The evaluation takes place anonymously.

The basis for conducting surveys of students is Sec. 6 (1) No. 4 and Sec. 8a of the Higher Education Act for the State of Berlin.

The evaluation processes used by Arbeitsstelle Lehr- und Studienqualität have been coordinated with the data protection officer of Freie Universität Berlin.

This survey is aimed at all students enrolled in a master’s degree program at Freie Universität Berlin.

On May 25, 2021, all students in the above group will receive an email from the Vice President of Freie Universität Berlin containing a link to the evaluation portal and a token (access code). Participation in the survey takes place exclusively online.

A token is a personal access code for the survey. You will receive this token by email along with the invitation to participate in the survey (email of May 25). The token can be found directly below the link to the survey in the email. The token takes the form of a string of ten letters.

It is used to prevent survey responses from being submitted by people outside the defined respondent group and to prevent submission of multiple responses. Once the survey is submitted, the token ceases to be valid. It is not possible to use the token to identify your responses in the questionnaire.

The portal is optimized for all end devices. The survey can therefore be completed on any mobile end device.

The survey of students enrolled in master’s degree programs starts on May 25, 2021, and the questionnaire is scheduled to stay online until June 25, 2021. You will be notified by email if the survey period is extended.

Freie Universität Berlin has been conducting regular surveys of students enrolled in master’s degree programs every four years since 2013.

You’ve got to be in it to win it!

As a way to thank you for participating, Arbeitsstelle Lehr- und Studienqualität will be raffling off the following incentives among all survey participants:

• 1x Apple iPad Air
• 1x Sennheiser bluetooth headphones (Momentum True Wireless)
• One of 20 vouchers for Saturn or Schleichers book store

 Your opinion matters to us: Participating in this survey gives you a chance to provide feedback to Freie Universität Berlin regarding your study program. Your views of the study programming offered – for example, with regard to the feasibility of completing the program – are important to Freie Universität Berlin.

This survey is different from the evaluations you may have filled out previously for individual classes, as it asks you to give your feedback on the degree program itself and the conditions under which you study. Your thoughts about our degree programs – for example, whether they are achievable and feasible – are important to Freie Universität Berlin. They help us to improve study conditions and to continue to develop our services, including support and counseling services.

Response time varies by individual. For one thing, it depends on the filtering functions within the questionnaire, meaning which of the questions in the survey apply to you. For another, however, it also depends on how long you take to answer the individual questions. In preliminary tests, students took about 20 minutes to fill out the questionnaire.

The content of the questionnaire was coordinated with the university management, departments, and central institutes. The survey contains questions on the following subject areas:

• Personal information and study program information

• Preconditions for study: prior education, assessment of preparation for the master’s degree program by the bachelor’s degree program

• Evaluation of the study offerings and study conditions

• Evaluation of online teaching
• Evaluation of the examination organization
• Evaluation of modules
• Evaluation of study requirements/feasibility of completing the program
• Evaluation of the support and supervision provided by instructors
• Evaluation of the social climate (rapport with fellow students, instructors, student relations

• Study behavior and study experiences

• Where applicable, reasons for exceeding the regular study period
• Satisfaction with studies; lack of motivation, inclination to withdraw
• Grades
• Acquisition of subject-specific knowledge (self-assessment)

• Living situation (e.g. children, work, illness)
• Plans for the period after the master’s degree program

In addition, the survey also includes open-ended questions to give you a chance to provide information beyond the standardized response options or to offer a more nuanced view of your suggestions for improving the program.

To be able to depict the heterogeneity of the student body at Freie Universität Berlin and take it appropriately into account when interpreting the results, personal information (e.g. age, gender, children, immigration and educational background, job status) is collected as part of the survey, along with value judgments regarding the study offerings and study conditions. This information is used to help draw conclusions regarding specific groups and do things like identify areas where certain groups of students need particular support.

Participation in the survey is voluntary. Answering individual questions is also voluntary. If you cannot, or do not wish to, answer a specific question, you can generally skip to the next question with no problem. This is not the case for some questions, known as “filter” questions. The answers to these questions determine which follow-up questions are asked. Filter questions must be answered in order to allow for proper routing within the questionnaire.

Please note that we strive to achieve overall results that are as representative as possible. Your responses to questions regarding personal information and study-related information help us to assess how representative the results are.

You can interrupt your participation in the survey anywhere you like. As long as you have not submitted the questionnaire on a final basis, you can use your token to log back in and continue your entries at any time. You will automatically be taken back to the page of the survey where you were when you exited.

In the past there have been isolated technical difficulties when the survey was interrupted, so if at all possible, please do avoid interrupting it.

If you experience technical difficulties, please feel free to contact Arbeitsstelle Lehr- und Studienqualität by e-mail at lsq@fu-berlin.de.

After submitting your completed questionnaire, you can participate in the raffle to win one of our attractive prizes. The raffle takes place after the end of the survey period. Winners are chosen at random by the Unizensus software. If you wish to participate in the raffle, please provide an email address where we can reach you if you win after you complete and submit the survey. Your email address will be stored separately from your survey data, of course.

Winners will be contacted in July 2021.

The raffle process has been reviewed and determined to be in compliance with data protection and privacy guidelines. Under GDPR Article 6.1a, we need your consent to process and temporarily store your email address if you participate in the raffle.

Data obtained from the survey will be used by Freie Universität Berlin solely for the purposes of internal quality management processes and in order to answer related research questions. The data are only analyzed statistically. No analyses that could be used to identify individuals are prepared.

Arbeitsstelle Lehr- und Studienqualität prepares a university-wide overall report. This report presents the results, broken down by groups of subjects, in comparison to the results of the last survey. The report is transmitted to the university management. It is presented and discussed within university bodies and published on this central website. This report is expected to be available in the 2022 summer semester.

Reports on the results for specific study programs are provided to the departments and central institutes. Reports on the results for specific study programs contain analyses for each study program in which more than seven students participated in the survey.

The results of subject-specific reports are interpreted within the scope of discussion meetings with students and instructors at the subject level, for example within the committees in charge of teaching matters within the departments and within the department or institute councils. The results are used to improve study conditions and further develop support, advising, and service options.

The data will be erased ten years after the survey has taken place in accordance with the evaluation guidelines.

The evaluation will be performed by Arbeitsstelle Lehr- und Studienqualität, acting on behalf of the university management.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Arbeitsstelle Lehr- und Studienqualität by e-mail at lsq@fu-berlin.de or phone at 030 / 838-75421 or (30) 838-57982.