FAQs

  • Why should I take part in the survey?

    • Your responses play an important role in improving the course offerings, study conditions, the University’s advice and service centres, as well as the practical and professional orientation of the degree programmes. Future generations of students will benefit from your feedback.
    • Participation offers you the chance to reflect on your own academic experiences.
    • The survey is a means of maintaining contact with your alma mater, and even intensifying it if you register with the Alumni-Club Universität Münster.
    • Every participant can take part in a prize drawing for a chance to win attractive prizes.

  • I haven’t even started my career, I’m still studying. Should I take the survey anyway?

    Yes, absolutely! The University not only uses the study to learn about its graduates’ transition to professional life, but also whether and in which graduate or post-graduate degree programmes they are currently enrolled and whether any difficulties were encountered during the transition to further studies. This information helps current and future students decide what kind of career path they wish to take. Furthermore, the results of the survey are used to improve the quality of instruction and the study conditions at the University of Münster. With your feedback, you are helping us maintain high-quality instruction going forward.
    Useful information: Thanks to an integrated filter function, graduates who have not yet entered the workforce are presented with a significantly shorter version of the survey.

  • Who can participate in the survey?

    Only graduates and postdocs of a certain graduating class at the University of Münster are allowed to participate. Nearly all study programs are included, with the exception of continuing education master's degrees. A 'graduating class' refers to all graduates from October 1st through September 30th of the following year. The survey for that group starts the following October. This means that, depending on the actual graduation date, participants will have completed their degree one to two years before being surveyed.

  • How can I participate in the survey?


    You can easily complete the survey online. Simply enter your personal access code (which was sent to you via post or email) into the respective field in the online questionnaire. There are also English-language versions available of all the questionnaire variants.

  • What is the purpose of the access code?


    Each graduate is sent a randomly generated six-digit access code which is required to participate in the survey. In this way, we ensure that no one can gain unauthorised access to the questionnaire. Furthermore, with the code, you can interrupt your session and continue where you left off at a later time. You simply have to log in again using your code.

  • What role does the ISTAT play in the project?

    The Institute for Applied Statistics (ISTAT) is responsible for the "Joint Project on Graduate Studies" (KOAB), in which over 80 German and Austrian universities are currently participating. ISTAT coordinates the central project tasks, produces the questionnaires, provides support for administering them and hosts workshops. More importantly, ISTAT uses the responses provided by the graduates of the University of Münster and the survey data from all the other participating universities to create a comparative dataset. With this resource, the University can analyse the impact of its study conditions and academic programmes on its students’ future life and professional success.

  • How is the protection of my data ensured?

    • The responses are initially stored on a secure server provided by ISTAT. Data is transmitted via an encrypted connection.
    • At the end of the questionnaire, you will be redirected via an encrypted connection to an ISTAT server. There, you will have the opportunity to provide your email address if you wish to participate in a follow-up survey (panel survey) conducted by ISTAT in approximately three to four years.
    • Subsequently, you will be redirected to a server at the University of Münster, where you will be asked about: a) your interest in a brief summary of the results, b) your interest in further information regarding the University of Münster Alumni Club or the University Society of Münster (Universitätsgesellschaft Münster e.V.), and c) your willingness to participate in the prize draw.
    • If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, you will be asked to enter your contact details.
    • Unlike the survey data, these contact details are not stored on the ISTAT server, but on a server at the University of Münster.
    • The contact details are never stored in the same file as the survey data and cannot be linked. This ensures that the survey remains strictly anonymous.
    • The submitted survey data will be processed and statistically analyzed by ISTAT. Furthermore, each participating university will receive the anonymized survey data for its own evaluations.

    • The universities will use the addresses exclusively for the purpose specified by the respondent (e.g., participation in the prize draw).

     

    • All data is always transmitted using encryption. For added security, a personal access code is used. Each code is issued only once and permits the completion of the questionnaire within a specified timeframe.
    • Further information, such as the legal basis, the scope and purpose of data processing, or your rights as a data subject, can be found in the Data Protection Notice.

  • How is my anonymity protected?


    At no time during the survey session can your responses be directly linked to your personal data, such as your name or address. All of the results are published in aggregated form and thus cannot be used to draw conclusions about the identity of any specific individual. If the response rate is too low, the results are not published.

  • What happens with the results of the survey?

    Within the framework of the Quality Management System for Studies and Teaching (QMS), the results contribute to the quality development of degree programs and the service facilities of the University of Münster. These publicly accessible research resources are characterized by the fact that neither individuals nor individual universities are identifiable; the anonymous information contained therein can be used to address overarching research questions. For example, this allows for the determination of state- or nationwide transition rates from Bachelor's to Master's programs or the investigation of the level of employment adequacy among university graduates. The results of these analyses may, where applicable, influence higher education policy.

  • How do you find my address?

    In preparation for conducting the survey, we have to make sure that the addresses of the graduates, which are saved at the Student Admissions Office, are still up to date. Obviously, after two years, it is likely that most of these addresses are no longer valid. To ensure that all graduates have the possibility to participate, all addresses registered in Münster are compared with the registry maintained by the municipal Residents’ Registration Office. We also draw on information provided by the Deutsche Post.

    The survey invitations will be sent using the University of Münster email addresses stored in the system and any private email addresses provided voluntarily.

  • Can the participants of the survey view the results?

    Participants can obtain information about the results upon request. The respective request is included at the end of the online questionnaire. You can view the results of the past broad-based graduate surveys here.

  • Who can I contact if I have other questions?

    If you have any questions or comments regarding our graduate surveys, feel free to contact Julia Schmidt, Stefanie Wewers or Johannes Friederich. (see contact info at top right)