Publicity of the special assignment
Special assignment reports are not, by default, public documents. It is possible therefore to include in the report also results that may be later subject to IPR protection, such as patent applications.(*)
Special assignment reports identify as examination or test results referred to in the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999), and are therefore to be kept secret as specified in the said act. (Aalto University General Regulations on Teaching and Studying, Section 33)
Naturally, the special assignment plan and evaluation reports are not public documents either.
The special assignment reports are stored in the same way as other examination or test results. The special assignment reports are stored for six (6) months after the publication of results, unless otherwise provided in statutes or regulations pertinent to record-keeping. (Aalto University General Regulations on Teaching and Studying, Section 32).
The minimum set of persons who can, and should, have access the special assignment report after it has been submitted for approval, are the instructor, the supervisor and all the teachers in charge of the course. It is generally not possible to require these persons to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) conserning the contents of the report. Instead, they are responsible to keep the report secret, as mentioned above, unless they agree with the student otherwise about the publicity and use of the report.
Note, however, that the student register (opintorekisteri) is a public document. Because the title of the special assignment is always written in the student register, the title should be written in such way that it does not disclose information that is not meant to be public.
(*) In contrast to special assignment reports, academic theses associated with the degrees awarded at Aalto University
(e.g. B.Sc., M.Sc. and D.Sc. theses) are public documents. (Aalto
University General Regulations on Teaching and Studying, Section 33)