At Queen Mary, we improve our courses and programmes by listening to students’ opinions. This is often done via confidential Module Experience surveys. The data from these surveys is used to assure and enhance the quality of Queen Mary's taught programmes and the student experience.
The results from module evaluation surveys will be discussed by your Course Reps and members of staff in Student Voice Committee meetings.
We welcome constructive feedback, in line with our values, on what things students have enjoyed as they have taken the module and what could be done to make it even better.
Yes, Module Experience surveys are confidential. Your identity is hidden from the lecturer or module convenor as well as staff in your School or Institute. In effect your responses and free text comments are anonymous.
For the avoidance of doubt, students asked to complete the Module Experience surveys are assigned a unique identifier and no other personal or demographic data (such as names or contact details) is accessible by the survey owner alongside students’ responses. Personal and demographic data are held in a separate system which is not accessible by staff in Schools or Institutes.
By moving to confidential surveys, Queen May is now able to use demographic data as part of the survey analysis to help us better understand the responses received and to further enhance your university experience. This data will not be linked to individuals. Using demographic data will help Queen Mary identify gaps or disparities amongst the student body, which will be crucial in becoming the most inclusive university of its kind, anywhere.
There are two exceptions where Queen Mary may need to identify a student which are outlined below:
a) A comment/comments received suggest that the respondent may be at risk of harm to themselves or to others.
b) A comment/comments received potentially meet the threshold for consideration under the Student Discipline Policy in order for Queen Mary to exercise its duty of care to its community.
In both exceptions there is a defined process, set out below, for consent to be granted for a student to be identified. If a comment or comments could fall under both exceptions the first process will normally take place before the second is initiated. In such an event the second process will still need to be concluded for a student to be identified for an investigation under the Student Discipline Policy.
A comment/comments received suggest that the respondent may be at risk of harm to themselves or to others
If staff within a School or Institute identify a comment which suggests a student may be a risk of harm to themselves or to others they will send the comment and module code to the Student Surveys Team. The Student Surveys Team will only provide a student ID number to the co-Heads of the Advice and Counselling Service, along with the relevant comment. Advice and Counselling will then contact the student to offer support.
A comment/comments received potentially meet the threshold for consideration under the Student Discipline Policy in order for Queen Mary to exercise its duty of care to its community.
If such a comment or comments are identified by a School or Institute, they will be escalated to the Vice-Principal Educations’ team. The comments will be sent to a panel of the Vice-Principal for Education (or deputy), relevant Faculty Dean for Education (or deputy), QMSU President (or their nominated Sabbatical Officer) for authorisation that the student can be identified. The panel must unanimously agree for a student to be identified before the Student Surveys Team retrieves the relevant student ID number.