NST Chemistry Lecture Feedback Surveys
Dear University of Cambridge,
Please provide copies of the processed lecture feedback surveys collated for each lecture course in Part II and Part III Chemistry for the last five academic years, including 2023/2024. Thank you in advance.
Yours faithfully,
Brody Taylor
This is to acknowledge receipt of your request for information. Your
reference number is given in the subject line of this email. We will
respond on or before 26 April 2024.
Regards,
Information Compliance Office
University of Cambridge
Governance and Compliance Division, The Old Schools
Trinity Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1TN
E: [1][University of Cambridge request email]
Further to your request for information, please find attached the University’s response.
Regards,
Information Compliance Office
University of Cambridge
Governance and Compliance Division, The Old Schools
Trinity Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1TN
E: [University of Cambridge request email]
Dear FOI,
Thank you for your response and confirming that the information is held. Could you anonymize the feedback by randomizing the order of the responses (for each year in turn) or in some other way you consider appropriate? I'd like to analyze perceptions of the quality of the Chemistry Course overall over time, so the surveys would still be meaningful without being split by lecturer. Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Brody Taylor
Dear Brody Taylor,
As the identities of those teaching the Part II and III courses are in the public domain, or at least accessible to everyone within the University community, there is no way to provide the information sought on a course-by-course basis without revealing the personal data of the academic staff involved.
If you wish to request an internal review of our response please let us know.
Regards,
Information Compliance Office
University of Cambridge
Governance and Compliance Division, The Old Schools
Trinity Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1TN
E: [University of Cambridge request email]
Dear FOI,
Thank you for your very fast response. Are you saying that by randomizing the feedback comments across all courses within a particular year for each of Part II and Part III Chemistry, anonymity for lecturers would not be achieved? With approximately 30-40 lecturers for each part, if each freeform comment could relate to one out of 30-40 people, discerning the exact lecturer referred to in each comment would be highly improbable, would it not? Could aggregating feedback from both Part II and Part III and randomizing the order of all freeform comments ensure adequate anonymity in your view? Or is it in your view just not possible to come up with any combination of these that would be acceptable to you? I would be very grateful for your advice on this and I understand in the end this will probably need to be a new FOI request.
Yours sincerely,
Brody Taylor
Dear Brody Taylor,
Thank you for your reply. We cannot advise definitively in the abstract but if you were to submit a new request asking for feedback that is not broken down in any way by individual Part II/III course then it is unlikely to attract the section 40 exemption cited in response to your original request, though we would not regard this as self-evident for all of the information as there will inevitably be details in the feedback comments that will enable identification of the course and therefore the lecturer. Such a request may however attract other exemptions, including the time and effort required to collate the material and/or prepare the response, and to that end we would encourage you to be focused in your timeframe.
Regards,
Information Compliance Office
University of Cambridge
Governance and Compliance Division, The Old Schools
Trinity Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1TN
E: [University of Cambridge request email]
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