Erasmus in Schools Matching Machine
Erasmus in Schools is an internationalization programme administered by the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI) that operates as the national agency for Erasmus+ in Finland. The programme is aimed at Finnish day care centers, preschools, comprehensive schools, general upper secondary schools, vocational institutions, Erasmus students, international exchange students, international degree students and volunteers that are funded through EU programmes. The Erasmus in Schools programme’s objective is to increase intercultural communication by matching international students as visitors to Finnish day care centers and schools. During the educational visits Finnish children and youth learn about the visitors’ home countries and cultures and simultaneously the visitors familiarize themselves with the Finnish educational system and culture.
Erasmus in Schools Matching Machine was generated for the purpose of the matching process. The Machine gathers data of the participants for the administration of the programme.
Data provided by registered students is automatically forwarded to registered schools within the Machine for the construction of the matches. Similarly, data provided by registered schools is automatically forwarded to registered students. Registered students and schools can view anonymous information regarding each other before a match has been constructed. Once a match has been constructed, a single school can access the full profile (including the name and contact information) of a registered student and a single student can access the full profile (excluding head master’s email address) of a registered school to contact one another and to agree on the details of the visit.
Information of matched schools (school’s name and post address) and students (student’s home town and home country) is published on a map (powered by Google Maps) annually that is linked to the programme’s website at www.erasmusinschools.fi. If a student applies for travel reimbursement from EDUFI, information provided by the student is stored in EDUFI’s and Finnish Government Shared Services Centre for Finance and HR’s registers for finance.
All data provided by programme participants is stored for five years from the expiration date of the current Erasmus+ programme period (31.12.2020) and cannot be removed during this time frame. Data regarding visits that take place after this will be stored for five years from the expiration date of the next EU programme period. Information provided by Erasmus in Schools programme participants can also be used for statistical and research purposes. However, the Finnish National Agency for Education restrains from forwarding any identification information onwards to parties that are not mentioned in this Policy.
The software administrator of Erasmus in Schools Matching Machine is HCI Productions Ltd. The software administrator has access to the information provided by programme participants and can exchange this information with the programme coordinators at EDUFI. The software administrator, nevertheless, commits to restrain from forwarding information provided by programme participants to any external parties.
This policy is based on the EU Regulation 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (GDPR). All programme participants commit to this policy when registering to the Erasmus in Schools programme.
For more information about the GDPR Regulation visit https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection_en. To learn more about the Erasmus in Schools programme visit www.erasmusinschools.fi. To view the full data protection description download the Data protection register (pdf) here.
