About the survey
Who funds, conducts and manages LSAY?
The Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) is managed and funded by the Australian Government Department of Education with support from state and territory governments. The Department contracts the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) to manage the survey, analyse and publish the survey results. NCVER engages Wallis Market & Social Research (Wallis) to conduct the online survey and computer-assisted telephone interviews.
Why is LSAY conducted?
The purpose of the surveys is to help government agencies and other organisations better understand the experiences and pathways of young Australians. This helps to inform policy and develop better programs to ensure future generations receive the best educational, employment and social opportunities.
Survey participation
Although participation in LSAY is voluntary, it’s important the survey results are representative of all Australian youth, so your involvement is really valuable, regardless of what you do during this time.
What if I don't want to participate?
If you do not wish to participate, please contact Wallis on 1800 241 271 from within Australia (free call) or email lsay@wallisgroup.com.au.
The information collected
What information is collected?
Your name and contact details are provided to Wallis by the Australian Government Department of Education who asked you to provide this information as part of the Programme for International Student Assessment in 2015 or as part of a short questionnaire you received at school, towards the end of 2017. Your contact details are used to invite you to participate in LSAY. Wallis does not give your name or contact details to NCVER, only a de-identified data set of all the information collected. Wallis will destroy your name and contact details at the conclusion of your involvement in the LSAY program.
Other information collected covers a wide range of school and post-school topics, including student achievement and aspirations, attitudes to school, social background, vocational and further education, employment, job seeking and satisfaction with various aspects of life. There are some optional questions about health which is defined under the Privacy Act 1988 as ‘sensitive personal information’. This information is collected to improve the relevance of the information collected.
Where your information is held
Wallis stores your personal information on secure servers located within Australia. Your identity is protected as information such as your name and contact details are not stored with your answers. After your de-identified information is provided by Wallis to NCVER, the data are also stored by NCVER within Australia with appropriate levels of security. The de-identified data is also sent to the highly secure Australian Data Archive (ADA) where it is made available to researchers and stored indefinitely.
Use and disclosure of the collected information
The use of the data is restricted to research purposes only and cannot be used for commercial or financial gain. NCVER undertakes analysis, reporting and publishing of summary information. Your answers are combined and analysed with those of other people, and appear in research reports provided free of charge. Personal information or information that could identify you is not released.
Access to the detailed data requires authorisation from the ADA National Manager. Names and addresses are never included in the results or final datasets and no individual can be identified from the research.
Data linkage
If you completed your first LSAY survey between 2015 and 2018 you are part of the Y15 cohort. Over the course of the LSAY program we will be asking your permission to link your LSAY data to other sources of information. Consent to link your data is voluntary and you can still take part in the survey even if you don’t want your data linked. By ‘linking’ data together we can build a better picture of what life is like for young people in Australia. See below for information on each of our linkage projects or head to our data linkage page.
- Linking to school results: If this is your first time doing LSAY we’ll be asking at the end of the survey if we can link your survey data with your school results. This means getting your permission to add your NAPLAN scores from Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, as well as your senior secondary school subject results (Years 11 and 12) to your survey data. For more information please read our fact sheet: Linking your school results to your LSAY data
- Linking to VET: If you have taken part in vocational education and training (VET) we will be asking your permission to link your VET collection records to your survey data. This means asking for your permission to add both your past and future VET records to your survey data. For more information please read our fact sheet: Linking your VET records to your LSAY data.
- Linking LSAY to Higher Education (university) records: If you have taken part in Higher Education (university) we will be asking your permission to link your survey responses to data from the Higher Education Information Management System (HEIMS). This means asking for your permission to add both your past and future Higher Education records to your survey data. For more information please read our fact sheet: Linking your Higher Education (university) records to LSAY data.
Protection and management of your information
The Australian Government Department of Education, NCVER and Wallis manage personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles introduced by the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012.
Any person in the European Union (EU) who participates in this survey is considered to have opted in by their own choice, and should be aware that while NCVER fully complies with the Australian Privacy Act and Australian Privacy Principles, including the Notifiable Data Breaches Act, which have similar requirements to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), may not at this time, comply with all GDPR requirements.
For more information on how your personal information is managed and protected, please refer to the privacy policies of the Australian Government Department of Education, NCVER and Wallis.
The Australian Government Department of Education, NCVER, Wallis and the Unique Student Identifiers (USI) Office have privacy policies that ensure the information you provide is used only for the purpose intended. Full details of each are displayed on the respective websites:
Australian Government Department of Education
Wallis Market and Social Research’s privacy policy
Unique Student Identifiers Office's privacy policy
Further information
Who to contact
For general queries about LSAY, please contact NCVER on 08 8230 8400 or email lsay@ncver.edu.au.
If you have queries or complaints concerning your personal information, or wish to request access to or correction of your personal information, please contact Wallis on 1800 241 271 within Australia (free call) or email lsay@wallisgroup.com.au.