Superusers to ensure rapid registration of personal data

How hard can it be to correct 5-10 lines of personal data? Pretty hard, if you ask the numerous employees who have tried in vain to edit the personal data displayed in PURE and on the university's websites. They have found that it takes a long time to enter their corrections, and in some cases the new information has even been deleted again.

"The reason for the errors in the displays in PURE and in the staff searches on the website is that we have been unable to ensure sufficiently high quality in the registration of data about people associated with Aarhus University. We basically register data for three groups: students, employees and guests. We register their access to the university, changes during their time here and, finally, their departure. However, a number of grey areas and potential sources of error are linked to the registration process. For example, it is difficult for the system to perform correct registration of a person who is both a student at and an employee of Aarhus University," explains Flemming Bøge, Deputy Director of AU IT.

Data collection close to the source

A new procedure has now been introduced to resolve the issues. In future, heads of department, centre directors, deputy directors and senior advisers in the deans' offices will have formal responsibility for the data in PURE. This responsibility will, however, be delegated to one or more people in a secretariat function in the respective department or unit. To this end, around 120 employees completed a course in updating personal data in June and can now act as local personal data editors. Additional employees will complete the training course in August and September.

"By using local personal data editors, we can ensure that data are collected as close as possible to the source. The secretariats are usually the first to find out about changes to personal data, so we expect the new procedure to result in rapid, high-quality registration. At the same time, the new procedure means that data only need to be registered once using a simple Web form that the local personal data editors have been trained to use. In this way, we can avoid having to ask for the same information over and over again," explains Flemming Bøge.  

Find your local personal data editor

The initiative is so new that there are as yet no actual lists of the personal data editors in the separate departments and units. Instead, you can contact the secretariat at your department, centre or dean's office, the HR administration staff in your deputy director area, or your immediate superior for details of the member of staff who can help you edit your personal data. This person will ensure that your data are updated as quickly as possible.

Elements you can edit yourself

However, there will still be some elements in your profile that you can edit yourself. These include your name and the "extra text", "additional information" and "profile" items on your personal AU website. For guidance and additional information, click here (in Danish)

To find our more about the new principles for editing personal data, click here (in Danish)