At the start of the evaluation period, all students who are enrolled in a consecutive master’s degree program receive an e-mail from the vice-president of Freie Universität Berlin containing a link to the survey website and a token (access code). Participation in the survey takes place exclusively online.

Participating in this survey gives you a chance to provide feedback to Freie Universität Berlin regarding your study program. Your views of the study programming offered – for example, with regard to the feasibility of completing the program – give Freie Universität Berlin valuable insight in terms of improving study conditions and further developing support, advising, and service options.

As a way to thank you for participating, Arbeitsstelle Lehr- und Studienqualität will be raffling off three tablet PCs among all survey participants.

The survey is aimed at all students who are enrolled in a consecutive master’s degree program at Freie Universität Berlin that is not geared toward earning a teaching credential.

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 generally skip to the next question with no problem. This is not the case for some questions, known as “filter” questions. The answers to these questions determine which follow-up questions are asked. Filter questions must be answered in order to allow for proper routing within the questionnaire.

Please note that we strive to achieve overall results that are as representative as possible. Each question you answer makes the results more representative. Your responses to questions regarding personal information and study-related information help us to assess how representative the results are.

Response time varies by individual. For one thing, it depends on the filtering functions within the questionnaire, meaning which of the questions in the survey apply to you. For another, however, it naturally also depends on how long you take to answer the individual questions. In preliminary tests, students took about 15 to 20 minutes to fill out the questionnaire.

You can interrupt your participation in the survey anywhere you like. As long as you have not submitted the questionnaire on a final basis, you can use your token to log back in and continue your entries at any time. You will automatically be taken back to the page of the survey where you were when you exited.

A token is a personal access code for the survey. It is used to prevent survey responses from being submitted by people outside the defined respondent group and to prevent submission of multiple responses. Once the survey is submitted, the token ceases to be valid. It is not possible to use the token to identify your responses in the questionnaire.

The survey of students enrolled in master’s degree programs starts on June 8, 2017, and the questionnaire is scheduled to stay online until June 30, 2017. You will be notified by e-mail if the survey period is extended.

Freie Universität Berlin has been conducting regular surveys of students enrolled in master’s degree programs every four years since 2013.

This survey is intended to provide as detailed a picture of the various study programs as possible, along with the personal living situations of students enrolled in these programs.

The results of the university-wide overall report will be presented within university bodies by employees of Arbeitsstelle Lehr- und Studienqualität. The results of subject-specific analyses will be discussed and interpreted within the department or institute councils, with the inclusion of the education commissions (chaired by students), and measures to improve the study situation will be identified on this basis.

After submitting your completed questionnaire, you can participate in the raffle to win one of three tablet PCs. To do this, you will be asked to provide an e-mail address where we can contact you if you win. There is no link between this and your survey data. The incentives will be raffled off after the end of the survey period. Winners are chosen at random by the software. Winners will be contacted in July 2017.

The questionnaire contains questions on the following subject areas:

•  Personal information and study program information
•  Preconditions for study: reasons for choosing this study program, prior education, assessment of preparation for the master’s degree program by the bachelor’s degree program

-         Evaluation of the study offerings and study conditions
Evaluation of modules
Evaluation of the quality of instruction

• Research orientation of teaching activities
• Evaluation of study requirements/feasibility of completing the program (workload)
• Evaluation of selected aspects of the infrastructure (e-learning offerings)
• Evaluation of the examination organization
• Evaluation of the support and supervision provided by instructors
• Evaluation of the social climate (rapport with fellow students, instructors, student relations)
• Time spent abroad
• Where applicable, reasons for exceeding the regular study period
• Interest in scholarly/scientific/research work
• Academic performance
• Satisfaction with studies; lack of motivation, inclination to withdraw

•  Study behavior and study experiences

• Living situation during studies (e.g. children, work, illness)
• Acquisition of subject-specific knowledge and research skills (self-assessment)
• Plans for the period after the master’s degree program

In addition, the survey also includes open-ended questions in various places to give you a chance to provide information beyond the standardized response options or to offer a more nuanced view of your suggestions for improving the program.

The content of the questionnaire was coordinated with the university management, departments, and central institutes.

Arbeitsstelle Lehr- und Studienqualität will prepare an anonymized, aggregated, university-wide overall report of the results, broken down according to subject groups, which is scheduled for publication at the end of the 2017/18 winter semester on the following central website.

In addition, the results will be provided in a suitable form to all groups of stakeholders who are involved in tasks relating to the quality development of study programs and teaching activities at Freie Universität Berlin. If the response rate is sufficient, the departments will receive analyses summarizing the results for individual study programs/departments during the 2017/18 winter semester.

Detailed information is available here.

The evaluation will be performed by Arbeitsstelle Lehr- und Studienqualität, acting on behalf of the university management.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Arbeitsstelle Lehr- und Studienqualität by e-mail at lsq@fu-berlin.de or phone at 030 / 838-75421.

Contact person:

Dr. Irmela Blüthmann
Department of Education and Psychology
Arbeitsstelle Lehr- und Studienqualität
Habelschwerdter Allee 45
14195 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 838-754 21
e-mail: lsq@fu-berlin.de