17 October 2023
By email:
[FYI request #24267 email]
Kia ora S
I refer to your information request dated 28 September 2023 made under the Official Information
Act 1982 (the Act). You have requested:
“I would like to request the grade distributions of the following papers by the number of
students with each grade, by number and letter:
2023 Semester 1
ANAT241
2019-2022
PHSL471
PHSL472
PHSL473
PHSL474
PHSL490
I would also like to request the request the overall GPA grade distributions for just the Honours
year for students enrolled in the Bachelor of Science with Honours in Physiology, and for the
students enrolled in the Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences with Honours in Functional Human
Biology between 2019-2022.”
Subject to the following comments, please find attached the information you have requested:
•
On occasions where there are fewer than 10 enrolments in a paper, we have 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
PHSL471 – 2020 and 2021
o
PHSL473 – 2019 to 2022
o
PHSL474 – 2021
o
PHSL490 – 2021.
•
On occasions where there are fewer than 10 enrolments in a paper, we have also determined
that it is necessary to withhold the GPA data 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 GPA scores) being disclosed. We therefore
withhold the following GPA data pursuant to section 9(2)(a) of the Act:
o
BSc Hons Physiology – 2020 to 2022
o
BBiomedSci Hons Functional Human Biology – 2019 to 2022.
•
On occasions where fewer than five students have failed a paper (i.e. received a grade of Fail
D, Fail E), we have also 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.
•
in the attached mark and grade distributions, we note that students who withdrew from the
papers 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.
Ngā mihi
Jenny Shaw
Official Information and Compliance Coordinator
Office of the Registrar
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