5 December 2022
By email:
[FYI request #21065 email]
Dear Jeremy
I refer to your information request dated 7 November 2022 made under the Official Information Act
1982 (the Act). You have requested grade and mark distributions for a number of COSC papers from
2019 – 2022.
Subject to the following comments, please find attached the information you have requested. Please
note that there are four sheets in the attached document (one for each year).
• we note that the grade and mark distribution for the Semester 2 COSC203 paper has not
been finalised yet as there may be special examinations outstanding and the grade for some
students have not been finalised. We are not comfortable releasing the data before all
grades have been confirmed – as this may affect students’ wellbeing and disrupt students’
performance in special examinations. We will release the grade and mark distribution for
this paper once all student results have been finalised – we anticipate that this will be
finalised over the coming weeks.
• please note that not all papers were offered each year, therefore we have only provided
mark and grade distributions for the years that the papers were offered:
o COSC201, COSC202, COSC203 and COSC204 were only offered for the first time in
2022
o COSC480 was not offered in 2020 or 2022
please also note that some papers differ in which semester they were offered each year, or
may have been offered in multiple semesters each year (i.e. Semester 1, Semester 2, or
Summer School).
• we note that the data includes a paper where either a pass or fail result is given (not a mark
or grade). This paper is COSC326.
• on occasions where fewer than five students have failed a paper (i.e. received a grade of Fail
D or Fail E), we have determined that it is necessary to withhold the marks and specific
grades for these students to protect their privacy and wellbeing. We consider that
withholding this information is necessary to protect against the identity of these students
being determined or inferred, and their personal information (i.e. their marks) could be
disclosed. We therefore withhold this information pursuant to section 9(2)(a) of the Act.
• on occasions where there are fewer than ten enrolments in a paper, we have also
determined that it is necessary to withhold the mark and grade distributions for these
papers to protect the privacy and wellbeing of students enrolled. Where class sizes are
small, we consider that withholding this information is necessary to protect against the
identity of these students being determined or inferred, and their personal information (i.e.
their marks) being disclosed. We therefore withhold the following mark and grade
distributions pursuant to section 9(2)(a) of the Act:
o 2019: COSC431 (7 enrolments), COSC450 (6 enrolments), COSC480 (5 enrolments)
o 2020: COSC402 (4 enrolments), COSC431 (7 enrolments), COSC450 (8 enrolments)
o 2021: COSC431 (8 enrolments), COSC480 (2 enrolments)
o 2022: COSC402 (6 enrolments), COSC431 (7 enrolments), COSC450 (9 enrolments)
• in the attached grade and mark distributions, we note that students who withdrew from the
papers or received an Aegrotat Pass grade (not a mark) are excluded from the data.
I trust that this information will be helpful.
In the above cases, we consider that good reasons exist for withholding information and this is not
outweighed by other considerations which would make it desirable, in the public interest, to make
the information available. If you are not satisfied with our response to your information request,
section 28(3) of the Act provides you with the right to ask an Ombudsman to investigate and review
this response. However, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss any concerns with you first.
Yours sincerely
Kelsey Kennard
Official Information and Compliance Coordinator
Office of the Registrar
