Data Protection Declaration of the International Office

With the information below, we would like to give you an overview of how your personal data are processed by the International Office of HSBI in the context of applications for places at partner universities or at HSBI and for scholarships for stays abroad as well as in the context of advice and support for teaching/research stays and other staff mobility at HSBI and of the rights that arise for you.

Types of data processed
  • Registration code (once per application), student ID number/registration number
  • Student data (last name, first name, academic title, student ID number, gender, date of birth, place of birth, nationality, postal address, private, work or student e-mail address, language proficiency, age, passport copy, residence status, (mobile) phone number, home institution, function)
  • Emergency contact (relatives or other close persons, contact details)
  • Information on the educational background (type, date and country of school-leaving qualification)
  • Information on studies (e.g. faculty/department, subject, target degree/level, number of semesters, country)
  • Application data (type of application (incoming, outgoing), course, academic year, mobility programme, semester)
  • Documents (letter of motivation, transcript of records, curriculum vitae, learning agreements, grant agreements, experience report, language certificate, other certificates)
  • Data on the stay abroad (mobility obligation (yes/no), host university (country, school), length of stay (period), prioritisation of stays), where applicable data on previous stays at HSBI (e.g. in the context of the Welcome Center)
  • Tax-relevant data (e.g., for visiting scholars) (VAT ID, small business status, tax exemption, domestic taxation, foreign taxation, information on the artist’s social insurance)
  • For successful applications, data on mobility abroad (number of semesters abroad, host university, faculty/department, subject, level (bachelor or master), exchange programme, scholarship)
  • Financing (Erasmus scholarship received (yes/no), apply for an Erasmus scholarship (yes/no), subsidy due to disability (yes/no), Are you a single parent and are you planning to take your child abroad with you? (yes/no)), where applicable employment contracts
  • Bank details (BIC/SWIFT, IBAN, recipient)
  • Individual interviews as part of the “StayInOWL” project; aim and purpose: to uncover possible barriers in the students’ course of studies. Based on the findings, a tailor-made supporting programme is developed for the target group.
  • Registration for participation in the international mentors’ programme as part of the “StayInOWL” project; aim and purpose: first-semester students – mentees – are to be provided with experienced student mentors in higher semesters, thereby facilitating their start at HSBI and in Bielefeld.
  • Registration for events; e.g. as part of the Stibet II project “StayInOWL” registration for the ConnectOWL career fair
  • Declaration of consent (place, date, signature of the participant) for the purpose of conducting interviews, surveys, preparation of statistics, etc.
  • Welcome Center; aim and purpose: international scholars and other visitors from abroad planning a stay at the HSBI can use the services of the Welcome Center; personal data is collected to plan and conduct their stay. The data is collected through a form and forwarded to the e-mail address welcome@hsbi.de.
  • International Week: advice and support on staff mobility for the International Week at HSBI; aim and purpose: For participation in the annual International Week at HSBI, personal data are collected from university employees and visiting researchers as well as other guests, which are necessary for the organisation, implementation and follow-up of the stay as well as the payment of honorariums. Data are collected through PDF forms that the persons concerned fill out themselves and submit by e-mail to iw@hsbi.de.
  • NRWege; aim and purpose: support for displaced students and prospective students. Data are collected with the application for the preparatory courses and the implementation and organisation of individual activities.
Purpose and legal basis for data processing

The legal basis for the processing of personal data at HSBI is Art. 6(1) point (c) EU GDPR. The university processes data for the performance of its duties pursuant to Section 3 HG NRW.

Duration of data storage

In accordance with Art. 13(2) point (a) of the GDPR, a fair and transparent processing of all personal data collections is ensured. The data collected from you will be stored if you participate in a mobility, in an event, accept a scholarship/grant, participate in a preparatory course, stay abroad, project, etc. and possibly receive a payment from us. After the purpose-related collection and storage of the data has ended, those personal data that HSBI must store due to legal requirements will continue to be stored. Personal data may also be stored for the duration in which claims can be made against HSBI (in accordance with the statutory limitation period of three or up to thirty years). Application documents, including the e-mail address, will be erased in case of rejection after the purpose of data processing has expired, provided that there is no legal obligation for long-term storage.

Group of recipients

HSBI transmits the aforementioned data to the European Commission (EC), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), authorities and institutions (e.g. the Ministry of Culture and Science) based on grant agreements. In order to nominate students for a semester abroad, HSBI forwards some or all of the data listed above to its partner universities. The university transmits these data for the performance of its duties pursuant to Section 3 HG NRW.

If technical service providers obtain access to personal data, this is done on the basis of a contract pursuant to Article 28 EU GDPR.

Rights of the data subjects

Data subjects have the rights under Art. 15–22 GDPR, in particular: 

  • Right to information (Art. 15 GDPR),
  • Right to rectification (Art. 16 GDPR),
  • Right to erasure (Art. 17 GDPR),
  • Right to restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR),
  • Right to object to processing (Art. 21 GDPR),
  • Right to data portability (Art. 20 GDPR).
Right to complain

Data subjects may lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority that is competent for HSBI in data protection matters if there are doubts as to the lawfulness of the data processing (Art. 77 GDPR).

The competent supervisory data protection authority is: 

Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit
Nordrhein-Westfalen
Kavalleriestraße 2–4
40213 Düsseldorf, Germany

Tel:             0211-38424-0
E-mail:      poststelle@ldi.nrw.de

Contact information

The data controller responsible for the processing is HSBI, a legal entity under public law financed by the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). It is represented by the President, Prof. Dr. Ingeborg Schramm-Wölk.

Contact information of the controller

Hochschule Bielefeld
Interaktion 1
33619 Bielefeld

Tel:       +49 521 106-01
Web:    https://www.hsbi.de

Contact for data processing

E-mail:  international.office@hsbi.de
Tel:       +49 521 106-70215           
Web:    https://www.hsbi.de/en/international-office

Contact details of the Data Protection Official

The Data Protection Official can be contacted through the controller’s postal address or as follows:

E-mail:  datenschutzbeauftragte@hsbi.de
Tel:       +49 521 106-7743 
Web:    https://www.hsbi.de/datenschutzbeauftragte