reduce the ability to re-identify the individual. There are levels of de-identification to balance the need to hide the identity vs. permit statistical analyses. [/no-glossary] or [no-glossary]aggregatedaggregated
Information that is collected from multiple individuals and compiled into data summaries or summary reports, for the purposes of public reporting or statistical analysis.[/no-glossary] student information.

Programs and courses are often evaluated by surveying students of the program.  In these cases, student contact information (e.g., email address) is needed to send the survey. Participation in the survey is optional and the survey itself may be [no-glossary]anonymousanonymous
Information about an individual that has never had an identity attached to it.  For example, a survey may be anonymous if it has never included information which could directly or indirectly identify the survey respondent.[/no-glossary]. The survey invitation would be sent by those who are authorized to access student email addresses.

3. Infrastructure and supporting services

Student information is also collected and used to provide general services to campus members.  Key examples are:

Wi-Fi services

The University keeps logs of Wi-Fi access for operational and security purposes, including investigating information security incidents.

• These logs include [no-glossary]personal informationpersonal information
  Any factual or subjective information, whether recorded or not, about an identifiable individual.[/no-glossary] such as your UTORid, email and IP address.
• These are maintained for up to 6 months, depending on the use.

Consistent with law and university policy, these logs may be used when there is a student in crisis or to respond to a law enforcement request.

The University does not routinely monitor specific students’ movements, web browsing, or online activity outside of University applications. Within University applications (e.g., Quercus), usage statistics are automatically collected and stored to administer, document and deliver educational programs. 

For details, please see “What information is stored in the applications that make up the Academic Toolbox?” on the Academic Toolbox Privacy FAQ website.

Find more information about the University’s policies on appropriate use of information and communications technologies.

Building Security

Building security is managed through a combination of alarm systems, access controls, cameras, and emergency phones.  Some students may be granted off-hours access to selected campus buildings using a key fob. Building access through the fob is recorded for security purposes. 

Building entry and video camera information are used only for building security purposes.

Campus Safety

Campus Safety may collect the name of a student while interacting with them – e.g., in responding to a medical emergency.

If there is an emergency where there is risk to personal safety or University property, they may also obtain information about a student through the Office of the Provost or the Vice-President, People Strategy, Equity & Culture. 

4. University planning and reporting needs

• The University is required to provide identifying [no-glossary]student-levelstudent-level
  Any information collected and recorded about individual students, including: demographic information (e.g., a student’s age, gender, race), enrolment information (e.g., years of attendance), academic information (e.g., the courses completed, test scores, and grades a student has earned)[/no-glossary] information in reports to the Ontario government to support funding allocations. In turn, the Province reports this information to Statistics Canada on behalf of all Ontario universities. 
• Two other types of reports are provided to the Ontario government, but reporting [no-glossary]aggregatedaggregated
  Information that is collected from multiple individuals and compiled into data summaries or summary reports, for the purposes of public reporting or statistical analysis.[/no-glossary] student information only:
  • Analysis of student retention and graduation rates to support planning and government reporting requirements.
  • Analysis of student financial support and net tuition for financial aid program planning and reporting purposes. Multiple datasets are [no-glossary]linkedlinked
    The process of joining electronic records about a person from one source with records about the same person from another source, to create a new record with data from both records.[/no-glossary] to provide a holistic picture of enrolment activity, fees assessed, and financial support provided.
• The University provides [no-glossary]de-identifiedde-identified
  Information about an individual that has had personal details removed or altered to reduce the ability to re-identify the individual. There are levels of de-identification to balance the need to hide the identity vs. permit statistical analyses. [/no-glossary] [no-glossary]student-levelstudent-level
  Any information collected and recorded about individual students, including: demographic information (e.g., a student’s age, gender, race), enrolment information (e.g., years of attendance), academic information (e.g., the courses completed, test scores, and grades a student has earned)[/no-glossary] information to the following groups to benchmark the University’s performance (e.g., graduation rates) against peer universities:
  • The Council of Ontario Universities (COU)
  • Select universities across Canada (U15)
  • American Association of Universities