FAQ: Master’s Degree Program Survey, 2026
This section contains answers to Frequently Asked Questions regarding the survey. If this information does not fully answer your questions, please contact the Unit for Teaching and Learning Quality (Arbeitsstelle Lehr- und Studienqualität) by email at lsq@fu-berlin.de or phone at (30) 838-75 421 or (30) 838-57982.
The basis for conducting surveys of students is Sec. 6 (1) No. 4 and Sec. 8a of the Berlin Higher Education Act.
The evaluation processes used by the Unit for Teaching and Learning Quality have been coordinated with the data protection officer of Freie Universität Berlin.
All individuals involved in the evaluation process are required to adhere to data protection provisions, in particular those set out in the Berlin Higher Education Act (BerlHG), the Berlin Data Protection Act (BlnDSG), the data protection statutes of Freie Universität Berlin, as well as internal regulations of Freie Universität Berlin.
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 05). You can find the token directly below the link to the survey in the email. The token is a string of ten letters.
It is used to prevent people outside the defined respondent group from submitting survey responses, and to prevent multiple submissions. The token ceases to be valid once the survey is submitted. It is not possible to use the token to identify your responses in the questionnaire.
You’ve got to be in it to win it!
Participate and win: As a thank-you for taking part in the survey, all respondents will be entered into a raffle to win one of forty vouchers for eventim, Thalia, Dussmann, the Yorck cinema group, MyWellness as well as annual passes for the Berlin State Museums (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin).
Your opinion matters to us: By participating in this survey, you have the opportunity to provide feedback to Freie Universität Berlin regarding your study program. Unlike a course evaluation, this evaluation is not focused on individual courses, but rather on the degree program and study conditions. Your thoughts about your degree program – for example, regarding its feasibility – 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 from person to person. It depends, on the one hand, on the filtering functions in the questionnaire, meaning which of the survey questions apply to you. On the other hand, it also depends on how long it takes you to answer the questions. Preliminary tests showed that students took about 10-15 minutes to complete the questionnaire.
The content of the questionnaire was coordinated with the Executive Board, the departments and central institutes of Frei Universität Belrin. The survey contains questions on the following subject areas:
- Personal details and degree program information
- Preconditions for study: previous degree, assessment of preparation for the master’s degree program by the bachelor’s degree program
- Evaluation of offerings and study conditions, of modules and teaching quality
- Evaluation of program design
- Evaluation of the examination organization
- Evaluation of study requirements/feasibility of completing the program
- Evaluation of the support, assistance and supervision provided by instructors
- Evaluation of the social climate (relations with fellow students, instructor-student relations)
- Study behavior and study experiences
- Where applicable, reasons for exceeding the regular study period
- Use of AI-based applications in the degree program
- Good scientific practice
- Satisfaction with studies and dropout intention
- 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 that allow you to provide information beyond the standard response options and suggest ways to improve the program.
In order to reflect the diversity of the student body at Freie Universität Berlin and to take it appropriately into account when interpreting the results, personal information (e.g. age, gender, children, immigration and educational background, job status) is also collected as part of the survey. This information is used to 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 skip it and move to the next one. Exceptions to this are mandatory questions, which are required for the representativeness check (e.g., degree program, semester, gender), and so-called “filter” questions, which direct respondents to different follow-up questions based on their answers. These must be answered to ensure that respondents are directed correctly through the questionnaire.
Please note that we strive to ensure our results are as representative as possible. Every question you answer helps make the results more representative. Your responses to the questions regarding personal and study-related information help us assess the representativeness of the results.
You can pause the survey at any time. As long as you have not submitted the questionnaire, you can use your token to log back in and finish it later. You will be automatically redirected to the page of the survey where you left off.
If you experience technical difficulties, please feel free to contact Arbeitsstelle Lehr- und Studienqualität by e-mail at lsq@fu-berlin.de.
Once you have submitted your completed questionnaire, you can participate in the raffle to win one of our attractive prizes. If you wish to participate in the raffle, you will be asked to provide an email address so that we can contact you if you are among the winners. This email address will, of course, be stored separately from your survey data and will be deleted once the drawing has concluded and the prizes have been sent out. The raffle will take place after the end of the survey period. The drawing will be conducted at random by the Zensus software.
Winners will be contacted in July 2026.
The raffle process has been reviewed to compy 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.
The survey data will be used by Freie Universität Berlin exclusively for the purposes of internal university quality improvement and to address related academic questions.
The Unit for Teaching and Learning Quality provides a comprehensive university-wide report. This report presents the results, broken down by subject area, in comparison to the results of the previous survey. The report is transmitted to the university management. It is presented and discussed within varies bodies and committees and published on this website. This report is expected to be available in the 2028 summer semester.
Reports on the results for specific study programsare provided to the departments and central institutes of Freie Universität Berlin.
Reports for the departments und central institutes contain results for each degree program in which more than seven students participated in the survey.
The results of subject-specific reports are discussed and interpreted by departmental committees, such as the committees in charge of teaching matters of the departments/institutes and the department or institute councils. The results are used to improve degree programs, study conditions and to further develop support, advising, and service options.
The evaluation will be performed by the Unit for Teaching and Learning Quality (Arbeitsstelle Lehr- und Studienqualität), acting on behalf of the university management.
If you have any questions, please contact Unit for Teaching and Learning Quality by email at lsq@fu-berlin.de or phone at 030 / 838-75421 (Irmela Blüthmann) or 030 / 838-57982 (Susanne Bergann).