Freedom of Information

You can request access to documents held by the Student Identifiers Registrar under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).

Your rights

The FOI Act gives any person the right to:

access copies of documents (except exempt documents) we hold
ask for information we hold about you to be changed or annotated if it is incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading
seek review of our decision not to allow you access to a document or not to amend your personal record.

You can ask to access any document we hold. We can refuse access to some documents, or parts of documents, that are exempt from disclosure. Exempt documents may include those relating to national security, documents containing material obtained in confidence and Cabinet documents, or other matters set out in the FOI Act.

Documents available outside the FOI Act

In some circumstances you can request access to information, including personal information we hold about you, without following a formal process under the FOI Act.

You should also check the information we have published under the Information Publication Scheme to see if what you are seeking is already available.

How to make an FOI request

Applications for access to documents must:

be in writing
state that the application is made under the FOI Act
provide information about the document(s) you wish to access so that we can process your request
provide an address for reply.

You can send your request:

by email foi@usi.gov.au
by post
FOI Contact Officer
Office of the Student Identifiers Registrar
GPO Box 9828
Adelaide SA 5001

What you can expect from us

We will tell you within 14 days that we have received your request. We will give you an estimate of the charges that apply to your request. We will give you our decision within 30 days unless that time has been extended. If a document contains information about a third party, we will need to consult them and may need to extend the time to give you our decision by another 30 days. We may also seek your agreement to extend the time by up to 30 days if your request is complex.

If you disagree with our decision

When we have made a decision about your FOI request, we will send you a letter explaining our decision and your review and appeal rights.

You can ask for the following decisions to be reviewed:

if we refuse to give you access to all or part of a document or we defer giving you access
if we impose a charge
if we refuse to change or annotate information about you that you claim is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading.

A third party who disagrees with our decision to give you documents that contain information about them can also ask for our decision to be reviewed.

Information Commissioner review

You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review our original decision or our decision on internal review within 60 days of the date of decision (or 30 days after you are notified if you are an affected third party). The Information Commissioner can affirm or vary the decision or substitute a new decision. More information is available at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website.

FOI complaints

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request, you can complain to the Australian Information Commissioner who may investigate our actions. More information is available on the OAIC website.

More information

If you require assistance with your request, please contact the FOI Contact Officer via email at foi@usi.gov.au or call us.

Did you find the information you were looking for on this page?