This section contains answers to frequently asked questions on data protection and privacy in student surveys.

If this information does not fully answer your questions, please feel free to contact Irmela Blüthmann (Unit for Teaching and Education Quality) by e-mail at lsq@fu-berlin.de or phone at +49 (0)30  838-75421.

How does Freie Universität Berlin guarantee that the data of survey participants are protected?

The evaluation takes place anonymously. No analyses or reports are generated that would enable individual persons to be identified.

The legal basis for conducting student surveys is Section 6.1.4 and Section 8a of the Berlin Higher Education Act (BerlHG). In keeping with the evaluation guidelines of Freie Universität Berlin, the evaluation software Zensus from Blubbsoft is used for all student surveys. This means that the data protection and privacy provisions stipulated in the IT procedures for the Zensus software apply to the (bachelor’s) degree program survey. The software is subject to the requirements on data protection and privacy set out in the Berlin Data Protection Act (BlnDSG).

In addition, the evaluation processes used by the Unit for Teaching and Education Quality have been coordinated with Freie Universität Berlin’s data protection officer.

All employees of the Unit for Teaching and Education Quality who are involved in the evaluation process have received comprehensive information on the provisions of data protection and privacy law and are obligated to comply with them.

For what purposes are personal data collected?

To be able to accurately reflect the diversity of the student body at Freie Universität Berlin and take this into account, we collect personal information (e.g., age, sex, number of children, immigration and educational background, job status) as part of the survey, in addition to value judgments on the degree programs and current resources available to students. This information is used to help draw conclusions regarding specific groups and identify areas where certain groups of students may need additional support.

What happens to my data?

The data collected during the survey are used exclusively for internal quality development purposes and to help answer related questions in the field of academia.

Survey respondents’ answers are stored on a central server at Freie Universität Berlin and undergo statistical analysis by the Unit for Teaching and Education Quality. The Unit for Teaching and Education Quality then uses these analyses to prepare a university-wide overall report and, if enough people have responded, to generate reports on the results for individual departments and study programs. The data are only analyzed statistically and remain anonymous, ensuring that no personal information can be attributed to you.

The deans of each department may submit a request to the appropriate vice president in which they ask for a copy of the raw survey data for the students of their department from the Unit for Teaching and Education Quality. This enables them to carry out further analysis of the data for quality management purposes. To receive these data, the departments must first sign a user agreement requiring them to comply with established data protection provisions and confirming that they will not merge survey data with other data sets (for example, from the Student Records and Registration Office). These agreements hinder the identification of individual respondents.

How are the data protection and privacy needs of Freie Universität employees taken into account?

The survey does not contain any questions that could result in a value judgment about an individual person or that could be used to identify individual persons. Students are asked not to include any personal information concerning employees or instructors when answering questions with free text fields. This includes any information regarding personal circumstances or descriptions of any specific interactions that occurred that could lead to the identification of an individual. Should names of university employees or instructors nevertheless be included in students’ answers, these will be anonymized during the data analysis stage.

Taking part in the raffle

Once you have completed the questionnaire, you will be asked whether you would like to take part in the raffle to win a gift voucher. If you wish to participate in the raffle, please provide an email address where we can contact you if you win. Your email address will be stored separately from your survey responses. The raffle will take place after the end of the survey period. The winners are randomly selected by the Zensus software. The raffle process has been reviewed and determined to be in compliance with data protection and privacy guidelines. Under Article 6.1a GDPR, we require your consent to process and temporarily store your email address if you wish to participate in the raffle.