Protection of Personal Data

The University of Antwerp attaches great importance to the protection of your personal privacy.

In this Privacy Statement, the University of Antwerp will inform you about the way in which it handles your personal data. The University of Antwerp reserves the right to make changes to this statement if needed, to address the needs and requirements of society, as well as abide by the relevant laws and regulations. Therefore, the University of Antwerp advises you to consult this statement regularly. The Current Privacy Statement, our Terms of Use and our Cookie Policy together constitute our Privacy Disclaimer.

Identity of Processing Officer - Data protection officer details

The University of Antwerp, Prinsstraat 13, 2000 Antwerp, represented by its rector is responsible for processing your personal data. Our data protection officer has an office at Campus Middelheim, Middelheimlaan 1, 2020 Antwerp and can be reached by email on privacy@uantwerpen.be.

More information on the personal page of the DPO Koen Pepermans

Guarantees for processing personal data:

Your personal data is always treated in accordance with the applicable privacy regulations.

Personal data will only be collected and processed to provide the information requested or to provide an online service. Processing of personal data is limited to the intended objective.

Personal data will not be disclosed to third parties and will not be used for direct marketing, unless you have agreed to this yourself via an 'opt in'.

The University of Antwerp takes the best possible security measures to prevent third parties from misusing your personal data.

Indirect processing of personal data:

The University of Antwerp will, wherever possible, inform you about any indirect processing of personal data.  We will give information on the source of this personal data and the categories of personal data that are processed. For example, contact details are sometimes enriched with publicly available information, such as through LinkedIn.

Purpose and legal basis for the processing of your personal data:

When using our website

You can access most of the information without you having to provide any personal information. In some cases, however, you will be asked for personal data.

Certain personal data, such as cookies, is used to develop user statistics and to improve the security of our websites. You can read our policy on cookies here.

Legal basis: consent (cookies) and required for the delivery of the requested service.

Recruitment of new students

UAntwerp processes the personal data of potential students that is entered voluntarily into the platforms available on the UAntwerp website. The consent given by each potential student covers the purposes for which UAntwerp processes this personal data, such as providing the information requested or registering the student for an event or information session.  UAntwerp has appropriate data processing agreements with the platforms concerned.

Legal basis: consent - necessary for providing the service requested.

As an international exchange student

Universiteit Antwerpen collects your personal data received by your host university on the occasion of your study application for one of the academic studies offered at our university.  These personal data are name, sex, e-mail address, date of birth, nationality and field of study. These personal data are used for registration purposes in our student database called SISA and for the handover of a student card.  Universiteit Antwerpen also processes personal data received by you, such as place of birth, home address, emergency contact information, study results (transcript of records) and language skills (language certificate)  in order to look at your foreknowledge. We furthermore ask you to provide us with a copy of your ID as well as an ID-picture.  Students applying for an academic study offered at our Faculty of Design Sciences are asked to provide us with their portfolio.

We retain your personal data as long as necessary for your study at our university and in view of informing you on your request on study results and certificates later on.

Your personal data are only shared with the concerned faculty offering the study you applied for and the administration office responsible for student administration.  As for medicine students and students of health sciences some personal data are shared with the university hospital of Antwerp (“UZA”) insofar this is required for internship purposes.  We share information regarding your study results obtained at our university and reports regarding your internship performed at our university and as the case may be, in collaboration with the university hospital, with your host university.

As an outgoing exchange student

For study applications at the host institution the Universiteit Antwerpen shares certain personal data of you with the host institution such as name, sex, e-mail address, date of birth, nationality and study field.  

You provide the host institution directly with some of your personal data on their request such as study results (transcript of records) and language certificate(s) stating your language skills.   This allows the host institution to look at your foreknowledge.  

The host institution will inform you on the purpose of their personal data processing as well as on the retention period.  For your privacy rights as data subject, such as right of access to your personal data, to rectification of your personal data, to erasure of your personal data and to restriction of processing of your personal data: please contact the host institution.

The host institution will inform our university on your study results at the host institution and , as the case may be, on your performed internship.

We retain your personal data for your study abroad offered within the Erasmus Program and the Erasmus Belgica Program during a period of 6 years based on a legal obligation to do so.   For other studies abroad, whether or not  related to a financing program we retain your personal data for a similar period.

We share your personal data , such as the study abroad and the achieved study results at the host institution with our financers, such as the national agency EPOS and the European Commission for Erasmus related studies abroad.  Following date are shared: name, sex, country and university/institution of destination.  For studies abroad related to the  Erasmus Belgica program we only share your personal data with EPOS. Following data are shared with EPOS: name, sex, nationality, date of birth, e-mail, address, university/ institution of destination and scholarship amount.   For non program related mobility outside Europe  you are entitled to apply for financing through the Flemish Authorities.  In this event the Universiteit Antwerpen will ask for a Curriculum Vitae, a transcript of records, a copy of an ID card and a copy of the most recent declaration form of taxes filled out by both parents. The University shall share personal data of you with the Flemish Authorities (VLUHR) on their request for said financing applications.  The following data are shared: national insurance number, name and study you applied for abroad.

At enrolment for education purposes

Providing personal data at pre-enrolment

By providing your personal data, you give consent to the University of Antwerp to process this personal data. This personal data provided at pre-enrolment will be used during the official enrolment and when signing the study contract.

Legal basis: preparation of contractual relationship

Providing personal data through the online registration module

By providing your personal data at the time of official enrolment, you give your consent to the University of Antwerp to process this personal data.

The University of Antwerp will also ask for your permission to use this data in the study contract in order to improve the entry, transfer and post-study paths of all students. Here, the university wants to analyse whether its student population reflects the society’s diversity. This can only be done if students agree to make their personal data available. The demographic information you make available is used for further statistical analysis and always anonymously.

The university can also use your data to invite you to or inform you about activities that can improve your education and career opportunities.

The university is also legally bound to automatically transfer the personal data of students to the Higher Education Database (DHO).

After enrolment, you can review your consent and personal details via your SisA self-service account and where necessary make changes to this data. You can also withdraw your permission to use this data. For this, you need to contact the head of the Education Administration Office.

Study data is shared with secondary schools only if the student has given permission for this via the SisA self-service.

Legal basis: contractual basis - necessary for the provision of the degree programme where the student wishes to enrol in, and with regard to information from the university to the students, the university’s legitimate interest in promoting educational and career opportunities. 

Providing personal data when enrolling for a PhD programme

Personal data of PhD students

When you enrol for a PhD and/or when you start as a researcher at the University of Antwerp (since 1990), your information will be included in ECOOM-Ghent's HRR database (Human Resources in Research Flanders).


Legal basis: required for the PhD administration and legal basis for transfer to ECOOM Ghent (Decree of 4 July 2008)

Inclusion in the Alumni Community - My UAntwerp

The personal and degree information of graduates is used by the university’s Alumni Office and the faculty alumni associations in their operations.
As an alumnus you can register on the Alumni Community and create an account.  You can view, delete or restrict your personal data through this online account.  If you wish to withdraw your consent for data use or if you wish to transfer your personal data to yourself or to a new processing entity, you can write to alumni@uantwerpen.be.

The flow of personal data from SiSA has as its legal basis the legitimate interest. After all, good alumni cooperation is important for the tasks of the University of Antwerp. Privacy is guaranteed by the way we as a university process these data.

External parties do not receive access to the Alumni Community.

Legal basis: Permission at registration of Alumni Community & legitimate interest when data flows from SiSA.

(Potential) and current employees

The personal data provided by you in a job application is processed by the University of Antwerp for recruitment and selection purposes. Personnel data provided upon commencement of employment is processed for personnel administration and career path purposes.

For payroll administration of its own staff, the University of Antwerp works with SD Worx as a processor of personal data for the purposes of payroll administration.

For administration of sick leave, the University of Antwerp works with Securex as a processor of personal data for the purposes of administration of absenteeism.

The University of Antwerp processes the personal data of all its employees for information purposes regarding university matters in the broadest sense.  As a member of staff, you have the opportunity to unsubscribe (opt out) from every information communication.

Legal basis: required to execute contractual agreements.  Legitimate interest in terms of information provision to own staff.

Well-being at work

In the context of well-being at work, the University of Antwerp works with an external prevention advisor (currently Mensura), who, in its capacity as a shared controller, complies with all the provisions of the applicable privacy regulations in the partial autonomous processing of personal data.  The privacy policy of our current external advisor can be found on www.mensura.be/nl/privacy-beleid.  In the context of well-being at work, identity data and data concerning the health (physical and psychological) of staff members (contractual, statutory, integration framework), interns, volunteers, students (with functional impairment, pregnant), student workers and PhD students with funding (irrespective of the source of funding) ) is partly processed in collaboration with Mensura (psychosocial well-being), partly by the University of Antwerp (psychosocial well-being) and partly autonomous (occupational medicine) by Mensura. 

Legal basis: to implement a statutory provision (Codex Well-being at Work).

Co-contracts

The University of Antwerp processes the personal data provided by co-contractors for the execution of contractual agreements (legal basis). This covers personal data on suppliers, service providers, contractors and other third parties (those who make use of the University of Antwerp’s services).

Implementation of research - conducting surveys

The University of Antwerp processes a large amount of personal data when researchers carry out scientific studies (academic staff and/or students).  To this end, the University of Antwerp refers to the Code of Conduct which it has drawn up for its researchers as a guideline for any research where personal data is collected (separate link to be added).

Legal basis: permission.

Registration for events

To facilitate events, the University of Antwerp processes the personal data provided during registration. Following an event registration, your personal data can be used, with your permission, for further information on current developments, conferences, seminars and other events.

Legal basis: contractual agreement - consent

Archiving for cultural-historical reasons and/or in general interest

Personal data may be retained for longer in specific cases for reasons of cultural history and for general interest.

Legal basis: Statutory provision (Article 89 EU-GDPR: safeguards and derogations relating to processing for archiving purposes in the public interest). 

Storage period

The University of Antwerp never stores personal data for longer than necessary.

For example, personal data from website visitors (cookies) is never stored longer than is needed for the purposes stated in the university’s Cookie Policy. If other personal data of website visitors is stored, this will never be kept longer than the agreed period.

·     Personal data on students is stored on a legal basis. Additional data provided by the student is stored as long as they have a relationship with the university, and possibly longer with the explicit permission of the student in question. Personal data provided during online pre-enrolment will be stored for a period of 5 years.

Personal data on staff members is stored on a legal basis. Additional data provided by a staff member will be stored as long as they have a relationship with the university, with the exception of data for which the staff member has given permission for a longer retention period.

Personal data on third parties (co-contractors) is stored for the duration necessary for the execution of contractual agreements.

Personal data on participants in a research survey is stored in accordance with the term indicated in the ‘informed consent’ form, if applicable.  For more information about this, please refer to the Code of Conduct and the aims of processing information collected (point 7. carrying out research surveys). 

Personal data processed in the context of an event registration is stored for the period consented by the person concerned.

Rights of the person concerned

As a concerned party you have the right to see your personal data, as well as to request a correction, removal or limitation thereof.

> Do you wish to have access to your personal data? Please fill in this form.

As a concerned party you also have the right to transfer your personal data either to yourself or to a new controller, as far as it is technically possible. If you do want to do this, you must make this known in advance.

Withdrawal of given consent is always possible without this affecting the lawfulness of the processing of personal data as this is on the basis of the permission previously granted.

To exercise your rights as a concerned party, you can write to privacy@uantwerpen.be.

As a concerned party, you have the right to file a complaint with the Data Protection Authority (GBA).

Data breach

Did you notice a data breach concerning personal data managed by the University of Antwerp?

> Please report the data breach using this form