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Qualtrics

Qualtrics is a worldwide leading survey tool, in terms of functionalities, security, and privacy measures. Qualtrics survey software allows you to create online questionnaires for your research. The faculty license is valid until October 2026, after which Qualtrics will be replaced by Crowdtech.
Only staff and students of BMS can make free use of Qualtrics for research purposes.  

Crowdtech replaces Qualtrics

UT will replace its current survey tools with Crowdtech.  At BMS, we therefore aim to stop using our current survey tool Qualtrics by October 2026 at the latest. Read more on this via our BMS communication and the support page on the service portal.

Training & support
UT Survey Support is organizing practical support sessions together with Crowdtech. During these sessions you can enter your own surveys into Crowdtech, get advice on translating your Qualtrics surveys, and learn how to make the most of the new system. We warmly encourage you to make use of this support – both for your own research and for student projects.
For a full overview of training dates: www.utwente.nl/surveys

FAQ

I have active research projects in Qualtrics that run through 2026. Until when can I continue data collection in Qualtrics for my research?

Our last Qualtrics license period starts on Nov 14, 2025 and runs until Nov 13, 2026. In September 2026 we will enter into discussions with Qualtrics about the license, as there is an expiration term of 1 month, so in first week of October we will have to make our decision known to Qualtrics. We therefore recommend securing your research data from Qualtrics on the UT servers no later than the end of October 2026 unless we advise otherwise in an earlier communication.

Despite the above, we do strongly recommend testing if your questionnaires can run in Crowdtech, to know if the functionalities are there, so you won't face any surprises if you do have to do your data collection through Crowdtech.

Do you have concerns about the transition to Crowdtech? Report any gaps in functionality as soon as possible!

We encourage you, as a BMS researcher or student, to sign up to start exploring and testing Crowdtech's functionalities for survey design in your research context as soon as possible. The timely identification of any gaps in functionalities between Qualtrics and Crowdtech will guide the continued development of the Crowdtech survey tool for academic research. Report your issues via survey-support@utwente.nl, with cc research-support-bms@utwente.nl. 

Key Features

  • Create complex surveys and forms with various question types. Check the On-Demand Webinars by Qualtrics.
  • Real-time reporting and collaboration, export in multiple formats
  • GDPR-compliant data collection.
  • Supports file uploads: allow respondents to upload a file along with their survey response. Handy when you want to collect data that may not be available through standard survey questions. Note: Instruct participants not to upload sensitive personal data that is identifiable to them.
  • Extra feature: Conjoint analysis (since Dec 2023) for 5 users only -- will expire and will not be renewed after August 2026 --

Collecting personal data with Qualtrics

When using Qualtrics, you may gather details of your participants/respondents that can be traced back to the individual persons, that is, personal data. So your data collection needs to be GDPR compliant. 

How to protect personal data when using Qualtrics:

  • Collect as few personal details as possible (data minimization); Qualtrics offers to uncheck the collection of IP address or email address in your raw data, see textbox below.
  • Only use closed question types if possible
  • If personal data of participants are collected ask for consent; Store consent forms separately from data;
  • Anonymize / Pseudonymize;
  • Do not analyze data in Qualtrics, but export data asap and delete from Qualtrics.
  • Do not use email triggers;
  • Do not use AI functions in Qualtrics (disabled for us as an organization, see below under privacy measures)
  • Qualtrics has a support page on how you can manage requests on subject rights by your participants using the Qualtrics platform, in particular focusing on how a user can modify and delete data. 
Anonymize responses

By default, Qualtrics collects information such as IP addresses. You can turn this off in your survey settings: Open your survey, go to the Survey Options tab. Turn on the option ‘Anonymize Responses’.
With this action, IP addresses and location information, among others, will not be saved. Once you set this it works, NOT retroactively. Advise is therefore to set this upfront.

Sensitive personal data

When processing sensitive personal data in Qualtrics, anonymization or pseudonymization is mandatory. We advise using TIIM when collecting sensitive personal data. If not possible, distribute your survey via an anonymous link, ensure no identifying data is collected, and download and delete all study data from Qualtrics immediately after completion.

Get Started

Below BMS students and staff can find information about how to set up an account for the Qualtrics tool. 

NOTE: Qualtrics accounts can be requested only by BMS students (see list of BMS education programs) or education programs that are shared between BMS and another faculty, such as ATLAS (with ITC), BIT (with EEMCS). Requests by students/staff from other faculties/services will be rejected.

If you have not logged into your BMS Qualtrics account for a year, your account will automatically be set to inactive. Need your account again? Please send a request to enable your account to the BMS Brand Admin.

Data handling in qualtrics

  • Surveys containing non-pseudonymized data must be completed as soon as possible.
  • Questionnaires and related documents may not include identifiable participant data.
  • Qualtrics must NOT be used for data storage; completed data must be transferred immediately to a secure, certified University storage facility. Advised is the BMS Lab data storage facilities. 

after the research

Research completed? Remove your collected research data from Qualtrics and move it to a secure storage facilitated by the UT/BMS:

  1. Log in to Qualtrics
  2. For your completed surveys, go to Survey -> Tools -> Export -> Export Survey. This will download a QSF file with the empty survey, so you can reuse it later in new research. This file does not contain any research data from the respondents
  3. Go to Data & Analysis -> Export & Import -> Export Data, and choose the format you would like to store the data in (e.g. SPSS format)
  4. Verify (in e.g. SPSS) that your data has indeed been successfully stored
  5. Save the QSF file from (2) and your data file from (3) in your faculty servers for research data
  6. Remove the survey from Qualtrics: In the main menu at the right-hand side, below the project name, at Actions -> Delete Project
  7. Repeat steps 2 through 6 for all finished surveys

If the above instruction is outdated, please check Qualtrics guidance on deleting survey data. 

Support and Training

About Qualtrics privacy security
  • BMS has concluded a data processing agreement with Qualtrics about processing personal (sensitive) data, however the user have to take additional steps to safeguard privacy of respondents. Besides the security measures by Qualtrics, the users bear responsibility in their survey set-up for the privacy of their participants/respondents. Qualtrics provides guidance that enables its users to be GDPR-compliant.
  • We have included that our organization license does not include AI features. So our data may not be used by a generic third-party for generative/machine-learning models.
  • For medical/health-related and special (high-risk) personal data our advice is to use TiiM.
  • Qualtrics follows strict security measures, is GDPR-compliant, and stores data in an EU-based data center. They are ISO 27001 certified and FedRAMP authorized, ensuring top-tier security standards
  • Qualtrics explain in their privacy statement how they handle personal data (of your qualtrics account, not your survey respondents) collected during the normal course of business (sales, marketing, and support), as well as how data are processed in its software and services.
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