The Common Awards Student Survey (CASS) provides students with the opportunity to provide anonymous feedback to their Theological Education Institution (TEI). The results of the survey are shared with TEIs to help enhance the student experience.
The survey includes questions on the learning and teaching experience, academic and pastoral support, the learning resources available, and the student voice.
Respondents also have the opportunity to provide free-text comments on their overall experience at the TEI.
The results are used by TEIs to help identify what is going well and what can be improved. TEIs consider the results of the survey at TEI Management Committee meetings and as part of an annual self-evaluation (ASE). Students are represented on these committees and are involved in the ASE process. TEIs can also choose to share the results with students directly.
The Common Awards Management Board (CAMB) receives a summary report on the results across all TEIs to help share good practice and identify any areas for enhancement. Student representatives are also members of the Management Board.
Information collected through the survey will be used in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. For more information, see our Common Awards Student Survey Privacy Notice below.
All TEIs are required to encourage their students to participate in the Common Awards Student Survey from 2021. TEIs are able to share your email address with us on the basis of legitimate interest (GDPR), but you will be given an opportunity to opt-out of sharing it. If you don't opt-out, you will be sent a personalised link to complete the survey.
You can opt-out of completing the survey at any time; you can stop at any point during the survey without your responses being included in the dataset.
Your contact details are provided by your TEI as detailed above.
The University ensures that your personal information is held securely. For more information, see our Common Awards Student Survey Privacy Notice below.
Durham University organises the survey on behalf of all TEIs. The survey itself, however, is hosted on the JISC Online Surveys platform. For more information, see the JISC Online Surveys Privacy Notice.
The survey is run after the National Student Survey (NSS) which usually closes at the end of April each year. The Common Awards Student Survey is usually open for 4 weeks.
Students participating in the survey will be sent a personalised link to the survey. You will be sent regular reminders to complete the survey, but if you have not received an email, we advise that you check your ‘junk’ or ‘spam’ folders of your inbox.
It takes about 10 minutes to complete the survey.
Your responses to the survey are confidential and all responses are anonymised before they are made available to your TEI or shared with the Common Awards Management Board.
We would advise students to avoid providing feedback that could enable you or others (including staff of the TEI) to be identified.
Respondents are entitled to request that part or all of their responses be deleted. Please note that any requests to change responses must be made to the Common Awards Team within one week of the survey closing date.
Please read the University’s Privacy Notice for the Student Survey below. Currently, the Student Survey is hosted via JISC Online Surveys. For more information, please see the Privacy Statement of Jisc Online Surveys.
Privacy Notice
Durham University takes responsibility for the lawful, fair and transparent use of the data you submit through the questionnaire.
Durham University will use the data collected from the survey to support the delivery of learning and teaching on Common Awards programmes validated by Durham University by identifying patterns of satisfaction among groups of students on different programmes, studying at different institutions, and/or with different characteristics. Please note that the survey also includes questions of racial diversity. The Common Awards Management Board has chosen, at present, to place a particular focus on questions of racial diversity. Responses to these questions will help inform the University’s strategy development and implementation in this area. Throughout this section, please only answer the questions with which you are comfortable.
The survey is confidential. The University will analyse survey responses alongside our student records data to identify and monitor differences in student satisfaction between different groups (including for example, but not limited to, by programme, TEI or TEI Centre, gender, denomination, age group), but individual students will not be identified. Once the analysis has been completed, personal data will be deleted, and survey responses will be retained anonymously.
Anonymised survey responses – aggregated data and free text comments – will be shared with TEIs, and considered by the University, to support curriculum development, teaching delivery and the student experience. Results will not be reported in categories with fewer than 5 responses. Providing you do not include information that could identify you as an individual in free-text comments (e.g. names of teaching staff, or very specific or unusual details of your experience), you will not be identifiable by TEI or University staff. Survey results shared with TEIs might also be shared with students at that TEI. At a minimum, the results of the Student Survey may be considered by the TEIs Management Committee, where student representatives are present.
All responses collected through the survey will be processed by Durham University staff and held securely by Durham University until data analysis has been completed (at which point personal data will be deleted). Your data will be maintained by Durham University in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations as available in the data protection policy. Your personal data will be held separately from any other records the University holds about you.
Your participation in this questionnaire is voluntary and you can stop at any point without your responses being included in the dataset. You can withdraw your consent once the survey is completed by contacting: common.awards@durham.ac.uk
For further information on the University’s data protection policies, including your rights as a data subject, and contacts, see our Privacy Notices page.
By participating in this survey, you are providing Durham University with consent to use the data.
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