Universität Rostock - Structure - Quality Assurance - Assuring quality - Graduate survey - FAQ

• Where did the University of Rostock get my contact data?  
• Why is the University of Rostock entitled to use these data for the graduate survey?  
• What is the access code needed for?
• What do I need the ID for?
• How does the online survey work?
• How does the survey with printed questionnaires work?
• What is the INCHER Kassel?
• What will be published?
• How will the survey results be used?
• Whom may I contact in case questions occur?

We will be pleased to answer your question on the University of Rostock’s graduate survey. Please, send us an email to  : evaluation@uni-rostock.de.

The addresses of graduates will be collected and stored electronically, based on the Statutes on the collection and processing of personal data at the University of Rostock, at the time of study completion. These address data will be compiled and handed over to the responsible coordinators of the project on removable units for the sole purpose of this graduate survey.

As the graduate’s address data stored at the University of Rostock might be no longer up-to-date one year later, the addresses are updated with data collected at the registry office, at the post office and from the internet. 

Address data must only be transferred and used inside the university as far as they help to fulfil scientific tasks and/or university tasks. The graduate survey fulfils both requirements:

1.) The study results will be used for research and quality assurance purposes related to education and study at the University of Rostock.

2.) The graduate survey at the University of Rostock is part of a nationwide research project of 50 universities, coordinated by the INCHER Kassel and sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Thereby, INCHER creates an all-university data set in the nationwide cooperation project “Study conditions and career success” based on the information provided by all graduates of universities involved into the project. The anonymized data will be evaluated solely for scientific purposes within the context of this university and graduate research.

The stored address data will be used for no other purpose than for inviting and reminding graduates to participate in the graduate survey. The address data are exclusively processed by staff members of the University of Rostock.

All staff members who got access to personal data within the context of this project fall under the Data Protection Act. In this regard, the transfer of data to any third party is strictly prohibited. This does even apply after these staff members ceased to work for the University of Rostock. 

Every graduate gets a randomly generated access code which enables them to participate in the online survey (thus, any filling in by a third party can be avoided). In addition, the used access code allows finding out who has already responded. These graduates will not be contacted again (in total, there are up to four contacts per survey period). 

Register with your access code in the internet to participate in the anonym online survey. Your answers will be stored on the University of Rostock’s server at first during the survey period. The survey data are transferred via an unencrypted connection.

In a separate interrogation, you will be asked if a) you are willing to participate in the follow-up survey after 3 to 4 years and b) you are interested in receiving a summary of the research report and/or other special offers of the University of Rostock. If you are willing to take part in the follow-up survey or wish to get the summary, you will be asked to enter your address data.

The address data will not be stored in the same place as the survey data but in a separate, password protected area on the University of Rostock’s server. Your address data will never be stored in one file with your survey data. Thus, the survey data remain anonym at any stage of the survey.

After the completion of the interrogation stage, the anonym survey data are evaluated by the Centre of Quality Assurance of the University of Rostock and forwarded to the INCHER Kassel for statistical evaluation within the context of the university and graduate research.

After survey completion, the address data will be stored by the evaluation commissioner of the University of Rostock in a separate, password-protected area in accordance with the data protection regulations.

The University of Rostock will use your address exclusively for the purpose predefined by the interrogated persons (e.g. participation in the follow-up survey, sending of a summary a.o.). 

The International Centre for Higher Education Research Kassel (INCHER Kassel) is an interdisciplinary research institution of the University of Kassel. The Centre has worked in the field of university research for 30 years and enjoys highest appreciation all over the world. Information about research projects and INCHER are available under:  http://www.uni-kassel.de/incher/absolventen/. Of course, the valid Data Protection Act applies for all staff members of INCHER, too, i.e. any transfer of address data to any third party is strictly forbidden to them. 

The University of Rostock publishes the results of the graduate survey allocated to subject groups. Thus, no conclusions about single persons can be made. The results enable the single faculties to improve the quality of their study offers by considering the feedback of the graduates when planning or reforming the study courses.

The INCHER Kassel creates, in addition, an all-university set of data, compiling all answers stated by graduates in the questionnaires provided by all involved universities. The address data are not included into this set of data. The anonym information from the survey will be evaluated exclusively for scientific purposes within the context of the university and graduate research. The same applies for corresponding publications of results. All INCHER publication will not allow any conclusions about single universities or persons. 

The graduate survey results will be compiled and published at the University of Rostock only on the subject group level. The single faculties will use them for evaluating their study courses to identify strengths and weaknesses, to develop and implement quality improvement measures and to improve their advisory services for students. INCHER Kassel gets the University of Rostock’s results in an anonymized way and uses them for scientific university and graduate research on national and international level. Further information on the research project are available at: http://www.uni-kassel.de/incher/absolventen. 

In case you wish to make further inquiries, we kindly ask you to call Ms Mayer (0381 498 1243) or to send her an email (evaluation(at)uni-rostock.de). Further information on the project graduate survey are available at: http://www.uni-rostock.de/index.php?id=absolventenbefragung.html and on the project homepage of the INCHER Kassel: http://www.uni-kassel.de/incher/absolventen.