Students often cooperate with companies or organisations when writing major assignments, such as bachelor's project, project-based internship, and master's thesis – called 'assignments’ in the following. A confidentiality agreement may be required, but only if requested by the company/organisation.
In connection with the student's work on an assignment, the AU supervisor, co-examiner and other persons at Aarhus University (secretaries and other administrative staff) has a duty of confidentiality in accordance with Danish Public Administration Act. It is worth noting that the information provided to the supervisor during the supervision process is subject to confidentiality in accordance with the rules laid down in the Danish Public Administration Act.
Therefore, there is generally no need for a confidentiality agreement if the company/organisation does not request one.
No copies will be distributed by AU to other parties, unless the student, for example, places the assignment on loan via AU libraries, or if the legislation otherwise requires disclosure (e.g. in the case of request subject access to documents).
In the event of an appeal in connection with an examination appeal, assignments will be available to all members of the Board of Appeals, and these will all be covered by the duty of confidentiality, cf. Danish Public Administration Act.
If an assignment contains confidential information, students must mark it as 'confidential' when submitting the assignment. This is done on the front page of the assignment and must also be chosen by the student in WISEflow for assignments submitted electronically.
When submitting a final assignment (bachelor's project and master's thesis), the student also has the opportunity of not consenting to the assignment being made available via the library. This means that the assignment will not be accessible for reading and/or lending.
For some companies/organisations, marking the assignment as confidential is sufficient, while others will ask for a confidentiality agreement. If a company/organisation requests a confidentiality agreement, such an agreement can be made between the student, the company/organisation and AU. A confidentiality agreement is thus primarily intended to regulate the student's behaviour towards the company/organisation by obliging the student to process anything that it may have access to with confidentiality.
If the company/organisation wishes to make a confidentiality agreement and if the agreement is acceptable to AU, it can be signed by AU. See more about different types of confidentialoty agreements under the following section.
If a confidentiality agreement is signed, the supervisor/examiner ensures, cf. the Examination Order, that any associated oral examination is closed to the audience.
A confidentiality agreement can be drawn up between the company/organisation, AU and the student in order to comply with the requirements of the Examination Order, if the company/organisation requires it.
As a general rule, AU's standard confidentiality agreement should be used, but in some cases, it may be necessary to use a company-specific confidentiality agreement.
If a confidentiality agreement is entered into, it is the student's responsibility to ensure that it is concluded and signed in good time before the submission deadline for an assignment.
Standard confidentiality agreement can be found here (the one at the bottom of the page, called "Student project and internship").
The following procedure applies when the standard confidentiality agreement is used:
Please note that if changes are made to the standard confidentiality agreement, the agreement must be approved by TTO. This will often result in the process of entering into a confidentiality agreement taking significantly longer than when the standard confidentiality agreement is used. It is therefore encouraged, as far as possible, to use the standard confidentiality agreement.
If a company makes a requirement for this, a company-specific confidentiality agreement can be used instead. This must be approved by TTO (Technology Transfer Office; tto@au.dk) on behalf of the university.
The following procedure applies when the company-specific confidentiality agreement is used:
It is important to emphasise that students must familiarise themselves with the content of the agreement – students must be the ones who complies with the agreement. If students needs advice on the content of the agreement and/or needs to negotiate the terms of the agreement, students must seek his or her own adviser. AU cannot advise students on any further details of the agreement, nor is able to negotiate on behalf of students.
The following directors of studies/departmental programme coordinators may sign the confidentiality agreement ('Standard Confidentiality Agreement' and 'Company-specific Confidentiality Agreement' where no rights are surrendered):
MSc in Economics and Business Administration, MSc in Business Administration and Auditing, and MSc in Business Administration with supplementary subject/Soc:
BSc in Economics and Business Administration/Business Administration with supplementary subject: