Privacy and confidentiality policy 02-1006 

 

Purpose 

An individual’s right to keep their personal information private is a priority to everyone at Melbourne City Institute of Education. We are committed to protecting and maintaining the privacy, accuracy and security of each individual’s personal information and records. 

We may require the collection of an individual’s personal information to enable us to provide our products and services or for the purposes of training or employment. We take our obligations under the Privacy Act seriously, and as such, will take all reasonable steps to comply with the Act and protect the privacy or personal information that we hold. 

This Policy supports our commitment to the protection and non-disclosure of personal and sensitive information of our students, domestic and international, and provides staff with a better understanding of the type of personal information that MCIE holds on these individuals. 

 

Responsibilities 

It is the responsibility of all MCIE staff and management to ensure that the personal information of individuals undertaking studies or who are employed by MCIE, to implement this policy and associated procedures. 

 

MCIE privacy policy for students 

Definitions 

We, our, institute, MCIE and us For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, these words refer to Melbourne City Institute of Education (ABN: 11938741874). 

Site Refers to materials and services delivered on or through the MCIE website (including its associated blogs and applications) located at the domain name www.mcie.edu.au and www.earnandlearn.com.au. 

You, your and individual Refers to students and prospective students (where appropriate) engaging with MCIE’s services or using the materials and services as provided on the Sites. 

You agree to our collection, use and storage of your personal and sensitive information as described in this Privacy Policy. 

Ensure this information is read carefully and understood, prior to engaging in any of our services. Affiliate Site/Platform refers to a third-party platform, affiliated with Melbourne City Institute of Education, where you may enter your information. Our Affiliate Sites include the LIVECHAT System & VETenrol [VETtrack]. 

Why we collect your personal information 

As a registered training organisation (RTO), we collect your personal information so we can process and manage your enrolment in a vocational education and training (VET) course with us. 

 

How we use your personal information 

We use your personal information to enable us to deliver VET courses to you, and otherwise, as needed, to comply with our obligations as an RTO. 

 

How we disclose your personal information 

We are required by law (under the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (Cth) (NVETR Act)) to disclose the personal information we collect about you to the National VET Data Collection kept by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research Ltd (NCVER). The NCVER is responsible for collecting, managing, analysing and communicating research and statistics about the Australian VET sector. 

We are also authorised by law (under the NVETR Act) to disclose your personal information to the relevant state or territory training authority. 

 

Privacy policy and media consent
I understand that my contact details may be used by MCIE to communicate information to me and photographs or video taken on MCIE premises may be used for marketing purposes. I agree to the Privacy Policy as outlined at www.mcie.edu.au/privacy-policy.

 

How the NCVER and other bodies handle your personal information 

The NCVER will collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with the law, including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and the NVETR Act. Your personal information may be used and disclosed by NCVER for purposes that include populating authenticated VET transcripts; administration of VET; facilitation of statistics and research relating to education, including surveys and data linkage; and understanding the VET market. 

The NCVER is authorised to disclose information to the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE), Commonwealth authorities, State and Territory authorities (other than registered training organisations) that deal with matters relating to VET and VET regulators for the purposes of those bodies, including to enable: 

  • administration of VET, including program administration, regulation, monitoring and evaluation 
  • facilitation of statistics and research relating to education, including surveys and data linkage 
  • understanding how the VET market operates, for policy, workforce planning and consumer information. 

The NCVER may also disclose personal information to persons engaged by NCVER to conduct research on NCVER’s behalf. 

The NCVER does not intend to disclose your personal information to any overseas recipients. 

For more information about how the NCVER will handle your personal information please refer to the NCVER’s Privacy Policy at www.ncver.edu.au/privacy. 

If you would like to seek access to or correct your information, in the first instance, please contact MCIE using the contact details listed in the section Contact information below. 

DESE is authorised by law, including the Privacy Act and the NVETR Act, to collect, use and disclose your personal information to fulfil specified functions and activities. For more information about how the DESE will handle your personal information, please refer to the DESE VET Privacy Notice at https://www.dese.gov.au/national-vet-data/vet-privacy-notice. 

 

Surveys 

You may receive a student survey which may be run by a government department or an NCVER employee, agent, third-party contractor or another authorised agency. Please note you may opt out of the survey at the time of being contacted. 

 

Contact information 

At any time, you may contact MCIE via the online student request form to: 

  • request access to your personal information 
  • correct your personal information 
  • make a complaint about how your personal information has been handled 
  • ask a question about this Privacy Notice 

 

MCIE’s privacy policy for employees and other individuals 

This Privacy Policy outlines our practices relating to the collection, use, disclosure and storage of an individual’s personal and sensitive information. Personal and sensitive information is generally information about an individual that makes the identity of an individual reasonably clear. 

The Privacy Act 1988 is an Act that regulates the transparent handling of personal information about individuals. This includes the collection, use, storage and disclosure of personal information to other individuals, Government entities or other organisations either by law or for other purposes. The Privacy Act includes 13 Privacy Principles that apply to the handling and use of personal and sensitive information. 

 

Publication of this privacy policy 

This Privacy Policy will be made available to all individuals on the MCIE website at www.mcie.edu.au/privacy-policy. 

In order for us to ensure that individuals have provided us with their content for the use of their personal information to be disclosed to certain third parties, we will advise students upon enrolment and staff upon employment about this policy and clearly outline where it is located. 

 

Use of personal and sensitive information 

Personal information about students studying with and employees of MCIE may be shared with the Commonwealth and State Government agencies and designated authorities (The Australian Skills Quality Authority, The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) and the Department of Education and Training), the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA) as the ESOS Assurance Fund Manager of the Tuition Assurance Schemes of which the institute is a member. 

 

Collection of personal and sensitive information 

Information that we collect is compliant with the requirements of the Standards for Registered Training Organisations, the National VET Regulator Act 2011, Data Provision Requirements 2020 and the requirements for Total VET Activity Reporting as approved by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment. 

 

The personal and sensitive information, which we collect may include, without limitation: 

  • The individual’s name 
  • Gender 
  • Date of Birth 
  • Employment 
  • Academic history 
  • Postal address 
  • Email 
  • Telephone number 
  • Credit card details 
  • Payment details 
  • Reasons for study 
  • Tax File Number 
  • Health information 
  • Ethnicity 
  • Language and literacy 
  • Memberships and any Associations 
  • Other Legal requirements 

Generally, we collect this information directly from the individual. Though there is no obligation for an individual to provide information, if we are not provided all required details, we may not be able to provide the individual with the services as intended and agreed. 

 

Any of the information we collect from individuals may be used in one of the following ways: 

  • To personalise their experience 
  • To provide our services to them, to communicate with them about their use of our services and for other customer service purposes 
  • To improve our site and affiliate sites 
  • To improve customer service 
  • To process transactions 
  • To send periodic emails 
  • To provide information that the individual has agreed to receive from us in response to their opt-in request. 

In the event of a judicial proceeding, court order, legal process or at the request of any law enforcement agency, we may need to disclose the individual’s personal and sensitive information as required, should their identity be involved in a breach or suspected breach of any Australian law. 

Upon the individual’s agreement, they may receive emails that may include company news, updates, related products or service information or information about events that they may be interested in. If, at any time they would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, they may do so via the clear unsubscribe link on the communication from us or they may contact us and we will do it for them. 

By choosing to stop receiving all communications from MCIE or through our system, the individual will no longer receive any emails. We do not recommend that they do this unless they plan to no longer use our services. Even after they opt-out of all communications, we will retain their information in accordance with this Policy, however, we will no longer use it to contact them. 

Our servers automatically record certain information when individuals access our site via any internet browser. As our site uses cookies, we may also collect information about their interaction with a service, browser type, browser language, the date and time, their location and more. Individuals have the option to disable cookies in their browsers. 

Unless individuals give us explicit consent otherwise, we will act in accordance with this Privacy Policy about our collection and use of personal and sensitive information.  

Please make note, any information individuals share on a public forum or social media platform, is treated as public information. The collection of information is bound by the individual’s own information collection policies and practices. If they want to know more, please refer to the websites own Privacy Policy. Personal and sensitive information may also be collected to assess their entitlement to Commonwealth assistance. We will disclose this information to the Federal Departments of Education and Employment for these purposes.  

These Departments may disclose information to the Australian Taxation Office in the carrying out of respective functions. 

 

How we collect information 

Personal and sensitive information is generally collected through the completion of the MCIE enrolment process, the staff onboarding process, the student request, feedback or complaint procedure, through the completion of an application for recognition of prior learning, or via our sites. 

 

How is data stored and security information 

We take all reasonable steps to protect the security of the personal and sensitive information that we hold. This includes reasonable measures to protect electronic materials and materials generated and stored. 

We ensure the personal and sensitive information we hold on any individual is protected against interference, loss, unauthorised access, use, modification, copying, download or disclosure. All MCIE staff are bound to act in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles, this Privacy Policy and the privacy and confidentiality requirements specified in the MCIE Employee Policies and Procedures. 

If personal and sensitive information held by MCIE is no longer required, and we are not required by law to retain it, then we will destroy such personal information. 

An individual’s personal information is not shared, sold, traded or otherwise transferred to outside parties other than those explicitly listed within this Privacy Policy. We may also release an individual’s information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others’ rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses. 
We may transfer some or all of an individual’s personal information in connection with any merger, acquisition, dissolution, or transaction or proceeding involving the sale, transfer, divestiture, or disclosure of all or a portion of our business or assets. If another company acquires all or a portion of our business, or assets, that company will possess all or some of an individual’s personal information collected by us. 

While we take all due care in ensuring the privacy and security of an individual’s personal and sensitive information, the possibility exists that this information could be unlawfully intercepted while in transit over the internet or while stored on our systems or on our website. We disclaim all liability to individuals to the greatest extent pursuant to law should this occur. 

 

Access and amendments 

To ensure we have the correct information at all times, it is the student’s responsibility to contact us to inform us of any changes to their personal and sensitive information. Upon request, any personal and sensitive information will be made available to a student and any changes can be made. There are no fees associated with accessing or changing a student’s personal information. To access their own personal and sensitive information or to make a change, students should submit an online student request form on MCIE’s website. 

 

Disclosure of personal and sensitive information 

Personal and sensitive information about students (including international students) studying with MCIE may be shared with the Australian Government and designated authorities, including the ESOS Assurance Fund Manager and the Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA) as the Manager of the Tuition Assurance Schemes of the Institute as a member. 

Personal information may be disclosed to the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), the Department of Education and Training (DET) and the National Centre for Vocational Education and Research (NCVER) when carrying out their regulatory and statistical functions in the VET sector. 

In accordance with Australian Privacy Principles, MCIE will not disclose a candidate’s or a student’s personal and sensitive information to another person or organisation unless: 

  • they have given written consent to the disclosure; 
  • we believe that the disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the life or health of the individual concerned or of another person; 
  • the disclosure is required or authorised by or under law; or 
  • the disclosure is reasonably necessary for the enforcement of the criminal law or of a law imposing a pecuniary penalty, or for the protection of the public revenue. 

 

Disclosure of information overseas 

In accordance with Australian Privacy Principle 8, before MCIE discloses any personal or sensitive information about a student, we will ensure the recipient is subject to a law that is considerably similar to the way in which the Australian Privacy Principles protect the information. Or, we will ensure the receiving party acts in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. 

Our commitment to your privacy 

All MCIE staff are committed to their obligations under the Australian Privacy Principles. 

 

The Australian Privacy Principles are: 

  • Australian Privacy Principle 1—open and transparent management of personal information 
  • Australian Privacy Principle 2—anonymity and pseudonymity 
  • Australian Privacy Principle 3—collection of solicited personal information 
  • Australian Privacy Principle 4—dealing with unsolicited personal information 
  • Australian Privacy Principle 5—notification of the collection of personal information 
  • Australian Privacy Principle 6—use or disclosure of personal information 
  • Australian Privacy Principle 7—direct marketing 
  • Australian Privacy Principle 8—crossborder disclosure of personal information 
  • Australian Privacy Principle 9—adoption, use or disclosure of government related identifiers 
  • Australian Privacy Principle 10—quality of personal information 
  • Australian Privacy Principle 11—security of personal information 
  • Australian Privacy Principle 12—access to personal information 
  • Australian Privacy Principle 13—correction of personal information 

 

Changes to this policy 

We may change this Policy from time to time, so be sure to check back periodically. If we make any changes to this Policy that considerably affects our practices with regard to the personal and sensitive information we have previously collected from individuals, we will endeavour to notify them in advance of such change, by highlighting the change on our sites. 

 

Contact and complaints 

Should a candidate or student have any questions, concerns or comments in regard to this Privacy Policy, or if they would like to update their information, they should submit a request via MCIE’s online student request form. A member of staff should email their request to support@mcie.edu.au. 

If a candidate or student has any concerns regarding the privacy of their personal information, then they may lodge a complaint to the Managing Director via the Student Requests, Feedback, Appeals & Complaints page on our website. A member of staff should email their issue to complaint@mcie.edu.au.